The ecospheric starship was pretty cool too.
The Fountain (2006)
- Thread starter The Master of Tarquin Hill
- Start date
I love this movie, in fact its in my top 10 of all time. It is the very first movie I bought on Blu-Ray. I know that not everyone likes it, it has its flaws. However you cannot deny that its powerful, especially the performances. Hugh Jackman, who basically plays three different characters is amazing. The emotional grounding of Rachel Weisz and her portrayal of Izzi, still gives me chills.
The music by Clint Mansell is truly haunting, I love listening to "Death is the Road to Awe" at its loudest in the car.
The music by Clint Mansell is truly haunting, I love listening to "Death is the Road to Awe" at its loudest in the car.
Yeah, "Death is the Road to Awe" is incredibly haunting and powerful. Clint Mansell really brought an elegaic majesty to the score. Between this and his score for Moon, he's become one of my favorite contemporary composers.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
It's arguable that the future part was real, remember future Jackman says "remember" then it goes to "present day". He used the tree to become nigh-immortal. But instead of moving on and remarrying, like 99.9% of people would do, he fixates on his lost love.
So, you can look at it as some modern guy coming to terms with his loss, or a future guy ...coming to terms with his loss.
I found it all intriguing, yet I disagree with it. Death is just death. There's no awe to it, and spirituality is just so much denial of the cold hard truth of the grave.
So, you can look at it as some modern guy coming to terms with his loss, or a future guy ...coming to terms with his loss.
I found it all intriguing, yet I disagree with it. Death is just death. There's no awe to it, and spirituality is just so much denial of the cold hard truth of the grave.
I liked it, especially Mansell's score, but I don't know if it's as terribly complex as I'd like it to be. Watching it the first time, it seemed pretty straightforward that the Conquistador scenes were from Izzi's book (her way of dealing with death), and the Future scenes were actually Tommy's way of mentally dealing with her death in the present. When those scenes reach their conclusion and Tommy accepts death, the film ends over Izzy's grave. The present day sequences are thus the only 'real' ones, to the point that I'd hesitate to classify the film as science fiction.
That's not articulated as well as I would like. Hmm...
That's not articulated as well as I would like. Hmm...
I didn't like the movie as much the second time around, but it's still good. I'm still debating on whether or not the future part was real.
I hope I never see that on a Hallmark card. Give me "Get Well Soon" if I'm ever hospitalized with a terminal disease or injury.
Suggested reading:
The Scalpel And The Soul
I agree with this. I've seen the film a lot of times and this is what I come up with again and again. Darren Aronofsky has said on the commentary for the film that he thinks explaining things would rob the viewer of coming to their own conclusion, to which I heartily agree.
I'm curious, would you say it has a good video transfer on Blu-Ray?
I'm watching it right now, to ensure I can answer this question properly. As I type, Thomas is leaving Izzi after the bathing scene.
The transfer is amazing, very rich and the tones perfect.
The transfer is amazing, very rich and the tones perfect.
Through pure, high-octane craziness.
I actually meant to mention "The Fountain" in the "optimistic sci-fi" thread--any future where a man--a man with the mental problems the Fountain's protagonist must have had to have launched himself on a thousand year voyage to find heaven in a planetary nebula--is actually able to acquire a starship has got to be a future with an incredibly high standard of living.
Either that, or he invented immortality, got rich, stayed rich, and got crazier, and with no one to restrain him, built the world's only interstellar transport at the cost equivalent of billions or trillions of dollars, and plunged his neurotic ass and his tree/wife/thing into a star.
That said, the movie is a masterpiece, and makes me bawl like a baby.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who cries when watching this movie.
