Panel Q & A Forum for Minority Report

The film I investigated was Minority Report. My argument was that the modern technology in the film serves as a method of control over the body. The use of surveillance over society complicates the division between the freedom over one's body and one's predetermined destiny. I raised the argument that Precrime takes on a God-like power by changing destiny and that the film argues that humans have free will rather than a determined future.

Feel free to ask me questions!!

Prompt 12

My reaction to most of the violence in Videodrome is of disgust. I literally had to turn away. However, you can't help but look either. Violence is something in our society that has a negative connotation. Videodrome literally shows violence but it also uses it to transcend and work on people. The violence controls Max and Max uses it to control others. In our mainstream media, it is the norm not to show extreme violence, especially if it is real. I think that Cronenberg uses violence because it is something that usually isn't shown, its different, but also because its different it evokes a sense of shock and disgust from its viewers. I think his message to the audience is to parallel this disgust for violence with this disgust for technology.

When we think of a world of chaos, we think of a world of violence. People against each other causing death, disease and turmoil, is what I picture when I think of a world torn down by violence. In Videodrome, this is what technology gives us. It is infectious. Violence is powerful and people react powerfully to it. It makes people vigilant. In a world of violence, or in a world of technology, people have to constantly be on guard, watching their backs and anticipating what could happen. I think the violence in the film also evokes this from the viewers. The gruesomeness seems to get worse and worse, so the viewer anticipates it, making them more and more disgusted.

I think the use of violence in Videodrome focuses the argument of body and technology. It is showing the violence to the body that technology can cause. Whether its death, distortion, or even mentally effecting the body so that you cause violence to others. It is effective in supporting his argument about technology and effective in evoking response from the viewers.

Prompt 11

The movie I have been assigned is Minority Report, a Steven Spielberg film from 2002 that is set in 2054. It is based on the idea of a future system called Precrime. It is a special police department that stops murder crimes before they happen. They use three humans that they call "precogs," that can see the future. The are kept hooked up to a machine and given nutrients and electrodes. The are kept not too awake but not too deep asleep either. The images that they see are projected onto a screen in which John Anderton, the Precrime officer, can sort through in order to find clues where the crime is going to happen.
There are many relationships that we see in this future setting between the body and technology. Each human has a chip in their eye that can be scanned to identify them. This helps the government keep track of everyone. There are scanners at the entrances of every building and metro statements and along the streets so they can keep track of where everyone is. This plays on the idea of power and technology and how it can be used by certain people to control others.
The "precogs" that can tell the future are the result of human technology. They are children of drug addicts who were given all kinds of experimental treatment for their survival. So the film is making to argument that technology can change how our minds work.
The overall argument, however, is that despite what seems like a perfected system, because the fact that is human-run and operated, there is a flaw. That because humans are imperfect, the system can't be. Sometimes the "precogs" disagree, creating a minority report. And in the case of this movie, the officer who runs the precrime operations is actually accused of murder.
I see how this resembles Neuromancer in a lot of aspects, from small details to the overall argument that humans will always be limited by their bodies no matter how much technology intervenes.