Solyaris
(director/producer: Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian, subtitled, based on the novel by Stanislov Lem)
While 2001 leaves you entranced, Solaris is one movie that will leave you perplexed; it’s more than just sci-fi, it’s psychological and mindbending. Many sci-fi films show how some things are always beyond the limits of our perception; but no one does this with such artistic talent than Tarkvosky. Solaris shows just how
subjective our mind is; of how deeply we are rooted on fundamental beliefs and constructs; and just how fragile our mind is when those laws of nature breakdown. It is through this “breakdown” that Solaris makes science kneel before compassion/nature. Solaris makes a strong argument against the destructive divide-and-conquer approach of western science. Man has in the past 200 years done more damage and destruction to the world in all of his 6 million years of history. Tarkovsky shows this destructive nature is due to science’s lack of compassion. Until western science shows compassion it will not appreciate the holistic nature of man and his place on earth, and instead will continue to take this brute-force approach to “solving” his problems. The Solaris team comes across a planet which is mostly a giant, turbulent ocean which is millions upon millions of times advanced and different from man. Scientists, generation after generation are sent to Solaris to investigate it, each time failing to even scratch the surface of understanding it. The ocean is also observing them, and playing with them. What is this ocean? living or non-living? a cosmic conscious of some kind? … or just a window into our own mind?