"Sunshine" ; metaphor for creative process ?!

Post Reply New Topic

just seen "sunshine" by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland
Found it very moving, and encouraging, inspiring and hopeful, tho maybe not for me!!
Think that, altho there IS an interesting sub text/metaphor about how the greatest intimacy with the "other" (person, world, whatever) occurs when assign power ( to contribute, notably) to oneself ASWELL as to the other ( difficult! I always have trouble with this!), the main theme is a metaphor for the creative process, in which parts of personality/psyche are represented by the characters ;
the dreamer/visionary from where the whole idea comes;
the organising/prioritising part which keeps a person on track towards their goal;
the part of us which looks after physical health/bodily processes;
the affectionate/loving self-support element, etc etc etc
And the part which is afraid that the project is too much, too hard, too big and that one will fail, and so chooses to think that it ( the dream) was not meant to be, to think "who am i to change things", who then glorifies/glamourises in deterministic/fatalistic fashion the blind progress of events , as if they have meaning/value. Who jealously dumps on others projects, because " if I can not finish noone is going to". And which is dangerous and destructive until disarmed.

The captain dies first. The communications guy goes next. Then the psychologist/mental health "monitor".Then the navigational/mechanics guy. Then its the turn of the oxygen/water/long-term lifesupport systems woman.
Leaving three from the "good" team ( the dreamer, the loving-support, and the organiser for a while longer) and one negative element.
I was thinking I've always let Pinbacker ( the heat-stroked, cancer-eaten, defeatist captain of previous mission, masquerading as grand high priest of the sun, interpreting its cooling as will of god not to be interfered with, rather than admit is afraid, hypnotised by fear of failure, preferring to sabotage project rather than try only to fail ) beat back my dreamer. But then perhaps that's because my "prioritising/executive/organising" element, Mace in the film, has always been out of action. And the loving self-support has been rather noticeably absent. It's been a tete-a-tete between my dreamer and my fear-driven sabotager all along.
Could have done with the rest of the team too ! !
Who else?

WAS FREAKIN AWESOMEEEEE!! !! !

I love Danny Boyle's flicks. I rate this one behind Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, because of that plot shift revolving around the other ship's captain. I still enjoyed the hell out of this movie.

I think Pinbacker was an obvious reference towards religious extremism and that it really could have been done better instead of turning him into a sterotypical movie slasher and killing Cassie and Corazon (or however you spell that name).

I wanted to see that movie because it seemed like a live action Titan A.E. and I am still kicking myself.

yeah i liked this movie and i'll agree that i would put it behind those two movies as well. i really didnt like that whole slasher movie element either, it felt like something that was added onto the script by the studio since the film could have existed without it, and i felt the film's impact was cheapened by it. but the ending of the film was especially moving, as well as all the visuals in the movie. that final shot of the sun becoming brighter in the sky of a snow covered Sydney is just awe inspiring, danny boyle really knows how to leave the audience wowed, and not just with dazzling special effects, but with more meaningful feelings.

I am going to watch this film tonight and I hope it is as good as you all say.

Sunshine is one of the five best sci-fi films of the last decade (the other four being District 9, Children of Men, Moon, and Prometheus), and it might be the best of them.

Better than Prometheus? That's not saying much.

I watched Sunshine and thought there was some great performances in it, but I have to say I didn't know what was going on in most parts of the film.

But it was well made and watchable.

the dvd has some great extras, including a film length commentary by a physicist. my favorite scene was the first view of the e.v.a. suit. on a psychological level, the scene where harvey does not look at mercury was a portent of doom, for sure

I liked Sunshine,but it's basically just Dark Star on speed rather than pot.