In Scorsese's The Aviator, we watch as Howard Hugh (Leo Decaprio) degrades, going from being a fantatic movie director, to playboy, to grand designer, and finally losing everything, falling into a stupor of repeating the same phrase over and over: "The wave of the future". At the time, he was speaking about the advent of jet engines in airplanes but it also can refer to any type of techonolgy nowadays. Hughs' is one of those people that contributed significantly to different areas at huge personal risk and danger to his well being and character. If you haven't seen The Aviator, it should be one of the next movies on your list, its great.
But I digress, I replied earlier to someone's discussion on technology and the unification of the world. Playing devil's advocate, I still believe that technology can be a bad thing. Facebook has started to ruin people's job oppurtunities and with a more unified world we run the risk of losing our national and cultural identities.
Now, I go into the territory of fantasy (or is it?) One of my favorite movies of all times is James Cameron's The Terminator (T2 comes close but I love Michael Biehn, he is the man). With the advent of technology, Skynet, an autonomous computer with the power of artificial intelligence is created. And everything just goes into the crapper. It gains "self-awareness" and ends up killing 5 billion people with nuclear weapons and an aresenal of dead mechanical robots including the Hunter-Killers (HK) and the T-series cyborgs. Some movies have a tendency of foretelling future events and a weird way. Could The Terminator be foretelling are fates with our dependance on the overbundence of technology?
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Throw me a bone! Tie this somehow...anyhow!...to Central Asian cinema! Or at least spread out the posts (remember the new rule? Yowza!)
ReplyDeleteWhat is the role of technology in recent C/Asian films?
I think that we surely can see that some people would like to think that there is too much dependence on technology as of late. This is something that I am relatively sure people would get into some heated debates over. The issue I have with it is really how the people use what is out there. If technology is abused then it may be inevitable that it will take us over. This is kind of a paranoia that people have had for a very long time however. I mean, I think a perfect case of this would be with the Borg race in Star Trek: The Next Generation. That entire species is basically what many human beings fear. I just think we need to keep a watchful eye on what goes on, and we will be just fine as long as no one gets out of control.
ReplyDeleteI like T2 better, but I do love me some Michael Biehn, hes great for about 5 mins in The Rock But i agree with you that technology is a curse that does occasionally have its perks. For one we are losing that connection with people we used to have even if it was just calling a 1800 number to complain about or order something. everything is now automated and it is annoying and just the tip of the ice berg. I mean yes I own a cell phone, computer, etc. but i think some people are just too damn reliant on their technology. The perks of technology are the ability to communicate with people across the world (Skype etc) also we get to watch these great Central Asian films!!!!(I threw ya a bone Bjorn).
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