Spielberg Picks Another Good Story

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2004)

We quite often give sole credit to the director of a good movie, and while this is deserved, we must also recognize the individual that envisioned and created the basis for the movie in the first place - the writer. I have been impressed with quite a bit of Spielberg's work (save that of A.I.) but have not until Minority Report paid attention to where the ideas came from. The reason I did so with this movie was that the plot was so fantastic and bursting with creativity that I was almost compelled to investigate this source of its genius, Philip K. Dick.
Spielberg made this literary gem into a feast for the eyes. No stone seems to go unturned in creating a realistic world of the future. From cars to advertising to appliances, Spielberg assembles it all. And to garner some of the best that Hollywood has to offer, he enlists the services of Tom Cruise. Cruise plays the protagonist, Detective John Anderton, in a futuristic tale of a world where a crime can been predicted. A "precrime" bureau is assembled to stop that which hasn't happened yet - future murder. Anderton's embrace of precrime is due to the loss of his only child, who was abducted. When Anderton stumbles upon a flaw in the precrime system, he is setup and hunted down by his own agency. The story begs the question that if you knew the future, is it predestined that you would still make the same choices, despite your knowledge of what was about to happen? Can you change the course of events to come?
Detective Anderton discovers that not everything in life, now or in the future, is merely black and white and that no looking-glass ball is perfect. For a wild roller-coaster ride of a movie that has some of the most creative and plausible ideas of the future, I highly recommend you watch Minority Report.