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Bicentennial Man (film)

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Bicentennial Man
Promotional poster
Directed byChris Columbus
Written byIsaac Asimov
Robert Silverberg
Nicholas Kazan
Produced byMichael Barnathan
Chris Columbus
Gail Katz
StarringRobin Williams
Sam Neill
Embeth Davidtz
Oliver Platt
Wendy Crewson
Hallie Kate Eisenberg
Stephen Root
Lynne Thigpen
Narrated byRobin Williams
CinematographyPhil Meheux
Edited byNeil Travis
Music byJames Horner
Production
company
Distributed byTouchstone Pictures
(USA & Canada)
Columbia Pictures
(International)
Release date
  • December 17, 1999 (1999-12-17)
Running time
132 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$100 million
Box office$87,423,861

Bicentennial Man is a 1999 American science fiction drama film starring Robin Williams and Sam Neill. Based on the novel The Positronic Man, co-written by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, which is itself based on Asimov's original novella titled The Bicentennial Man, the plot explores issues of humanity, slavery, prejudice, maturity, intellectual freedom, conformity, sex, love, and mortality. It was directed by Chris Columbus. The title comes from the main character existing to the age of two hundred years, and Asimov's book was published in the year that the U.S. had its bicentennial.

Plot

The NDR series robot "Andrew" (Robin Williams) is introduced in April 2005 into the Martin family home to perform housekeeping and maintenance duties. The family's reactions range from acceptance and curiosity to outright rejection and deliberate vandalism by their surly older daughter Grace (Lindze Letherman), which leads to the discovery that Andrew can both identify emotions and reciprocate in kind. When Andrew accidentally breaks a figurine belonging to "Little Miss" Amanda (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), he carves a replacement out of wood. The family is astonished by this creativity and “Sir” Richard Martin (Sam Neill) takes Andrew to his manufacturer, to inquire if all the robots are like him. The company's CEO (Stephen Root) sees this development as a problem and wishes to scrap Andrew. Angered, Martin takes Andrew home and allows him to pursue his own development, encouraging Andrew to educate himself in the humanities.

Years later, following an accident in which Andrew's thumb is accidentally cut off, Martin again takes him to NorthAm Robotics for repairs, ensuring first that Andrew's personality will remain unharmed. Andrew requests that while he is being repaired his face be upgraded to allow him to convey the emotions he feels but cannot fully express. The CEO informs them that upgrade modification will be very expensive—in fact, larger than the sum he earns in an entire year—but the price is well within the Martins' means, comprising a month of Andrew's income from the sale of his carpentry and other woodworks and crafts.

After the wedding of Little Miss (Embeth Davidtz), Andrew realizes there are no more orders for him to run. He eventually asks for his freedom, much to Martin's dismay. He grants the request, but banishes Andrew so he can be "completely" free. As Andrew leaves, Martin comments that he has stopped referring to himself as "one". Andrew builds himself a home at the beach and lives alone. In 2048, Andrew sees Martin one last time on his deathbed. Martin apologizes for banishing him as he silently says his goodbye to Andrew who states it was an honor serving him.

After help from Little Miss' reluctant son Lloyd Charney (Bradley Whitford), Andrew goes on a quest to locate more NDR series robots to discover if others have also developed sentience. After years of failure, he finds Galatea (Kiersten Warren), an NDR robot that has been given feminine attributes and personality. These however are simply aspects of her programming and not something which she developed as with Andrew. Galatea is owned by Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), son of the original NDR robot designer. Rupert works to create a more human look for robots, but is unable to attract funding. Andrew agrees to finance the research and the two join forces to give Andrew artificial human face and hair. He also maintains contact with Little Miss over the years. In 2068, Andrew comes back to greet Little Miss but instead meets Portia Charney (Davidtz), her granddaughter (Lloyd's daughter) who looks exactly like a younger version of Little Miss. Little Miss is now aged as she explains to Andrew that it's a genetic likeness that skipped a generation. In 2070, Andrew comes to the hospital to see Little Miss one last time, he notices the horse he carved for her when she was young. She silently passes away, and Andrew feels the pain of not being able to cry and realizes that every human being he cares for will eventually die.

Over time, Andrew and Rupert begin to study medicine and designs mechanical equivalents of human organs, including a central nervous system, which eventually allows Andrew to acquire tactile sensations. Meanwhile, his friendship with Portia evolves into romance. At first, Portia is uncertain about "investing her emotions in a machine" and almost marries someone else, but Andrew confronts her about her emotions and they eventually engage in a romantic and sexual relationship. Upon realizing that his relationship with Portia would never be socially accepted, Andrew petitions the World Congress to recognize him as human, which would also allow him and Portia to be legally married, but is rejected. The Speaker of the Congress explains that society can tolerate an everlasting machine, but argues that an immortal human would create too much jealousy and anger for him to be with another human being and he is declared a machine from that day on.

In 2120, Portia is physically middle-aged due to Andrew's medical inventions but decides that she doesn't want to have her life forever prolonged by them. Andrew realizes that he wouldn't want to live on without her. He works with his now elderly friend Rupert to introduce blood into his system to cause his brain to decay which will allow him to age; Rupert officially welcomes him to the human condition, as it then becomes unknown when exactly Andrew would die. Around 2150 to 2160, Andrew is now elderly while Portia is physically elderly. Andrew attends the World Congress a second time to petition to be declared a human being while Portia watches for support.

In 2205, Andrew and Portia are even more elderly as they're on their death bed each with a life support machine. Along with Galatea (who is now human-looking and possibly developed self sentience due to the changes that Andrew made on her) as their nurse, they watch as the President of the World Congress announces on television the court's decision: that Andrew is officially recognized as human, and that aside from "Methuselah and other Biblical figures," is the oldest human being in history at the age of two hundred years. The Speaker also validates his marriage with Portia. Andrew dies while listening to the broadcast, and Portia orders Galatea to unplug her machine. The film ends with Portia about to die hand-in-hand with Andrew, as she whispers to him "See you soon."

Cast

Accolades

Awards nominated

Awards received

  • Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Award — Best Special Effects Makeup — Feature

Reception

Bicentennial Man received mixed reviews; the film holds a 37% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 35 out of 93 critics giving it a positive review with an average rating of 4.8 out of 10,[2] with a consensus saying 'Bicentennial Man is ruined by a bad script and ends up being dull and mawkish', while the review aggregator Metacritic gives it a score of 42.[3]

Roger Ebert gave it two out of four stars saying, "Bicentennial Man begins with promise, proceeds in fits and starts, and finally sinks into a cornball drone of greeting-card sentiment. Robin Williams spends the first half of the film encased in a metallic robot suit, and when he emerges, the script turns robotic instead. What a letdown."[4] William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer said the film "Becomes a somber, sentimental and rather profound romantic fantasy that is more true to the spirit of the Golden Age of science-fiction writing than possibly any other movie of the '90s." Todd McCarthy of Variety summed it up as "An ambitious tale handled in a dawdling, sentimental way".

References

  1. ^ a b "Blockbuster Entertainment Award winners". Variety (magazine). May 9, 2000. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  2. ^ Bicentennial Man Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  3. ^ Search Reviews, Articles, People, Trailers and more at Metacritic
  4. ^ Bicentennial Man :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
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