Interstellar Can Be Called The Spiritual Hild Of Stanley Kubricks 2001 And Carl Sagans Cosmos :
My Interstellar memories:-
Nov 7th , 2014 : I remember the day as if it were yesterday. Waking up early in the morning , pretending to prepare for an iit coaching institute test named “Escape velocity”. How ironic ! It was as if a test was foreshadowing the plot of the movie I was about to witness that night.
Right from my childhood up to that particular day , I never showed much enthusiasm for scientific activities. My interests were always in the regime of sports and films. But that day I witnessed the true power of cinema and understood the importance of science.
I learned the fact that cinema has the power to transport audiences to wondrous and exotic places if only in the hands of the right artiste. In some extreme cases , it has the power to even influence people. This is one such example.
That day after guessing the answers on the omr sheet in the test, I was ready for the movie. My cousin and I went into the theatre prepared that we wouldn’t understand anything and we were right. Although we did not have any idea of what the movie was, the fusion of sight and sound that unfolded in the theatre created an everlasting impression on our lives.
The word special effects doesn’t do enough justice to describe the work done by the technical geniuses who are the sfx and vfx artists. It can rightly be called wizardry or alchemy. The mixture of practical work and computer generated imagery created for this film were seamless and awe inspiring. The collaboration of the physics Nobel prize recipient kip Thorne and the visual effects studio Double Negative produced imagery that not only imbued a sense of wonder but also created structures that looked huge and felt real. The aftermath of such fruitful work was the publication of their results on black hole simulation in various physics journals. This might’ve been the rare occasion where a tentpole blockbuster helped seasoned physicists further their knowledge about objects like black holes. Although the human eye is well equipped to distinguish the difference between reality and CGI , owing to the blend of practical and digital work used in this film the effects look as close to reality as possible. In a way Interstellar can be called the spiritual child of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Technically it reminds us of the visual wonders created by Kubrick and his team of technical wizards and on an emotional scale it tries to incorporate the ideals and principles of an emotional scientist like Carl Sagan.
Now coming to the driving force of this movie – the music by Hans Zimmer . It is a fusion of intimacy and extravagance . Just like the story which balances the father-daughter relationship with the larger questions on humanity and our place in the universe , the music also strikes the same balance on an operatic scale. In my opinion the key factor contributing to the symphonic sounds of this film’s score are the use of the church organ and the ticking clock. Since the film deals with the manipulation of time in different places , the ticking clock creates a sense of gradual tension while the church organ gives scope and weight to the the protagonist’s journey . The music in this film brings to my memory the words of the astronomer Carl Sagan: “The cosmos is within us. We are star stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself”.
The movie Interstellar was the starting point in my journey of scientific inquiry and curiosity. It awoke a curious and primal childlike questioning nature that lay dormant in the recesses of my brain for several years. After watching a few videos by Physics luminaries like Neil degrasse Tyson , Brian Greene I realised that the logical train of thought required to describe cosmological evolution and objects like black holes has its beginnings at fundamental reason and mathematical logic we learn at school. These gigantic theories are logical extensions of what we learn during our schooling. There is no need to be intimidated by the enormity of such knowledge. So this film provided an impetus in harbouring my interests for years to come.
The name Christopher Nolan got etched in my memory when I saw The Dark Knight in 70mm IMAX back in the good old days when PRASADZ used to showcase IMAX presentations. There was a sense of religiosity that could be attributed to the theatre experience in those days. I was 8 years old when my brother first mentioned this director’s name. Later when my brother and I watched the dark knight rises in 2012 , he explained me the beauty and the technical marvel that is IMAX. For the first time in my movie going experience was I aware of the epic scope of what lay in front of me. Incidentally that began my fascination with cinema as well. I was obsessed about the IMAX technology and also Nolan’s peculiar way of storytelling. From then on I devoured any article that was related to Nolan’s next film Inerstellar. This was the first time I read about the famous theoretical physicist Kip Thorne. I might’ve been in class 8 when these articles about interstellar started popping up on the internet. I knew nothing about physics at that juncture, all I knew was kip Thorne’s name because he was working on a Nolan movie at the time. Newton still hadn’t conquered our textbooks to a great effect yet. Half baked knowledge on relativity was the only physics I knew. Watching this movie on that fateful night on Nov 7th gave rise to a sensation that was mysterious yet exciting. It was a feeling of curiosity. Even though I couldn’t understand even the most trivial science concepts at school , an underlying curiosity driven due to this film’s experience always enabled me to sustain my interests.
What do we do if the Earth were damaged to the point where there was no saving it ? Do we cling on to our planet or move out of our terrestrial confines and venture into the cosmos in search of new habitats ? This is an age old question that the makers of the film ask and try to give a solution. The primary purpose of this film is to inject a sense of enthusiasm in the arena of space exploration while also providing a reason as to why space voyages are crucial for humanity to thrive. The next step in human evolution starts with our first steps out of our Earthly confines. Space is and always shall be the final frontier because of its endless possibilities. The opportunity to explore and learn about our universe isn’t just an advertisement for adventure but a symbol of human triumph in the face of extraordinary risk.
Venturing out of our Earth might feel daunting and full of fright , however stepping into the unknown , plunging out into the abyss is akin to what our ancestors might’ve had to face when they had to save their skin from the hazards posed by nature. The sense of gut wrenching awe and the never ending supply of amazement sprinkled with fear that nature hurls at us is clearly a signal for us humans to use our mental faculties to study/understand the universe in all its glory and surrender to the intellectual current of nature and its wonders with a fair amount of skepticism.
Dylan Thomas’s poem truly encapsulates the human spirit in the face of death and adversity. In a way it sums up the essence of the movie too. It is an allegory for our will power to keep fighting till our last breathe.
“Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, Rage against the dying of the light “
In the film , there is a scene in which the characters are on a planet where time runs slower compared to Earth. One hour on that planet is equal to seven years on Earth. This feels very weird and counter-intuitive, however time dilation is a scientific fact backed by numerous experiments which arose from Einstein’s investigations about the nature of reality. Time is relative. So from that fictional planet’s perspective only an hour has passed whereas on Earth we have experienced seven long years. This concept of time dilation puts us humans and our ignorance in check on a universal scale. Our ego, biases, vanity and even our life is nothing more than a moment in some other far away observer’s frame of reference.
The above essay was an attempt to document my experiences and memories associated with this film and how this particular film created an everlasting impact on me. There are several films that are much better than Interstellar, yet this movie holds a special place for me as I was lucky enough to have watched it at the right space and at the right time….
-Pamidikalva Sujay
These were the videos I used to watch incessantly after my theatrical experience of the film :
