“Avatar” (2009)
“Avatar” tells the story of a physically challenged man who gets a second chance to be a soldier through his avatar — a computer’s representation of a person or his/her alter ego. (Ideas explored in films such as “The Matrix” and “Surrogates,” where humans live through their surrogate robots.)
Director James Cameron challenges what the cerebral future might hold, selling the (not new) idea that avatars are the true channels for another sort of being. In “Avatar,” watching the main character walking, it is believable. You seem to even feel it. “It’s a film of imagination,” movie reviewer Leonard Klady says. “It’s stunning to watch and takes you into a world that you haven’t been to before … The avatar is clearly translated to the audience, where you understood cleanly how the character was able to achieve his physical accomplishments.”
Cameron also revitalized 3D technology. His special effects were mesmerizing for some, dizzying for others.
“A good portion of our vision works like it’s in a true 3D world even though it can be actually two-dimensional, like when you see a painting,” says Dr. Mike Lenhardt, a California-based optometrist. The difference between two eyes is somewhere between between 55 millimeters and 75 millimeters, he said, and that difference in perspective has your brain comparing, to get a depth judgment. “These 3D movies show two different images, and they often maximize the stereopsis to force the depth on people.”
But some can’t tolerate 3D. “Some people have problems with 3D because they have problems with polarized light, and a majority of 3D works through polarized light,” Lenhardt says. “It can also be because the brain sometimes suppresses images, and 3D might change the visual system enough to where it can’t; what it can’t ignore it can find bothersome.”
Movies On The Mind
Since the advent of film, movies have been fascinated with the mind, whether they’re featuring memory or madness, therapy, or dreamland. Here are a few favorites:
“Spellbound” (1945) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. In this psychological thriller, the head of a mental institution has amnesia and might have killed his predecessor.
“Shock Corridor” (1963) Written and directed by Samuel Fuller. A journalist commits himself to a mental asylum to uncover a murder mystery — and win a Pulitzer prize.
“Fahrenheit 451” (1966) Directed by François Truffaut, based on Ray Bradbury’s novel. Somewhere in the near future (now our past) of an anti-intellectual America (our present?), a fireman starts to question his existence.
“The Trip” (1967) Directed by Roger Corman, written by Jack Nicholson, starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hoppper. After a divorce from his cheating wife, a man takes LSD and takes a “trip” around Hollywood.
“A Clockwork Orange” (1971) Directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess’s novel. In another dystopian future, this time in Britain, a juvenile delinquent undergoes an experimental treatment in prison.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) Directed by Miloš Forman, starring Jack Nicholson. To avoid serving time in prison, a criminal transfers to a mental hospital, where he challenges authority and incites other patients.
“High Anxiety” (1977) Written by, directed by and starring Mel Brooks. A spoof of and homage to psychodrama thrillers.
“Altered States” (1980) Written by Paddy Chayefsky, starring William Hurt. A Harvard professor of abnormal psychology uses himself as a guinea pig in sensory deprivation experiments and “devolves” into earlier life forms.
“The Shining” (1980) Directed by Stanley Kubrik, starring Jack Nicholson, based on Stephen King’s novel. A haunted hotel threatens to claim the mind of its winter caretaker, a writer, husband, and father.
“The Man with Two Brains” (1983) Directed by Carl Reiner, starring Steve Martin. A comedy about transplanting the brain of someone you love into someone’s body you love.
“Dreamscape” (1984) Directed by Joseph Ruben, starring Dennis Quaid and Christopher Plummer. Psychics are manipulated by government operatives to kill the president by entering his brain.
“Total Recall” (1990) Starring Sharon Stone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, based on a story by Philip K. Dick. A construction worker turns out to be a secret agent from Mars whose memory has been wiped.
“Memento” (2000) Directed by Christopher Nolan. A nonlinear psychological thriller where a man who has short-term amnesia uses notes and tattoos to find his wife’s killer.
“The Machinist” (2004) Starring Christian Bale and Jennifer Jason Leigh. An insomniac becomes paranoid and eventually uncovers his own hidden past.
“I Heart Huckabees” (2004) Directed by David O. Russell. A philosophical comedy where a detective couple is hired to help someone solve his existential issues.
“Paranormal Activity” (2007) Written and directed by Oren Peli. A horror film about a couple haunted in their sleep.
This article is updated from its initial publication in Brain World Magazine’s Summer 2010 issue.
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