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Minority Report (2002): Steven Spielberg
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Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002), just as well as any French New Wave film, belongs to Gilles Deleuze’s characterization of modern as opposed to classical cinema, “time-image” as opposed to “movement-image” cinema. Deleuze distinguishes the two by saying, “However close its relation to classical [pre-war/movement-image] cinema, modern [post-war/time-image] cinema asks the question: what are the new forces at work in the image, and the new signs invading the screen?”(Deleuze, 271) In characterizing the time-image, Deleuze is concerned with a kind of filmic reflexivity and with the power to perfect the way that cinema intervenes into the political. Minority Report is ... clearly reflexive but in a manner such that resistance is reterritorialized or captured even as the film–and Spielberg and Tom Cruise in interviews about the film—critically reflect upon contemporary commercialism, national security and the American justice system. This becomes especially clear in light of Michel Foucault’s critique of the disciplinary techniques of modern institutions, and Deleuze’s idea of the “control society” that is replacing modern “disciplinary societies” as the preeminent form of social power in the contemporary. As Stuart Klawans wrote in reviewing the film for The Nation, “In the monumental edifice of Minority Report, as in a palatial tomb, you may encounter something madly idiosyncratic, yet absolutely characteristic of its culture” (Klawans, 56). Klawans writes further that more than constructing an argument, Minority Report “contrives a delirium” around the issues that most reviewers found as crucial themes in the film: predetermination and free will, the antinomies of personal privacy and justice or national security, and the future of advertising and visual technology.
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"Minority Report" plays like a gritty film-noir, with a mixture of black and white mysteries combined with elements from modern sci-fi films such as "Blade Runner." There are jet packs. There are robotic spiders. There are scenes of eyeballs being removed and dropped on the ground. Had enough? There are orgies, there is blood, there is gore…"Minority Report" is everything Steven Spielberg hasn\'t done up until now.
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[T]he action sequences, including the freeway scene, make the first hour of "Minority Report" a rock show. Spielberg choreographs not one, not two, but three exciting action scenes right in a row within the first hour. The first involves cars, the second involves jet-packs and the third involves a futuristic robotic factory conveyor belt (so much better than the conveyor belt scene in "Star Wars"). What is strange is Spielberg's distance from action in the second half of the film. After this 1,2,3 punch, Spielberg begins to focus on story rather than chase scenes and the film opens up to become even more science-fiction-esque. Again, this is perhaps more homage to Dick rather than bad pacing or scripting.
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Minority Report features one of the most well-realized visions of the future, created by a group of scholars, scientists, and designers Spielberg gathered for a three-day think-tank during pre-production. The dozens of innovative concept sketches from that meeting, as well as storyboards, trailers, and a video-game preview, are viewable in the "Minority Report Archives" gallery, one of the most enjoyable features on the Minority Report DVD.
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The Minority Report is clearly Spielberg?s best, most thoughtful picture since Schindler?s List and Saving Private Ryan. Based on a short story by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, it is set in the Washington, D.C. of 2054 where for the past six years the police have been able to prevent murders through the use of a trio of ?Pre-Cogs?: pre-cognitive people who receive visions of future murders. The three, a woman and two men, are kept in a clover-leaf shaped pod filled with water and are tended by a somewhat neurotic technician whose sole qualification for the job seems to be that he is very nurturing. The Pre-Cogs fragmentary visions of future crimes are displayed onto computer screens and downloaded into the department?s crime computer for analysis.
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In the tradition of Blade Runner (... based on a Dick story), Minority Report is a dark, brooding vision of the future. Spielberg expertly mixes thrilling chase and suspense sequences (the best of which involves Anderton being pursued by eye-scanning mechanical spiders) and stunning special effects with a challenging look at society's willingness to sacrifice privacy and the notion of free will for convenience and security. Minority Report is a thought-provoking and exciting film that ranks with Spielberg's best.
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