It’s been all science fiction this week at Daily Stream, ahead of a Flick Filosopher announcement tomorrow. Why not brace yourself for the news with a rewatch of Steven Spielberg’s devastating A.I. Artificial Intelligence, from 2001? A young Haley Joel Osment is terrifyingly upsetting as David, a robot boy programmed only for a mother’s love who is profoundly lost when that mother (Francis O’Connor) realizes that a “child” that never grows up is a quiet horror. If he’s “only” a machine programmed to ape human emotion and human needs, why is it so deeply moving when he apes human-style pain, too? Oh, how I sob every time I watch this movie… (Read my 2001 review.)
US: stream on Paramount+ (via Prime and Apple TV) and MGM+ (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Paramount+ (via Prime); rent on BFI Player; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See A.I. Artificial Intelligence at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
i always thought the extraordinary androids in the movie were Teddy and Gigolo Joe. they were the ones who showed self awareness. they knew who and what they were and were able to go beyond their programming for self preservation whereas David just goes along with his programming to search for his “mother” and when confronted with what he really was, basically blocks it out. even at the end of the story, he just stays with his programming and never steps beyond it to be an individual with self awareness and an existence beyond his original programing.