Minority Report
Steven Spielberg (2002)
Based on a story by Philip Dick
Professor Myrna Monllor Jiménez
•Blade Runner
•A Scanner Darkly
•Total Recall
•Next
•Paycheck
Philip Dick
http://www.philipkdick.com/index.html
Initial
Images
Can you see?
“You know how blind I
am without them.”
“Fourscore and seven years
ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created
equal.” Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg Address
Themes
• Whether human beings are predestined to execute
certain acts or possess the free will to decide their
own fates
• What are the social and personal repercussions
when people can be convicted of crimes before they
are committed
• How society’s misuse of modern technology
can create potentially disastrous situations
• How much liberty are you willing to sacrifice
for the sake of public security
• How digital manipulation can destabilize
visual images permitting their abuse for
ideological reasons
“Nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law” 5th
Amendment, United States Constitution
Theological themes
Three part screen/Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony
Man Assuming God’s Role
Agatha, Dashiell, Arthur
Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammet, Arthur C. Clarke
Gideon the sentry
“You’re
a parta part
of my
flock
now,
John
“You’re
of my
flock
now,
John
Gideon was one of the Greater Judges of Israel. God
reduced his army from 32,000 to 300.
At night, Gideon and his 300 men lit
torches, blew trumpets and shouted "For
the Lord and for Gideon."
Being haloed
Eyes
• Glasses “you know how blind I am
without them”
• Abraham Lincoln’s eye
• Can you see?
• Retinal scans
Eye images
Ms. Hineman had a doll’s eye plant
“Sometimes in order to see the light, you have to risk the
darkness” Ms. Hineman
“the eyes of the nation are upon us” Lamar Burgess
“that which keeps us safe, will also keep us free”
Pre-crime advertisement
Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange
“In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king”
Drug dealer to Anderton
Characters who are divided or rivals
“Power has always been with the priests even if they
have to invent the oracle” Witwer
Can you see?
Images
• Complex, overly cluttered spaces
• Opposing areas of light and dark
• Lighting that sharply illuminates the
characters
• Distorted, disorienting camera angles
• Suffocating close-ups that chop off parts of
the anatomy
• Irregular discomforting spacing between
objects and characters
Fahrenheit 454
”You have a choice”.
Henry Ford’s assembly line
Water
• Precogs transmit their visions through
water
• The water sprinkler at the site of the
crime
• Ann Lively is drowned
• The water puddles in the city
• Rain Showers
water
Reverse baptism/Anderton comes out a changed man
Virtual Reality
Historical gun
given to generals
Washington
Memorial
Notice that when Crow dies by his own hand, John drops his gun-as if
to say that violence is not the answer. Lamar is given a gun used by
generals when a war had ended to signal the end of death and
destruction. This is the same gun he uses against himself.