Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Spielberg's robot fairy tale surges with both heart and mind

7/27/2013

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Spielberg's robot fairy tale surges with both heart and mind

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A curiosity-sparking, very dark poster for Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence

In the late 22nd century, a family whose son is in an induced coma start to live with the prototype of a robot boy instead. But when one day their real son can be revived, their family structure experiences upheaval, until they ultimately decide to get rid of the robot boy, who as a result is sent on a far-reaching journey in search of his own maker.

I have watched A.I. on several occasions. One of them was a screening I arranged for a bunch of kids, many of whom did not understand English. That was the time I realized that A.I. is not only a great film but truly a cinema masterpiece. That stuffy, hot room full of tired kids fell almost completely silent within the first 10 minutes and then stayed that way for the rest of the almost 2½ hour film, transfixed by its story. It is related with visual mastery (cinematography by Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List (1993))) that goes way beyond its words. - Every single one of those kids were totally enthralled in A.I., in the destiny of the robot boy David, the tragic loss of his family that he suffers through and his journey towards being a real boy. It is a Pinocchio-like story, partly sci-fi, partly fairy tale, of amazing strength and universal appeal. It is very melancholic, incredibly beautiful - and an irrepressible emotional rollercoaster. For me, it beats Disney's Pinocchio (1940) by many lengths.
Filled with ethics concerning robots, creation of life and artificial intelligence, Biblical references, a perfect score by John Williams (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)) and led by a formidable performance by Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense (1999)) as David, A.I. engages both minds and hearts from start to finish. It is hard and bold in its portrayal of the facts of life, but never hopeless.
The film was originally a project of Stanley Kubrick's, which he developed for two decades without feeling that the technology had come far enough yet to tell the story. Kubrick handed the project over to Ohioan master filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) four years prior to his death, and Kubrick couldn't possibly have made it a better movie than Spielberg has achieved here. A.I., his 19th feature, is one of his absolute best, and a unique cinematic masterpiece.
It is written by Spielberg, with Ian Watson (EarthPulse (2002-03), documentary TV-series) contributing story elements, based on Brian Aldiss' (The Rain Will Stop (2000)) short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969).

Related posts:

Steven Spielberg: War Horse (2011) - Spielberg visits WWI with problematic horse drama
Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser (producer)

Top 10: Best future-set movies

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Band of Brothers - TV mini-series (2001) - WWII-sacrifice and -comradeship portrayed with skill and integrity (producer)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Spielberg's greatest accomplishment
Amistad (1997) or, Must... Free... Slaves!
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock
Duel (1971) - Spielberg's truck terror is ideal afternoon fare

A collage of some of the images from Steven Spielberg's A.I.

Watch the official international trailer for the film here

Cost: 100 mil. $
Box office: 235.9 mil. $
= Minor flop (returned 2.35 times its cost)
[A.I. Artificial Intelligence premiered 26 June and runs 146 minutes. Kubrick reportedly began developing the film in the late 1970s and contacted Spielberg in the mid-1980s about it. Shooting took place from August - November 2000 in Los Angeles, California and in Oregon. The film opened #1 to a 29.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 78.6 mil. $ (33.3 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.6 mil. $ (4.9 %) and France with 8 mil. $ (3.4 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score, lost to Howard Shore for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Best Visual Effects, also lost to the first LOTR movie. A.I. was also nominated for 3 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, a Grammy and scores of other awards, making it onto the National Board of Review's Top 10 list of the year. Roger Ebert awarded it 4/4 stars, in line with the review here, while many other especially American critics teared it most undeservedly to shreds. Spielberg returned with Minority Report (2002). Osment returned in Family Guy (2000-01) and theatrically in Edges of the Lord (2001), Jude Law (Vox Lux (2018)) in Road to Perdition (2002). A.I. Artificial Intelligence is certified fresh at 73 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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7/27/2013

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Spielberg's robot fairy tale surges with both heart and mind

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