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AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Director: Steven Spielberg (2001)
Distributor: Warner Bros. Certificate: 12
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Imagine A Clockwork Orange meets E.T. and you are somewhere in the ballpark of the 'feel' of the film. The influence both of the late Stanley Kubrick and director Steven Spielberg are evident in A.I.
In a future U.S., when global warming has submerged numerous cities, Cybertronics Manufacturing produce a prototype artificial human child, David (Haley Joel Osment). He has a full range of emotions and the ability, when instructed, to indelibly imprint upon
his owner with an unbreakable bond of love.
David is placed with Cybertronics employee Harry Swinton (Sam Robards) and his wife Monica (Frances O'Connor), whose own terminally ill child Martin (Jake Thomas) has been cryogenically frozen in the hope of a future cure. Overcoming initial reservations, Monica activates David's imprinting programme and the mother-child relationship blossoms. This becomes problematic when Martin recovers from his illness and returns to the Swinton household. Following a misunderstanding Martin is almost drowned by David, forcing Monica to abandon David in the forest with only his robotic Teddy
for company. Bewildered, he sets out to find the Blue Fairy who will grant his wish to become a 'real boy' and thereby keep his mother's love (echoing the Pinocchio story read to David by Monica earlier in the film).
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David is captured along with other discarded robots and taken to the 'Flesh Fair where robots are destroyed for entertainment. Along with Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a 'love robot' on the run after being framed for murder, David escapes and is helped by Joe to find the Blue Fairy. Prompted by an all-knowing computer (Wizard of Oz echoes here), David discovers that he is just one of a whole range of 'Davids' and despairingly throws himself into the ocean. But he survives and finds a submerged statue on the ocean floor that he believes to be the Blue Fairy. David sits in front of the statue longing for his wish to be granted. After two thousand years, during which human life has vanished from the planet, David is discovered by aliens. They access David's memory and through a hair from Monica, preserved by Teddy, are able to reconstruct her for a single day. The film closes as David and his mother fall asleep forever at the end of the day. |
THROUGH THE LENS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
A.I. Artificial Intelligence combines the enchanting with the disturbing to good effect. On the one hand is the attractive notion of a perfect child who will always love the 'parent' on which he is imprinted. On the other hand, there is the 'child' frozen in time and doomed to watch all that he loves eventually decay and die, with only the understanding of a child. The film portrays David's despair as he glimpses this reality and (presumably) attempts to end his life. This is surely where Kubrick would have ended the film.
Spielberg, whether for artistic reasons or studio pressures, takes the film further with an implausible but fascinating final section. The suggestion at the end of the film is that somehow David's love enables him to pass to a place beyond death. A contrived ending to send the viewers out with a warm feeling? Perhaps. But then again, maybe Spielberg is simply connecting with the human longing to know that death is not the end.
A.I. mirrors something both of the pain of the human condition and the hope of a greater reality that strengthens us in present and transcends this life. The costly nature of love is evident in a number of places, not least in the scene where Monica leaves David in the forest. The bond of love is certainly real between them even if David himself is artificial. Love, by its very nature is always costly. It involves self-giving and it robs us of our defences, yet only through that vulnerability can love be experienced. Anyone who loves and is loved will recognise that while it is given freely it is never cheap. This truth is evident when we consider the God whom we worship, a God who in the Person of Jesus Christ took on our very nature and died a horrible death on a cross (Philippians 2.5-11) ~ the supreme example of love. Wherever love is, God is (1 John 4.16) and it is love alone that can make sense of a bewildering world.
The experience of love in the present life, in particular a recognition of God as the very source of love, is also the foundation of our future hope. In
A.I. it is not explained, but somehow David's love endures beyond the limits of his existence in time and space. His love was real even though his body was artificial. There is something of a parallel here with the reality that faces all of us. One day we will die and the bodies we now inhabit will be no more. But we are a resurrection people. At the heart of Christian faith is an unshakeable hope that death is not the end. The bonds of love are unbreakable and we have a future with God where we will be free from the sadness and sorrow that accompanies the wonder and joy in our life on earth (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 21.1-4).
In your own life, can you think of some times when love has been costly (whether given or received)? What difference does it make knowing that we have a God who understands the costly nature love first-hand? What is your hope for life after death and how does this affect you in the present?
