Boasting mixed reviews and division within the film community, Interstellar has been known to have its flaws and criticisms. A dense film that requires “too much thinking” outside the theater may have turned some people away, but that’s what I live for. These stories cast on the silver screen are meant to provoke thought, emotion, and physical response. I love movies that stimulate me to contemplate and analyze life itself, whether their messages are laid out on a platter or buried a little deeper inside. Although it may seem that Christopher Nolan, the director, is placing his message directly on a billboard for all to see, much more meaning lies beneath the surface. Don’t get me wrong, even on a surface level, Interstellar is a beautiful film; from cinematography to acting to sound design and score, but once I sat down and wondered what this film was trying to achieve, I was mesmerized by Nolan’s compelling commentary.
Interstellar’s advanced science or instances of time dilation may seem confusing or unnecessary, but these drastic, high-stake moments present the film’s driving factor, time. If you somehow have not seen this masterpiece, Interstellar takes place in 2070, when the world is struck with a food crisis as a result of climate change. No one can grow anything, so there are no cattle, no livestock; only corn, and other resilient crops. Humanity is now faced with a choice: leave the planet or die trying. Cooper, our main character, becomes one of the few brave souls to voyage across space to find a new planet for humanity. There is no perfectly habitable planet within our solar system and galaxy (that we know of) so Cooper is forced to journey to other galaxies to find a possible home. Consequentially, Cooper and his crew experience gravitational time dilation (term for when you move slower through time because you sustain higher amounts of gravity) on their long voyage, so back on Earth, time is moving much faster comparatively. Then, “messages span twenty-three years”, a computer voice says, and the audience realizes Cooper has missed twenty-three years of his children’s lives from this time dilation. His children, Murph (shown below with Cooper) and Tom, have aged decades, and what was once their future is a series of memories in video messages Cooper’s absent from. This factor of time is presented as a horrible prison we can’t escape. We have all had the devastating realization that after reconnecting with old friends, family, places, these things have changed, or perhaps, we have changed. We are no longer in touch with something that once felt familiar and intimate because of this inevitable, unavoidable passing of time. In Interstellar, the cold reality of time is taken to the extreme, amplified by the unforgiving science of gravitational time dilation, which causes Cooper to miss twenty-three crucial years of his family’s lives. Yet the film presents the reason why we–or Cooper–endure this prison every day; the one thing that transcends this relentless force of nature, love.
After realizing he missed twenty-three years of his children’s lives, Cooper remains constrained to space and is forced to continue with his mission. He knows that the time that passed is irreversible, so sadly he must carry on for his kids and everyone else back on Earth avoiding starvation. Eventually, after several mishaps, Cooper ends up inside the Tesseract (no, not the blue infinity stone from the Marvel movies) after he is saved by 5th-dimensional beings. Here Cooper gains the opportunity to save Murph and the Earth by communicating across several dimensions and millions of light-years. He communicates through morse code on his watch that he gave Murph before he began his mission across space when she was still 10 years old. Over 25 years later, she still revisits that watch because she loves and misses her father. Her connection to her past, one she looks back fondly of, gives Cooper an anchor point for communication. Cooper realizes that it was not his love for her that created this bridge, but her love for him. Love becomes a quantifiable and transcending force that trumps the dimension of time, saving both Cooper and Murph.
Not only is Nolan’s theme that love transcends all beautifully told and displayed across our screens, but all other carefully crafted moments within the film make it all the more emotional and meaningful. The legendary Hans Zimmer intensifies the feeling embedded in every scene using his unforgettable and moving score. From unforgettable sounds like the main theme “Cornfield Chase”, “Mountains”, “Coward”, and “S.T.A.Y.”, every scene seems so raw, so real. The direction of these scenes becomes passionate and intense, and we begin to feel for Cooper. We discover along with Cooper the greatest capability of the human race, love. It is the one constant across space and the universe; not gravity, not physics, and not time itself.
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I liked how you reviewed the movie by telling the story of the film and really tearing apart the main theme of love. It was very interesting and captivating for me to read because I have never watched Interstellar (and now I want to), and your blog made me realize that I don’t really think much about the themes and the subtext in each movie (or even sometimes the small details that are easily glanced over). I also think it is interesting how even though the movie is about saving Earth and solving world hunger, the true theme is the focus on loosing time and how love can still persist and stay strong between separated families. It gives the motivating message of “Hey, if a family that is literally separated by time and space can still find ways to communicate and love each other, you can find time to communicate once and awhile with your family”. Your writing style is very easy to follow and fun to read as well, which made the story of Interstellar even more interesting!
I enjoyed your commentary on Interstellar. I haven’t read any reviews of the film, but I’m surprised that people felt the movie required “too much thinking.” I felt that the scientific nuances of higher dimensions and relativity weren’t critical to understanding the plot and the dire situations the protagonist faces. I do agree that it makes you reconsider what you really know about the world around you, but like you, I also live for those movies. I love message of needing to take better care of our planet, and also the more thematic point of human love being constant through time and space.
I’ve never actually watched Interstellar, but have heard a plethora of good things about it. I appreciate your analysis, as your personal voice shines through (as compared to a typical monotype film review). I feel like this adds an additional layer of flavor into your description. As well, your rhythm flows perfectly – as a movie overview, you need to find a way to chronologically describe the movie in a manner that is relatively spoiler-free, but also ‘sells’ the movie to your audience.
The way in which you approached the summary and review of the movie makes it incredibly engaging to read. While the movie itself offers such an interesting topic, the elements from chapter three of writing with flair add an additional layer of involvement with the audience. The variety of sentences paired with different types of punctuation make this writing very enjoyable. It prevented repetitiveness and keeps the text from seeming monotone.