latta%graft.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Craig R. Latta) (09/25/90)
Recently, in article <1990Sep22.064744.12151@eddie.mit.edu>, att.com!ncsc6!dgp (Dennis Pelton) wrote: > I'm a science fiction fan (a "serious" one, whatever that means), and > would like a deeper discussion of Total Recall than has occured in the > other newsgroups. Particularly, the "was it real or was it a dream" > question interests me. The following is an article I posted to rec.arts.movies and rec.sf.something or other, which was almost completely ignored: *** I think the violence and inconsistencies (technical, plotwise, and otherwise) in "Total Recall" all contribute to the subtle comic-book, dreamy nature of the film. They IMPROVE the film, in that they make it impossible to place any part of the film on any particular level of reality or dream/memory, even relative to other parts. The scene at Rekall where Arnie is getting the sales pitch is central. "Be daring and covert! Get the girl! Save the planet!" he is told (roughly). There is incredible violence in this film, so much as to be preposterous. We know that Arnie is expected to smash heads at will in his action movies. But most of Arnie's feats take on superhuman proportions. The vividness of the violence (bones crunching, in particular), may be taken as typical contemporary Hollywood schlock, or part of the larger-than-life quality that dreams/memories often possess. The same goes for the technical and plot "weaknesses". Since when do we expect complete reality in action/adventure films? And if the film (or any convenient part) is a dream/memory, than why are we to expect that Doug knows (or doesn't know) ANYTHING about (for example): The color of the sky on Mars What happens to people in vacuums What goes on when he's not around or any of the details which people are (amusingly) debating now. It's Doug's imagination, isn't it? For all we know, Doug is actually some guy named Phil in 1953, musing about what the future could be like, and wishing his own life were more exciting. Maybe one where he had incredible strength and courage, and always got the girl, and violent things happened, because frankly, Phil is bored... "For all we know..." We don't really know ANYTHING; and this, to me, is the beauty of the film. The ending does a quite poetic job of leaving the audience totally confused. AND you get a smooch in the sunset. How dreamy, but not necessarily a dream... (obligatory ellipses...) Attempting to decide "is this a dream or reality" seems to be missing the point of the film. And just what IS the point of the film? Don't ask me. I thought it was a fun adventure flick. I agree that some of the violence could have been left out, not detracting from the film. This film probably shouldn't be advertised as graphically in theaters as it is. The MARKETING is the most exploitive or manipulative thing about it, as with most commercial products. A more enigmatic marketing campaign would probably add to the mystique and give it a bigger initial draw (witness the first sales week of "Howard The Duck"). But this film hardly needs that. This movie will make plenty of money: it sates the current American appetite for violence, but none of it is truly "excessive". It all adds to the blurring of reality and fantasy (and to that of what is acceptable and what is shocking in a movie). I applaud Verhoeven. He has created a thought-provoking movie rich in physical and plot detail, the nature of which freed him to be as violent and as inconsistent as he pleased. And I enjoyed it. -C ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Craig Latta "There are two types of people: those who divide latta@scam.Berkeley.EDU people into types, and those who don't." -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
greg@tcnz.co.nz (Greg Calkin) (09/29/90)
Re: was it a dream or was it real ? The setting on the machine when Arnie was programmed i.e. spy, "Blue sky on Mars", alien artifacts, the settings for the female companion, etc are a bit of a give away. The only thing that seriously contradicts my happy belief in that is the wife bit - If I was paying for a fantasy, blowing my wife brains out would probably be carrying it just a BIT to far. Frankly, I would be seriously pissed if they that was the standard fantasy. Maybe as an optional extra for sicko's ??? -- Greg Calkin, greg@tcnz.co.nz
cruz@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Nancy Cruz) (10/08/90)
In article <1990Sep25.024218.20650@eddie.mit.edu> latta%graft.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Craig R. Latta) writes: > > Recently, in article <1990Sep22.064744.12151@eddie.mit.edu>, >att.com!ncsc6!dgp (Dennis Pelton) wrote: > >> I'm a science fiction fan (a "serious" one, whatever that means), and >> would like a deeper discussion of Total Recall than has occured in the >> other newsgroups. Particularly, the "was it real or was it a dream" >> question interests me. I am not a sci fi fanatic, but I do enjoy many sci fi authors. I am glad to see that a dialogue is occurring about this movie. It was awesome (and I am NOT an Arnie fan). There were two questions that prevailed IMHO. 1) The age old philisophical question of existence. When Arnie's consiousness was altered, was he altered. Can he be held responsible for his past actions and ideas? (Is he a hero or a villain, Should I hate him or should I like him?) 2) I felt that throughout the film, I was experiencing it like a dream. The camera shots were from unusual angles and as you mentioned the violence was graphic. But in an almost surreal way. (Pardon my lack of cinema terminology, I'm a lit major);-P In the end, I felt used, deceived and totally confused; as if the sole purposed of this movie was to play with 'my head'. Here is this person who I thought was a hero, but is really a villian... or is he?? and "Is this movie just one long dream sequence?" Re the dream sequence questions, I recall at one point Arnie must distinguish whether he is dreaming, and determines he is not based on perspiration. This could be viewed in one of two ways a) This proves to us that he is NOT dreaming b) It is used as a clue for the audience, ie., Arnie does not perspire once in the whole movie or does he? Nancy cruz@lab.ultra.nyu.edu cruz@acf4.nyu.edu
uda@IDA.LiU.SE (Ulf Dahlen) (10/16/90)
In article <1990Oct7.174450.20678@eddie.mit.edu> cruz@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Nancy Cruz) writes: >Re the dream sequence questions, I recall at one point Arnie must >distinguish whether he is dreaming, and determines he is not based on >perspiration. This could be viewed in one of two ways a) This proves >to us that he is NOT dreaming b) It is used as a clue for the >audience, ie., Arnie does not perspire once in the whole movie or does >he? There is an interesting thing about this scene. Arnie is with his wife and the man from Rekall, both trying to persuade him to take the pill. This pill makes the audience think Arnie is NOT dreaming, and that it is all real and they are trying to kill Arnie or at least make him fall asleep. When Arnie sees the sweat on the Rekall man, he realizes they are trying to fool him. He shoots. THEN, the image is blurred and played in slow motion. What does this mean? Is it Arnie falling deeper into his dream, cutting off every chance of ever waking up again? Is the whiteness at the end of the film Arnie's lobotomy (sp?)? I think this total confusion of how the story should be interpreted is what makes Total Recall interesting. It would have been nice if they had made the ending a little bit more realistic, but then again, if it's a dream... I still prefer to think of the film as what really happened to Arnie, not as a dream - but *many* things point to the dream interpretation. Comparing Total Recall to Verhoeven's other film, Robocop (has he made other films?), I think that the violence in Total Recall is less horrible. Maybe that is because Robocop is in one sense more realistic, and the violence therefore is seen as more credible. Total Recall has a bit of a comic book over it, making it harder to really care about people getting shot to pieces... __________ Ulf Dahlen uda@ida.liu.se, uda@liuida.UUCP