A public holiday snuck up on me so with a flu biting at my ankles I went down to the local video store and hired a few movies. As I passed by the scifi shelf I noticed a movie called Primer. The cover said it won two awards at Sundance in 2004 (Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and Grand Jury Prize) so I figured it was worth a watch.
The movie is about a few backyard scientists who accidently build a time machine. It’s done in a steadycam-style, like Blair Witch, and has a very gritty, detached, documentary feel to it that I really liked. There’s little in the way of explanation in the dialogue to let you know exactly what is going on in the plot or the true relationship between the main characters. You’re left wondering what’s going on even in critical scenes. I found this quite annoying at first because it meant I had to start using my brain (hard when you have the flu) when all I wanted was to be entertained! But as the two main characters, Aaron and Abe, started to indirectly refer to the consequences of paradox I realised what I was in for. It left me to ponder, and rightly so, what would happen if the all rules that time binds us to - information, knowledge, control, power, money - could be bent.
This is not a movie for rainy days and unless you understand the philosophical nature of time paradox you’re going to completely miss the point. If you have no brain space for a thinking movie then Back to the Future probably explored these issues in a much more fun way. Me? I liked it and am going to have to hire it again when my head clears a little!
Primer
Writer: Shane Carruth
Director: Shane Carruth
Released: Dec 2004
Rating: 4 stars
[...] far today she’s reviewed Primer, Casino Royale, and Mr Bean vs [...]
As someone with a degree in physics and a love for quantum theory, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Pretty much all of the film’s technical dialogue is derived from various speculations put forth by theoretical physicists over the last 80 or 90 years. A good book on the subject, written for the layperson, is “In Search of Schroedinger’s Cat” by John Gribbin.
Anyway, you don’t have know much about quantum physics or spacetime physics (general relativity) to follow this movie. You do, however, have to have decent critical-thinking skills. It’s definitely not a movie for those with short attention spans.
This is a movie designed to make the viewer think. Hard. I don’t think the viewer is necessarily supposed to figure everything out. Rather, I think he/she is supposed to marvel at the possibilities presented in the film. I doubt that the creators of the film had everything figured out before they started filming and probably still hadn’t done so by the end of the project. They were probably more interested in raising questions than answering them.
I must sit down and watch this movie again. I know I will have a few “ah-ha” moments with a second viewing. I have even decided to use this movie in a project I am doing for my Grad. Dip. of Astronomy. I will be investigating how science fiction and science come together, in particular, I will be looking at how science fiction movies represent the theories of general relativity (both correctly and incorrectly). I will have to watch Primer at least once more to get a full grasp on the GR involved, though I can say the dialogue is where the science goes right but the creation of multiple paradoxes is where the science goes wrong - as a start. If anyone would like to suggest any pointers, I would be most appreciative.
[...] far today she’s reviewed Primer, Casino Royale, and Mr Bean vs [...]