|
Equilibrium Commentary
Kurt Wimmer
|
|
9. Doubting Father?
Transcription by ChronosX
You know I think a lot of people that watched this film
assume that this Father figure, the fact that he was named "Father" was
simply a transliteration of Big Brother in 1984. In fact that actually
never really entered my mind, that wasn't the idea at all. In fact it
was a resonance of these religious themes. You see the cross, the
thinly disguise cross behind him...
...and Christian in what is essentially a nineteenth century
deacon's frock there. It was simply a resonance of these theological
themes that hopefully resonate throughout this film.
Maybe that's too heavy handed.
(Commenting on the following dialogue...)
Dupont
"You must understand,
Preston, that while you,
-- and even I -- may not always agree with it,
it is not the message that is important,
it is our obedience to it. Father's will.
Call it faith. You have it, I assume?"
I was greatly concerned that the audience you know which I
anticipate to be male and I have to say that the studio was also
greatly concerned; that the audience would be able to sit through
scenes like that small one that just occurred and the one that's about
to occur; that they would give us the pass...
...By the way that shot right there, that's a reverse shot,
it was actually supposed to go at the end. That's him closing the box
as opposed to opening, but I needed a different way to get the scene,
so I reversed it. I did that a lot during the film, it works pretty
well...
...But that they would give us a pass and sit through this
to get to the action. Well what happened was for the most part they not
only accepted it, but they completely embraced it.
Another interesting thing is that women actually tested as
liking the film fractionally better than men, which is unheard of, if
not unique for a science fiction action/adventure. I have often
wondered why. I think its because first of all there are many women out
there who would like their boyfriends to look like Christian Bale; but
more importantly I think there are many women out there who would like
their boyfriend's who should look like Christian Bale, to go through
this journey. This was essentially an emotion journey of getting in
touch with his feelings; and when he starts, you know, kicking ass at
the end of the movie, he's doing it in the name of emotion, which is
something that women can get behind as opposed to the reasons that men
usually kick ass in movies.
|
