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A ministry of the ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry) A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry. www.capalert.com/ Entertainment Media Analysis Report A service to His little ones through you in His name by His Word MAR2010.008  (2009), PG-13 [Hard R-13*] (1hr 23min) The #1 Christian entertainment media analysis service on the Internet. We give you OBJECTIVE tools NO ONE ELSE CAN to help YOU make an informed decision for yourself whether a film is fit for your family. Over 1200 analyses for parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more. |
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(While the Scriptural references are certainly not subjective, my commentary may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database Production (US): Touchstone Pictures (presents), Mandeville Films, Road Rebel, Top Shelf Productions, Wintergreen Productions Distribution (US): Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Director(s): Jonathan Mostow Producer(s): Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, David Nicksay Screenplay: Michael Ferris, John D. Brancato Novel: Robert Venditti, Brett Weldele Cinematography/Camera: Oliver Wood Music: Richard Marvin Film Editing: Kevin Stitt Casting: Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins, Michelle Lewitt Production Design: Jeff Mann Art Direction: Tom Reta, Dan Webster Viewed on Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment DVD  This film analysis is sponsored by the generosity of E&HP. SURROGATES (PG-13). A fitting title for the story. But not a fitting rating for the movie. Fourteen years ago Dr. Lionel Canter (James Cromwell) founded Virtual Self Industries (VSI) to manufacture fully synthetic bodies which Canter invented. A human host could operate remotely from his/her "stim" chair at home and experience the world through the senses of the synthetic body called a surrogate or "surrie" for short. Dr. Canter is a fitting part for Cromwell who played Dr. Alfred Manning in i. ROBOT, founder of US Robotics, manufacturer of the NS-5 robots Manning invented. Surrogate research and development went exceedingly well and the world embraced the idea of living through a surrogate. Life was safe and nearly disease-free as the users lived their lives through a surrogate while in the safety of their homes. It is "life, only better." One of the nice things about using a surrogate is when the surrogate is destroyed the user is safe and could easily get a replacement just by going to the corner store. If a surrie needs reconditioning the user could get a loaner during repairs. A good idea ... or was it. Eleven years ago production of surrogates became so high the military and industry started using surrogates. Surrogates were so accepted and production became so voluminous that John and Jane Q. Public were able to afford a surrogate. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the use of surrogates in daily life. Surrogates became the norm for everyday life in every way (including as sex partners, of course, as was sure to not be left out by the filmmaker). Seven years ago over 98% of the world's population was using surrogates in every facet of their daily life. Violent crime dropped 99% as did communicable disease and discrimination. Three years ago an active minority of the population, the Human Coalition started a movement to limit the use of surrogates. They established surrogate-free zones in major cities called Dread Reservations with territorial sovereignty into which no surrogate could legally enter, not even police. The Human Coalition was led by Zaire Powell (Ving Rhames), better know to the coalition as The Prophet. Powell preached that the surrogates are a lie: that the users of surrogates have been sold a lie; that the day is coming when there would be no surrogates. The story opens with Jared, the son of the inventor of the surrogates, Dr. Canter using one of his father's surrogates to transport himself to an evening on the town while the biological Jared relaxed in his dormitory room. Here is where the story begins its direction and focus. Jared, after deceiving his father about where he was going, met with a girl he picked up from a night club and went in an alley to make out with her. Apparently another surrie's host wanted some neckie-neckie, too. Along comes a meatbag -- that is a nickname for a human -- named Miles Strickland (Jack Noseworthy) with a new weapon, an OD (Overload Device) that will kill surries and their human hosts. Strickland killed the Jared surrie by what appeared to be electrocution knowing the OD would kill the surrie's host as well. Killing the surrie with the OD in turn killed its human host by feedback through connectivity with the host. Strickland knew the Jared unit was a surrie and thought it was being used by Dr. Canter. Strickland did not know the surrie was actually being used by Dr. Canter's son. So, knowing the victim surrie's host would be killed by killing the surrie, Strickland killed Jared instead of Dr. Canter. And in the police pursuit of Strickland after Jared's "murder" Strickland murders five "police officer" surries which in turn killed the five host cops. The common thread here is "killing." Boston-based FBI Agents Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell) are faced with finding that cop killer and the OD which, by the way, was made by VSI, the makers of the billions of surrogate units across the planet. This is an intricate plot and story which will not let you check your brain at the door. I am not going to try to write a summary commentary of it beyond what I already have. I have given you the basic story formula with a little detail for connectivity of subplots. I suspect that with the basic story formula and the detailed information in the Findings/Scoring section, the heart of the CAP analysis model (plus the individual Investigation Area content discussions below), our readers are of the intellect to be able to mentally build enough of a feeling for the film to not need to see it to formulate an acceptability quotient yet still not spoil the film shroud you decide to watch it. In a subjective sense Willis seems rather cardboard in this film. I believe anyone, even I, could perform the part as well. And I am not even close to being an actor. In fact, all characters seem to be ... er ... plastic. As plastic as their surries. There was little to no character building to help bond with the characters or get to know them beyond the superficial. That might be explained by the relative shortness of the film, just 83 minutes of actual story time (which does not include the rolling credits and other non-story footage). There simply may not have been enough time to build characters and provide subplots to more deeply intertwine performances and performers. At any rate, it is just an opinion. I am not a filmmaker nor a film critic and have no experience at writing screenplay. Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 While most of the violence involves robots/automatons, the image of decimating the human-like automatons clearly mimics human assault. Except for murder, all instances of humanoid/robot decimation were treated as if they were human since they were personified to human-like status -- the "optics" of robot assault and human assault were the same. Note that "decimate" historically specifies killing one soldier in ten - "deci" - as punishment of the group. My use of "decimate" invokes the contemporary definition of "kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of." The biggest issue with violence in and as entertainment is that it is "catching." It emboldens others to do likewise, become more aggressive and care less about the welfare of others and darkens world outlook (or perspective). That I say it is so does not make it so but that the American Medical Association jointly with three other professional health community agencies plus God Himself say it is so does make it so. [Prov. 16:29, 1 Cor. 15:33 and many others] When are we gonna listen? Impudence/Hate (I) - 44 out of 100 Though atypically low for a PG-13 [Hard R-13] Surrogates presents nine uses of profanity and none of the most foul of the foul words. But nine is nine too many. Each time profanity is spoken by the larger-than-life characters onscreen it emboldens the viewer, typically the young, to do likewise. The difference in choice of words by the early teen moviegoers before and after South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut is only one example of this. While the most foul of the foul words was rarely heard in the crowd before the show on opening night of "South Puke", the vocabulary of the youth after the film seemed to be only one word (and I use the term "word" loosely), the "word" that was spoken by the children characters in the film 131 times throughout the film (in addition to 119 uses of other "words" of the three/four letter word vocabulary). Or at least most of the exiting youth seemed as if they could not speak a single sentence without that word in it. Many of the uses sounded as though they were uttered just so the speaker could use the bad word or prove s/he could say it. The two-syllable sentence expression directed at someone with the most foul of the foul words leading the tiny sentence seemed to be the most popular. Mimicking the content of a film is inarguable. The Fast and the Furious which is about teen street racers is a great example of this fact. Before the show the parking lot was clean and the horizon was peaceful. By the time everybody had left there was probably a couple hundred thousand miles worth of tire rubber on the pavement and tires were screeching and engines making the  sound anywhere from down the street to far off in the distance ... with police sirens sounding off all around. The exceptionally awful consequence of such monkey-see-monkey-do mentality were the ambulance sirens. And, having been and EMT for years, I doubt all the patients in the ambulances were drivers. Each time onscreen performances embolden poor behavior choices such as foul language the one(s) who spoke profanity onscreen not only face(s) the consequences of the sin of cussing (Col. 3:8 and many others), s/he faces the consequences of the sin of emboldening the young who hear him/her to do likewise [Luke 17:2]. Now, the ones who hear it and emulate it must suffer the consequences of the sin of profanity. And so on. It is not good to use profanity at any time, folks. That stuff rolls downhill ... and splatters uphill. Note that the TVG curse-free filter works very well for this DVD. Aside from the profanity there are a few other matters of impudence/arrogance whether by the characters or on the part of the filmmakers: a son's deceit toward his father; punk attire; intimidation; stalking. [Isa. 13:11] Sexual Immorality (S) - 32 out of 100 In terms of sexually immoral behaviors and/or imagery, this film presents numerous examples of dressing to maximize the female form and/or skin exposure and excessive cleavage (it was not robots in the movie that exhibited the human physical attributes). There are instances of making out, an implication of transvestism, statue nudity, a vulgar background song and sexual assault. Remember that the CAP analysis model does not care if there is some attempt by the filmmakers to justify by content any displays of sexually immoral behaviors. If it is on the screen, it is annotated. It is up to you to decide whether any trumped up justification exists. Our lives are to be sexually pure and humble. Such examples in and as entertainment routinely corrupt our innate sexual humility, both short-term and long-term, and lead us into compromising wholesome thresholds. Just as Eve was deceived by the serpent, the viewer, especially the impressionable young, may fall prey to corrupt minds about wholesome sexual standards because of the display of sexually immoral behaviors onscreen. [2 Cor. 11:3, Prov. 30:20, Rev. 21:27] Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 76 out of 100 The only content found that is applicable to this investigation area was the group of surrogates getting "high" on "electric drugs", the "jacking." Whatever the surries felt was sent back to the human user, so this issue was treated as drug consumption and intoxication. Offense to God (O) - 4 out of 100 Twelve times someone used God's name in vain. However, each use was without the four letter expletive. That the uses of His name in vain did not include the four letter expletive does not excuse using His name in vain. [Deut. 5:11] Use of the four letter expletive with His name makes the expression more of an offense to man but little difference to God since He declared any use of His name in vain as sin. That includes the three-syllable sentence with His name trailing it. Murder/Suicide (M) - 52 out of 100 While attempted murders are incorporated into the Wanton Violence/Crime investigation area, here is where all demonstrated murders and suicides are incorporated. Two murders and a suicide. One murder of a human was unseen but was imparted adequately enough to be included in the scoring as is the gunfire murder of the real Jennifer Peters by a surrie and the suicide of Dr. Canter by self poisoning. The "killings" of automatons, though quite graphic at times, were not considered murders but were incorporated as killing in the Wanton Violence/Crime investigation area. However, when the killing of a surrie involved the killing of its human host, the death of the human host was considered murder, e.g., the five police officers murdered by the killing of their surries. A Word about murder -- "thou shalt not" sayeth God. And a word about the suicide -- suicide is murder of the self. [Ex. 20:13] SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. CHAPTER/VERSE ***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry*** As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
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 Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 Impudence/Hate (I) - 44 out of 100 Sexual Immorality (S) - 32 out of 100 Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 76 out of 100 Offense to God (O) - 4 out of 100 Murder/Suicide (M) - 52 out of 100 |
| There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
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