Anniversary of the Minority Report

June 17, 2002 in New York, the premiere of the film "Minority Report". Director Steven Spielberg.

The film is based on the short story of the same name by Philip Kindred Dick, published in 1956. According to literary critics, Dick's work in the mid-1950s was heavily influenced by the McCarthy conspiracy "reality" of paranoia, mistrust, and suspicion. According to some reports, in the early 1950s, due to Dick and his wife Cleo's acquaintance with activists of the Communist Party of the USA, they were recruited by two FBI agents and assigned to spy on alleged "enemy agents". Dick's relationship with the US authorities influenced his life and, it is believed, his worldview. In addition to socio-political factors, Dick's work was influenced by amphetamines, to which the writer was addicted in his early youth.

Originally film company Carolco Pictures was going to produce the film based on the story by Philip Kindred Dick, and it was supposed to be a sequel to Paul Verhoeven's 1990 film "Total Recall", starring Douglas Quaid played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This 1990 Paul Verhoeven picture was also based on a short story by Philip Kindred Dick called "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Paul Verhoeven's movie screenwriters Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman, who had the film rights to Dick's works, planned to move the action of the film based on the short story "Minority Report" to Mars. They also planned to replace John Enderton with Douglas Quaid, and this role was again planned to be given to Schwarzenegger. However, the bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures prevented the implementation of this project. For several years, the project was forgotten.

In the late 90s, the management of the film company XX Century Fox thought about the film adaptation of Philip Kindred Dick's story "Minority Report". Screenwriters John Cohen and Scott Frank were brought in to develop the script. The direction of the film was supposed to be entrusted to Steven Spielberg, but at that moment he was very busy: firstly, due to the death of Stanley Kubrick, he was forced to take the reins of work on the film "Artificial Intelligence: A.I.", and secondly, he began to work on his film "Catch Me If You Can". As a result, Spielberg only agreed to serve as producer and co-writer. The direction of film was entrusted to Jan de Bont.

After some time, Steven Spielberg came to the conclusion that Jan de Bont could not cope with the functions of the director of the picture and made a corresponding report to the management of the film company. In addition, Tom Cruise, who was appointed to the main role in the film, expressed an ardent desire to work with Spielberg as a director. In fact, he had such a desire back in the late 80s, when Spielberg's candidacy was considered as the director of the film "Rain Man". But then Spielberg was busy working on the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", and the creative tandem Cruise-Spielberg did not take place. "Rain Man" was directed by Barry Levinson. Since Cruise / Wagner Productions, founded by Tom Cruise, was one of the partners in the creation of the film "Minority Report", the desire of the famous actor was granted: Jan de Bont was removed from the director's position. More precisely, he was offered the position of producer as a compensation to avoid litigation. Just like Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman, who threatened lawsuits if they were not included among the creators of the script for the picture.

A new version of the script, created under the direction of Spielberg, returned it to the literary source. True, in Dick's story, the main character was fat and bald, unlike Tom Cruise. But the writer died in 1982 and could not make a claim to the filmmakers.

The festival success of the film is characterized by 20 film awards and 90 nominations. But of this rather large number of awards and nominations, the most significant, in my opinion, is the nomination for the French César Award in the Best Foreign Film category. However, Michael Moore's documentary about the Columbine shootings outperformed Spielberg's.

Film critics in the United States have generally viewed Spielberg's film positively. And Roger Ebert, who rated the film with 4 out of 4 stars and included it in his list of "Great Movies", generally wrote in his review:

«Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report" is a triumph--a film that works on our minds and our emotions. It is a thriller and a human story, a movie of ideas that's also a whodunit. ... This film is such a virtuoso high-wire act, daring so much, achieving it with such grace and skill. "Minority Report" reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.”

But for me, frankly, with all due respect to the opinion of the guru of American film critic, is closer the opinion of Russian film critic Sergey Kudryavtsev, who noted that the story of the same name by Philip Kindred Dick,

“being put in the context of the time (the “era of McCarthyism”, which reminded of medieval “witch-hunt”, ended, but the “cold war” with communism continued and espionage grew in conditions of nuclear confrontation), the story about the punishment of “pre-criminals” sounded very relevant. … But, unfortunately, the essence is lost in Spielberg’s interpretation, which was carried away not so much by the fantastic attributes of the middle of the 21st century (although this is present in his tape), but by the intricacies of the detective story, quite in the style of “black films” of the late 40s - early 50s x years. The practically Kafkian theme of “the wrong person”, which indicates the non-observance of the fundamental principle of the “presumption of innocence” in society, flares up and goes out for a while due to an overcomplicated clarification of the classic question whodunit ("Who killed?"). As a result, when we get a not so necessary answer ... you can even experience disappointment that it all comes down to the sins of another specific person. And there remains, as it were, nothing to do with the whole system, which intended to punish only the possibility of a crime and completely disregard the presence of a “dissenting opinion” that someone himself could hold on at the last minute and not cross the fateful line.”

In commercial terms, Spielberg’s film was quite successful: with a total cost of production and promotion of 142 million dollars, the film raised almost 360 million dollars worldwide. Including 3.08 million dollars in Russia, where the premiere of the film took place just three months after the premiere in the United States.

I dare to suggest that if Spielberg had made the main emphasis on the topics that underlay the literary source - non-compliance in society with the principle of the presumption of innocence, punishment for thought crimes, spy mania, etc. - a film in modern Russia might not have received a distribution certificate. But everyone knows Spielberg's well-developed commercial vein. Hence the predominance of fantastic attributes and the detective component in the plot.

In addition, I would like to note that Steven Spielberg's Minority Report is not only a work of art, but also an advertising product. The Finnish company Nokia budgeted $2 million to ensure that the film featured as many mobile phones as possible. And Lexus paid $5 million to have a futuristic version of one of Lexus' cars shown in the film. In addition, Steven Spielberg was "granted" a $62,000 Lexus SC 430 convertible.

The success of the film among the audience is evidenced by the following figure: 61% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated this film from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of Steven Spielberg's film "Minority Report" according to FilmGourmand version is 8,057, which allowed it enter the Golden Thousand and take 639th Rank in it.