OBLIVION (2013)

OBLIVION. Joseph Kosinski, dir., prod. (one of many), screenplay: with Karl Gajdusek and Michael Arndt, in association with the comic book by Kosinski and Arvid Nelson. For details on the graphic novel see here. Darren Gilford, prod. design. Kevin Ishioka, supervising art dir. USA: Universal Pictures central for prod. and dist., 2013. For details on production and distribution, and a list of producers of various sorts, see the entry in IMDb.

Most clearly relevant here for the imaging of contrasting technologies: definitely human, alien, ambiguously alien or human, white and clean modernist/futurist, dark and funky po-mo/Industrial, and ecologically-friendly, "appropriate" technology. As in MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985), there are deserts, a "green gorge," and an enclave of relatively primitive survivors; unlike BEYOND THUNDERDOME, there are also very high-tech human stations and some alien super-tech on the monumental and geometrical lines of the Borg Cube from Star Trek: Next Generation — and some ultimately threatening small fighter-craft significantly called "drones." The technology in the "green gorge" includes a stylish spiraling windmill, solar panels, and a player of vinyl records. The drones can be pictured combining the pods of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) with the TIE fighters of STAR WARS (1977 (f.) — with a face, so to speak, like a Predator from PREDATOR (1987). The hero's aircraft and motorcycle are modern, streamlined, beautiful, and supercool. As suggested by Justin Chang in |Variety, and undoubtedly others, cf. also WALL-E (2008). Note well different technologies associated with different elevations: alien in space, modernist in the clouds (or at least on mountain tops), Industrial when troglodytic, "appropriate" at ground level, in what is finally a garden. There is also a very brief sequence of mechanical wombs, significant for the plot, but not developed into a motif.

For comparison with SPACE ODYSSEY, note repeated image of hexagons with machinery, and note coffins and the traditional coffin shape. More in contrast than in comparison with SPACE ODYSSEY, there are also triangles and other suggestions of the feminine "V" in very high-tech mechanical contexts.

5. DRAMA, RDE, 19/IV/13, 3Oct.15