This movie gave me exactly what I expected of it. I knew I shouldn't watch it, but the free ticket was too big a lure. And half way through, I knew I had, yet again, made the wrong decision. The same thing had happened when I watched A Beautiful Mind, albeit to a lower extent, and a few others which I do not even remember any more.
I have an observation. Most of the movies we see today are so in your face. Everything they want to say is out there. Unlike books, where there is a hidden subtlety. Books make you think on their matter, they make you research their subjects. Well, most of them atleast. Why is this so? In my opinion, its so because, unlike books, movies are mass products. So, when you have to lure the billions, you have to have a storyline which is the Least Common Denominator of what everybody can understand. It restricts you - in your story and your story-telling. Well most movies at least, discounting the ones on the far end of the normal curve's tail.
And this is exactly what they have done to Stephen Hawking. A man who has inspired millions. And they got a chance, a mass media, to tell his inspiring story to billions, but they chose to talk about his love life instead. Of course, because love you see is an easily palatable topic which is well understood and has a wide appeal. Which also, by the way, is thanks to the thousands of similarly created predecessor movies which only talk about one of the infinite number of human emotions - love.
You had a chance (the support of a universally reaching media and a huge marketing budget) to inspire three generations of human beings with the story of the greatest living science legend. But the only residue of your vast research is his love story with a woman. You had a chance to inspire people with one aspect of his life, and you chose this one. And dont tell me it is because you had to follow the script of a book, no you chose to follow the script of this one book out of the hundreds which would have been written about him.
Whenever I think of science I end up feeling partly guilty, partly disappointed. Sometimes I feel I left it too early, without any solid reasons for doing so. Something that gave me the kicks as a child, young adult and all the way through to a number of years in my youth, is no longer a large part of my life. Something that I aspired for, had the love and aptitude for and had some very self-righteous plans to pursue, and I let it go without an argument. Well, I guess I ll go back, at least to some extent. Because that is where one ends up doing something worth one's time, not in selling ramen to kids or creating ideas for marketing silly unsubstantial products. Well, there and may be in socially good ideas. So, yes, I ll go back. Let me begin today by restarting to read the Brief History...
I have an observation. Most of the movies we see today are so in your face. Everything they want to say is out there. Unlike books, where there is a hidden subtlety. Books make you think on their matter, they make you research their subjects. Well, most of them atleast. Why is this so? In my opinion, its so because, unlike books, movies are mass products. So, when you have to lure the billions, you have to have a storyline which is the Least Common Denominator of what everybody can understand. It restricts you - in your story and your story-telling. Well most movies at least, discounting the ones on the far end of the normal curve's tail.
And this is exactly what they have done to Stephen Hawking. A man who has inspired millions. And they got a chance, a mass media, to tell his inspiring story to billions, but they chose to talk about his love life instead. Of course, because love you see is an easily palatable topic which is well understood and has a wide appeal. Which also, by the way, is thanks to the thousands of similarly created predecessor movies which only talk about one of the infinite number of human emotions - love.
You had a chance (the support of a universally reaching media and a huge marketing budget) to inspire three generations of human beings with the story of the greatest living science legend. But the only residue of your vast research is his love story with a woman. You had a chance to inspire people with one aspect of his life, and you chose this one. And dont tell me it is because you had to follow the script of a book, no you chose to follow the script of this one book out of the hundreds which would have been written about him.
Whenever I think of science I end up feeling partly guilty, partly disappointed. Sometimes I feel I left it too early, without any solid reasons for doing so. Something that gave me the kicks as a child, young adult and all the way through to a number of years in my youth, is no longer a large part of my life. Something that I aspired for, had the love and aptitude for and had some very self-righteous plans to pursue, and I let it go without an argument. Well, I guess I ll go back, at least to some extent. Because that is where one ends up doing something worth one's time, not in selling ramen to kids or creating ideas for marketing silly unsubstantial products. Well, there and may be in socially good ideas. So, yes, I ll go back. Let me begin today by restarting to read the Brief History...
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