A Tribute to Kubrick

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2002)

Minority Report (2002)
I was bored during A.I. It was trite, overly sentimental and too long. What had originally been a Stanley Kubrick project had been sanitised and Spielberg-ised and any traces of the late master's hand were excised. With his new film, though, Spielberg has restored the Kubrick touch to great effect.
Based on a short Philip K. Dick story, Minority Report is set in the year 2054. In the District of Columbia an experimental programme has been set up - the Department of PreCrime. Here, based on the predictions of three pre-cogs (genetically altered humans), police officers are, supposedly, able to detect crimes before they happen and prevent them. The (future) perpetrators are then arrested and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in suspended animation (encased in flotation tanks that look rather similar to those that enslave the human race in The Matrix). Tom Cruise plays Detective John Anderton, a PreCrime officer, whom the pre-cogs finger for a future crime, sparking off a train of events, in which Anderton flees his former colleagues both to escape arrest and to discover who it is he is meant to kill.
Don't think about the philosophical implications of the film, which are two-fold. First, there is the notion that should someone be punished for a crime that they have not yet committed? Second, and much more complex, is the idea that the knowledge, and prevention of, crimes does not seem to change the future one iota. Where Jurassic Park touted the idea of chaos theory and that tampering with the past unalterably affects the future, Minority Report skips over the idea. We do not see how the 'victims' of prevented crimes are affected and how this can remake the whole world anew.

Philosophical quibbles aside, the film is a good, old-fashioned sci-fi flick. It moves with pace, it's visually opulent, and a damn good story. In one superb shot, we are treated to a bird's-eye-view of the various apartments in a tower block, recalling the opening sequence of Delicatessen. Cruise, reprising similar roles in Eyes Wide Shut and Vanilla Sky, is very watchable and joined by an excellent Max Von Sydow. Like any good, modern sci-fi, its homages are numerous. The narrative structure resembles Logan's Run, even to the point of Anderton running off to discover and old-timer in an Eden-like idyll. The philosophical time-loop paradox is straight out of Terminator. The vision of the future and its skyscrapers are pure Metropolis and its copy Bladerunner, as is Anderton being both the subject and object of his investigation. The future dress code, particularly among females, of knee-high boots and short skirts reflects the vision of the future in Starship Troopers. And finally, the references would not be complete without the fashionable drugs, which keep Anderton sane, from Brave New World.

This future is also very recognisable. While the cars, high-rises, and constantly-updating newspapers may not yet be with us, the Georgian housing of Georgetown is very much of our era. As is the overabundance of product placement from Gap to Guinness.
The Kubrick touches come in both obvious and less obvious guises. When Anderton has his eyeballs removed in order to circumvent the ubiquitous retina scanners, it matches the infamous scene in A Clockwork Orange, when Alex is being treated for his sociopathic behaviour. While, the product placement recalls 2001.The less, visually, obvious Kubrick touch is the whole notion of a supposedly perfect system that can break down that drove such films as Dr. Strangelove, 2001 and Full Metal Jacket.

Despite one or two sentimental moments, Minority Report is much darker than A.I. and hence a much more fitting tribute to Spielberg's former mentor.