Alex Garland

I wish I'd gotten to meet Alex Garland when I was in London. I received my Sunshine script book from Amazon.co.uk today (yay-- 100%!), and I've just sort of been leafing through it in order to get a feel for what it's going to be like when I can actually sit down and read it. The script book for The Wind That Shakes the Barley was a bit more difficult for me to get through, mostly because I'm awful at history. There are very few things that hold my interest regarding History or non-fiction, and the whole beginning of that one was just people talking about the history of Ireland and Britain, and although the story is interesting and important, it was just hard to read through everyone talking about the same thing for however many pages.

However, even though I haven't read much of anything in this script book for Sunshine, I did read Alex Garland's introduction. He's like so many "famous" people in that I want to sort of sit him down and just pick his brain for a while. I think it's so interesting the way he talks about the film and the "crew member" at the end... It's the same thing I've thought about over and over. Straight from the horse's mouth, eh?

Here's the introduction... it's copyright to him. I didn't write it.

Sunshine was created out of a love of science, and of science fiction. In the same way that 28 Days Later attempted to look back towards older post-apocalyptic stories, such as Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Triffids, Sunshine looked back to films such as 2001, Alien, Dark Star and the original Solaris. This was slow-paced, outer-space science fiction. Hallucinatory sci fi about star travel and feeling claustrophobic while gazing into the void. A sub-genre, linked by a common theme: that what man finds in deep space is his unconscious.

Aside from being a love letter to its antecedents, I wrote Sunshine as a film about atheism. A crew is en route to a God-like entity: the Sun. The Sun is larger and more powerful than we can imagine. The Sun gave us life, and can take it away. It is nurturing, in that it provides the means of our survival, but also terrifying and hostile, in that it will blind us if we look directly upon it, and its surface is as lethal to man as an environment can get.

As the crew travel nearer to the Sun, the majesty of the burning star fries their minds. The crew are hypnotised by it, or baffled by it, or driven mad by it. Ultimately, even the most rational crew member is overwhelmed by his sense of wonder and, as he falls into the star, he believes he is touching the face of God.

But he isn't. The Sun is God-like, but not God. Not a conscious being. Not a divine architect. And the crew member is only doing what man has always done: making an awestruck category error when confronted with our small place within the vast and neutral scheme of things.

The director, Danny Boyle, who is not atheistic in the way that I am, felt differently. He believed that the crew actually were meeting God. I didn't see this as a major problem, because the difference in our approach wasn't in conflict with the way in which the story would be told. The two interpretations that could be made from the narrative were the same two interpretations that could be made from the world around us. In that respect, perhaps the difference was even appropriate.

My Sunshine Film

Sunshine

I am so in-fucking-love with this movie.

I can't STOP. GAH.

In other news, I get way too wrapped up in other people's drama.

Amazon.com

WHAT is the deal with Amazon.com right now?

Okay, normally I have absolutely no problem with having anything I order delivered as soon as it becomes available. I completely understand that sometimes things aren't in stock and it takes a while to receive them, and then a while longer to ship them out to the people who have paid for them.

Does that mean I should still be waiting on a DVD six months later? I think not.

I ordered Disco Pigs on 25 September 2006. Today is 25 March 2007. I still haven't received it. Amazon.com says that my [new! again!] delivery date for said DVD is between 21 March and 06 April.

Should I e-mail them and let them know that I've been waiting on this particular item for six months? Maybe. Lindsey says I should wait until 06 April and if I still haven't received it to e-mail them then.

I fancy myself at least marginally patient, but goddammit, if you're going to make me wait for seventeen years to get a lousy (I'm sure it's not lousy, but you know what I mean) DVD, then you'd better be sending me something with it. Like your soul.

I have had much better experiences with Amazon.co.uk. My The Wind That Shakes the Barley script book came just when it was supposed to. It even said it wouldn't arrive before Christmas and it did. I've got the Sunshine book on order, too. I hope my satisfaction with Amazon.co.uk remains at 100%. If they screw up it brings it down to 50%. Ouch.

Okay, rant done. I really want to see that film, though...

Sunshine.

I am not a sci-fi fan. I've seen a few sci-fi films, but I don't flock to the nearest cinema to check them out. The only one I own on DVD is Alien vs. Predator, and that's only because it was three bucks at the video store and I needed a fifth one. I haven't seen 2001 or Event Horizon, and I don't remember anything about Alien. I saw Armageddon in 1998, when I was eleven years old, and I just remember being embarrassed at that scene with the animal crackers.

That being said, this film may have turned me into one of the sci-fi fans. If nothing else—if seeing a film that explores more than just "action" on screen isn't your kind of thing—the film is gorgeous. The shots of the sun are some of the most fascinating bits of effects I have ever seen in any sort of film, not only sci-fi. The film is set only fifty years into the future, and therefore the technological aspects of the set are relatable rather than hard to imagine.

The characters are well developed, and the actors are top-notch. Every single performance is phenomenal, and I was even a bit taken aback by how much I enjoyed Chris Evans's portrayal of Mace. Everyone seems to have taken the time to learn about the science and about the psychological factors of being with the same people for so long (most likely due to the fact that Danny Boyle sort of forced them to), and it shows on screen. The characters are all real, and although none of us know what it would be like to be in space and alone for sixteen months, there are aspects of them all that are immediately relatable.

The plot is secondary. That doesn't mean that it isn't well thought or anything like that, but the human drama and psychological journey of the characters is the primary concern in the film, and the fact that they are going to re-ignite the sun is merely the background story that puts them all together in the first place. There are far more triggers that ask the audience to think about their life and the life of mankind and of the universe itself than there are for the audience to question, "Well, how did that just happen?" The film asks us to have a brain and be willing to use it.

Sunshine is a religious experience. It is very personal and is a very unique experience to each member of the audience. It is incredible, awe-inspiring, intense, and one of the most beautiful pieces of film I have ever seen. Danny Boyle, Alex Garland and Andrew Macdonald have done it again. A+.

Sunshine = Obsession

ob·ses·sion /əbˈsɛʃən/ [uhb-sesh-uhn]
–noun
1. the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.

- Dictionary.com


Sunshine.

Dominating my thoughts and feelings? Check.

Review of the film soon.

I just got back from London tonight. I saw two screenings and met several people involved with the film. It was incredible. The film was magnificent. The performances were top-notch and everything about it was wonderful. I'll need to see it a few more times. A few thousand more times, perhaps.