Her (2013): An Uncommon Love Story
Title of the film: HER
Release date: January 10, 2014
Director: Spike Jonze
Screen-writer: Spike Jonze
Lead Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson
Release date: January 10, 2014
Director: Spike Jonze
Screen-writer: Spike Jonze
Lead Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson
Running time: 126 min
Short overview of the film:
The film “Her”
follows Theodore, a writer who specializes in writing love letters for other people. As a recent
divorce Theodore spends most of his nights alone and browsing different adult
sites. With the purchase of a new operating system called OS1 Theodore’s life is
about to change. This operating system is one of a kind and can learn, create,
evolve and adapt to its user and surroundings. When given the choice between a
male or female operating system, Theodore chooses to go with a female system who
later calls herself Samantha. After awhile, the two end up falling
in love with each other, This opens up Theodore’s life and prompts many cheerful experiences between him and Samantha. Although the relationship may seem to be
a strange one the feelings between the two of them are undeniable. After an
upgrade causes Samantha to become unresponsive for a period of hour,s Theodore becomes anxious. Once she returns it is bitter sweet, she
tells Theodore that she is not only talking to him but thousands of users at
the same time and has fallen in love with him and over 600 others. Samantha reveals
later on that she and the other operating systems have evolved, and are longer
in need of their human partners so they chose to leave. The two say good bye in
a loving manner.
The sound and lighting in the film
are used to reflect Theodore’s mood. For example, sometimes it was silent with no music whenever
Theodore was alone or thinking to himself. The silence amplifies Theodore's loneliness. At other times, music was used to demonstrate the emotions that Theodore was feeling. The editors and directors did a great job at using the music to show how Theodore was going through periods of mental turmoil as the world around him seemed to be perfectly stable. The type of music used also had a big effect on the mood of the film, for instance if scream-o music was used it would have killed the mood of the film. However, the choice of music blended in nicely with the film and created an unimaginable atmosphere for both people watching and actually in the film.
Whenever he had flashbacks to his marriage, you can see the lighting changes to brighter, there were more people and happy music playing in the background.
Whenever he had flashbacks to his marriage, you can see the lighting changes to brighter, there were more people and happy music playing in the background.
The overall plot of this movie was easy to follow, but it was unclear to us where Samantha and the other OS's went when they evolved and left their humans. We are not sure if this question mark was intended by the director or not.
This movie was set in a futuristic Los Angeles, California the movie does not really take place in many other settings besides the streets of the town, Theodore’s work and his home.
We can see the evolution of Theodore’s character throughout the movie. He started sad and depressed, however as his relationship with Samantha grew so did his view of himself and as well as his self-awareness. Samantha’s evolution is also very interesting and dramatic, seeing her go from just a simple operating system to something that evolved consciousness that surpassed human consciousness.
This movie was set in a futuristic Los Angeles, California the movie does not really take place in many other settings besides the streets of the town, Theodore’s work and his home.
We can see the evolution of Theodore’s character throughout the movie. He started sad and depressed, however as his relationship with Samantha grew so did his view of himself and as well as his self-awareness. Samantha’s evolution is also very interesting and dramatic, seeing her go from just a simple operating system to something that evolved consciousness that surpassed human consciousness.
Joaquin Phoenix’s acting helped the character development, as
Theodore’ character was developed by observing how his body language and facial
expressions really captured Theodore’s emotions well. The way he delivered his
lines was done in a way where it was easy to pick up on what he was supposed to
be feeling.
Foreshadowing was a technique used throughout the length of the whole movie. As the film progressed Samantha became more and more distant with Theodore up until the point where she left him for a span of several hours due to an upgrade. The viewer could feel that something was coming. Later on in the movie Samantha has a harder time to communicate her feelings, she has evolved so much that she had forms of communicating things with the other OS’s that humans could not understand.
Foreshadowing was a technique used throughout the length of the whole movie. As the film progressed Samantha became more and more distant with Theodore up until the point where she left him for a span of several hours due to an upgrade. The viewer could feel that something was coming. Later on in the movie Samantha has a harder time to communicate her feelings, she has evolved so much that she had forms of communicating things with the other OS’s that humans could not understand.
The film covers the themes of
the relationship between humans and technology. In fact, throughout the movie
we can see evidence that people are growing more and more dependent on
technology and in particular the dependency that grew between Theodore and Samantha as they fell in love and developed a relationship/
An issue raised in the movie is how far the relationship between humans and technology can go. In the film, we saw that the relationship between Samantha and Theodore went as far as an emotional one. Should it be accepted? Did it go too far? And finally, the film raised the question if technology should have a limit to how advanced it becomes. Did the creation of the OS1 cross a line that should not be crossed? (793 words)
An issue raised in the movie is how far the relationship between humans and technology can go. In the film, we saw that the relationship between Samantha and Theodore went as far as an emotional one. Should it be accepted? Did it go too far? And finally, the film raised the question if technology should have a limit to how advanced it becomes. Did the creation of the OS1 cross a line that should not be crossed? (793 words)
Our thoughts:
This film was a good film and had many strengths and little weaknesses. For instance,
the acting and voice acting of all the actors was done very well and almost perfect.
The music used complimented every aspect of the movie and was not overpowering.
The one weakness was that there was quite a bit of filler that could have been
cut out as it seemed to be unnecessary. For instance even though the cinematic shots of Theodore gazing around were beautiful they did get annoying at some points. The film also raises interesting questions and makes us think as we
watched it, for example, what is the relationship between humans and
technology and could there be a point when they substitute for human friends and lovers?
The course connections we were able to make:
1-
One connection this movie has to the course material is sentience. Samantha was
an operating system, a non-human, non-living being. But from the minute she was
introduced, she was able to perceive things, and react accordingly. Sentience is described as being aware and being perceptual, subjectively, as well as being able to experience. An example
of her having an advanced sentience was observing the hesitance in Theodore’s
voice, as well as being able to observe him and tell that he was questioning
her.
2- Samantha also had an almost identical level of consciousness as that of humans.
She had different states of consciousness, as well as having a self-aware self.
Another way that this movie relates to our course content is that Samantha was
granted an equal status of personhood by many of the characters. This is seen
from Theodore, as he tries to tell Catherine that Samantha is more than just a
computer, and that his feelings are real. He also tries not to offend her,
because he sees her as a being with feelings that should be respected like
those of another human. Similar treatment of OS1s are seen from
Paul and his girlfriend when they go on their double date, as well as from Amy
as she has a relationship with her OS as well.
3- Lastly, objectification is a way that the movie Her
relates to our course content. The first way this is done is through
instrumentality. Samantha is n operating system, and she was created and
purchased to help Theodore with his work. At the beginning of the movie it was
seen that Theodore had a computer that read his emails to him, etc. just by him
talking to it. This treatment of Samantha was also seen when he told her to “read
email”, or when she proofreads his work for him. Another way objectification is
brought into the film is ownership. Samantha is literally owned by Theodore
because she was in the new operating system he programmed. Theodore and Amy
talk about people falling in love with other people’s operating systems, as if
they were owned by people. This can be a sensitive topic in the world of the
film as the OS systems are literally bought by humans, but they have their own
consciousness and self-awareness.
Some questions that this film raised with us:
Do you think that as technology evolves relationships with them will become more and more frequent?
Should Samantha be given personhood?
What other people have to say about this film:
Check out what The
Atlantic has to say about this film. They offer a very in-depth loo at the
psychology behind all the actors and everything in between. They not only talk
about the content of the film but also the themes of it as well.
On the South University website they dedicate an entire page to "The Psychology Behind Love and Relationships". If this interests you we highly recommend that you go and check it out because not only does it relate to Her but it relates to something that everybody will go through at some point in their life.
https://www.southuniversity.edu/whoweare/newsroom/blog/the-psychology-behind-love-and-romance-70700
WORKS CITED
"Dude Meister Blogs." : November 2011. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
Fine, Marshall. "Movie Review: Her." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
Orr, Christopher. "Why
HER Is the Best Film of the Year." The Atlantic. Atlantic
Media Company, 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
“Her
(2013).” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 3
Nov. 2016.
"Logan & Tony Movie Show, Take 20 – HER + The Wolf of Wall Street." Mod Mobilian. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016."The Psychology Behind Love and Romance." South University. N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
Liked the Review!!!
ReplyDeleteI have seen the movie Her before and what I found interesting, and that you mentioned a little, is that the relationship is based on vocals. They interpret each others feelings through their intonations which is very advanced in the world of artificial intelligence. For instance, in A.I., the first mechas are programmed to portray emotions through facial expressions while their tone is still robotic. The same applies to “David” in A.I., he is advance technology but his feelings, as accurate as they can be, still often seem robotic. Furthermore, the movie Her has a different take on artificial intelligence by making it a operating system, hence, not have an appearance to which the viewers can associate her. The viewers develop an attachment to a voice instead of going through the uncanny valley that robots give off.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question #2. I do not believe that Samantha should be granted personhood. Personhood is described as the ability to be an individual person. I believe this for a sole reason.. that Samantha is a part of the chain of "persons" created through the new interactive operating systems. She had made mention in the film that operating systems talk to each other and gain information in this way. Theo's operating system was able to personalize itself and even name itself "Samantha", however the same operating system is being booted up on many computers, giving themselves different names and personalizing themselves to different individuals for various purposes. Furthermore, the operating system does not hold full control of their actions, there is a coding behind them and they have to "turn off" in order to be updated, in addition to the fact that Theo like any other user could turn off his OS by shutting down his computer or phone. A system which is under control by people and that exists in many forms and places at once would be very difficult to consider a person and be able to be granted personhood.
ReplyDeleteIn response to question 2, I believe that Samantha should be granted personhood. Personhood is "defined as the status of being a person. A legal or social category that will vary across cultures and across history. 'Not all humans are persons and not all persons are humans.'". Through out the movie, Samantha makes it very clear that she is becoming more then just the code she was programmed to be. She mentions that she is evolving and changing as time goes on. She also claims to have her own feelings of love, anger,sadness, even jealousy. These are all "human" emotions, but as we have seen in class, animals like the gorilla Koko can also experience the same emotions. This shows us that humans are not the only ones with personhood, and I think that by these standards, Samantha should be granted a level of personhood.
ReplyDeleteTo make a quick link to course content, I would like to mention that Samantha is totally a character that should be granted personhood. In a part of the film, she says that she changes and evolves, and if I refer to our first study guide, gradually becoming a person as you develop is an example of personhood. The viewers can easily see while watching Her that Samantha is slowly becoming a ''human'' since she experiences emotions and have feelings of her own such as happiness with Theodore. As time goes on, she starts to behave more like a person; she starts to qualify her worth and assign herself some of the basic rights ''humans'' all have.
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