Solaris is a story about lots of things. In it's various iterations, it explores themes about the morality of cloning, the definition of life, curiosity, the value of science, the nature of alien intelligence, mourning, immortality, mortality, what matters, love, etc. But one thing that it is definitely about is copies. It's a movie about people getting copied. Maybe it is no coincidence then that Hollywood copied the original film. Hollywood is Solaris, making another version of the film. But how good is the copy? How could is the original?
This post is for two films so it is worth 20 points. Please think about both versions of the film that we watched as you answer TWO of the following questions:
- Which version of Solaris do you like better? Why? Which one explores more interesting philosophical questions? Why?
- In what ways do each of these films reflect the culture and values of the cultures that made them?
- Compare the main theme of each film. State what you think is the main theme of each movie. Which theme do you resonate with more. Why?
- As you watched each of these films, what did you learn that will help you write your own Sci-fi script?
I most definitely like the "original", (there was a made for TV film made before this one), film better. I seriously disliked the Clooney/Soderbergh version. I found it to be very quickly paced and boring. This films needed to be 3 hours long. While I didn't like the countless zooms of the original, I did enjoy it more.
ReplyDeleteThrough watching these 2 films, I learned that I NEED to have a great ending. That's what defines the story. I will make sure to add that to my story.
I thought that the Hollywood Solaris is definitely inferior to the Russian Solaris. I thought the Hollywood version was a little quickly paced, but other than that, I didn't hate it. I thought the flashbacks of them fighting worked really well, and i thought the acting was great, but the pacing was definitely off. i thought they killed the girl and got off the planet way too quickly, it wasn't that emotional at all, and i thought he arrived to the planet way too quickly. their are many other examples, but I'm not going to name them all.
ReplyDeletewhat I got from it was to make sure to have a great twist at the end and make the main character's final decision questionable. i personally think characters with multiple sides make the movie great. I also like having ambiguous endings at the end of movies and this is a great example of an ambiguous ending.
I was unable to watch the American version of this film.
ReplyDeleteI thought the film was okay, maybe it's because I thought it was odd and strange and it was hard to understand at times and it made you think throughout the film. I also thought it was boring but maybe it's because it was one of those 'dig deep and think' films and I love those kinds of films but sometimes they're hard to keep track of.
But what've i've learned so far in all the movies of Sci-Fi I watched, you need an ending that ties your story together or an unexpected ending that throws the audience off a cliff. A twisted ending that nobody saw or thought of.
But I do want to watch the American version someday and compare these two films side by side to see what's actually different and what they've changed about it.
This film did confuse me a lot though and that's probably why I didn't like it that much. Maybe if I try to watch it again and focus on it more i'll actually understand what it the movie means.
-Koren