"Solaris" 1972; 2002
by Andrei Tarkovsky
95 minutes (2002)

The original version of "Solaris" was a film created in
the state-capitalist Soviet Union. It appears that
the Amerikkkan remake attempted to be more of a
Tarkovsky for the masses by paring down the
photography, reducing 100-fold the possible
interpretations of the film and going so far
as to have the characters spell out what is happening
to them. We give both versions of the film a
mild endorsement.

Even so, we suspect that the reception is turning out to be a bitter
disappointment to all involved. The Associated Press and others talked
about the film because George Clooney appeared in the film with his butt
naked.(1)

Clooney himself said, "I find it funny because
we're trying to talk about things on a much
grander scale, with a story that contains
questions about the cosmos and it'll come down to
a 30-second sound bite where I say, 'Yeah, I
worked out'."(2)

Shawn Levy reviewing "Solaris" for the Oregonian
found a way to describe the experience that is
"Solaris." "Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's
three-hour 1972 film of Polish science-fiction
master Stanislaw Lem's novel 'Solaris' is a great
work of art but forbidding in the way of 'Moby-
Dick,' 'Der Ring des Nibelungen,' or 'Guernica':
huge, brooding, difficult and austere, for all its
undeniable beauty and allure."(3)

In the original version, a womyn character appears
on a space station filled with men scientists. She
is some kind of alien life form created from the
thoughts of one of the space station inhabitants,
and although there were also male alien life forms,
she was the only one of the aliens who had character development
in the film. The fact that she did not exist independently
of her husband's imagination introduced the womyn question
in a tangential way. The fact that she literally died at the beginning
when he left her side for even a moment and the fact that
she had no "career" other than to exist as his
projection, may have struck a nerve.

In most regards "Solaris" is pondering philosophy
and the possibility of truly alien life forms beyond
our current ability to understand. In "Solaris" particular
life forms take shape in response to the psychological
preoccupations of the explorers who visit Solaris in deep space.
One thinks of a baby who died; others think about their brother,
their young sons and the main character thinks about his
wife who committed suicide and how he wishes he could
have prevented that suicide.

As other science fiction movies have raised the question,
humyns have found themselves violated by outside access
to their innermost thoughts. Recently, mental access by
an alien species intertwined with rape in "Star Trek: Nemesis."
The reaction in Solaris to the "violation" of the innermost
mind is initially similar. Chris Kelvin goes so far as to
jettison his living memory of his wife in a space pod
as mere galactic debris. When she returns, Kelvin overcomes
initial shock to consider another view.

In the Amerikkkan remake, one scientist finally does make a break
from the space station to report back to earth, thus leaving her
psychological difficulties behind. She obviously continued to
feel violated by the alien life form to the very end and said
she wanted the humyn species to "win," which is why she decided
to return to Earth to explain what was happening while others on the
station all felt compelled to understand what was happening scientifically
and persynally before returning.

Yet in both versions of the film, the main character Chris Kelvin decides
that in fact it does not matter whether or not these alien life forms are
"humyn" or not: they deserve every consideration and protection. The
animal rights organizations like PETA may find themselves agreeing. In the
2002 version, the scientists determine exactly how these life forms are
constructed to the extent that they can make them disappear through their
own manipulations of physics. Nonetheless, for Chris Kelvin, understanding
the composition of these life forms did not answer the question of whether
or not these life forms deserved any less attention than humyn ones and it
threw into question the nature of humyn existence in the first place.

Kelvin decides to cross to the other side to the extent that he does not
care what it takes to be with the life form that appears to be his
late wife. In the Amerikkkan remake, there is one interpretation
where he worried on Earth that his memory of his wife
and the resulting life form was inauthentic--whatever
that means--but in another and final
interpretation, he fails to return home to Earth despite the
fact that it appears one alien life form killed one of his colleagues
just minutes before he made the decision to join Solaris instead of
leaving it.

The remake of "Solaris" received much advance
media hype and although the first 90% was watered down so
as to make a discernible plot and even though the
remake deviated from the original to have a sugar-coated
ending palatable to most family-oriented Christians, we suspect
the reaction of one Northampton high school student
was typical: "But "Solaris" is the first to leave
me with a headache from trying to figure out the
confusing plot and unclear ending."(4)

Clooney says this was his most difficult role
as an actor, and although the
current reviewer saw the original long ago, s/he never wrote a
review because of its imponderables until today.
Some reviewers attempted to blame Clooney for the
failure of the film, but we rather think the choice of
Clooney and especially the initial scenes was a conscious
choice to choose a man with whom the public becomes
comfortable with easily. The reason for that is that the
rest of the message in "Solaris" was rightly
judged as too threatening and disturbing to sell well.
The public has accepted war and deaths by the
thousands in their TV and movies, as part of life, but the notion that
common religions or views of death might be completely
off the mark goes too far to sell easily. To blame that on
Clooney is unjust.

Because "Solaris" did not have enough easy sex or gratuitous violence,
the public does not find it entertaining. What sex and violence
there was in the film was a projection of each
space explorer's mind and that greatly encumbered
ready enjoyment. Released November 27th,
as of December 13th, revenues were only $14.6 million after
a production cost of $47 million, and revenues and theaters
playing "Solaris" were falling off fast.(5) For this
reason alone--the fact that "Solaris" has no quick forms of
entertainment--we communists should go easy on the "Solaris"
producers of the world. They are trying to bridge the gap
between the intellectual world and the popular entertainment
world, when in most cases, Hollywood is making more inroads in
school than vice-versa.

Some may consider "Solaris" a diversion from the class struggle
and others may think it raises abstract notions of humynism
that also smack of bourgeois ideology. Others may find in "Star
Trek"-like dealings with alien species an attempt to handle racial
and national conflicts on our own planet. In any case, this sort
of film deserves our support until we have learned how to better
handle the contradiction involved in entertaining the public
without gratuitous violence.

Notes:
1. Associated Press November 26 2002.
2. Ibid.
3. http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment
4. http://www.gazettenet.com/12142002/movies/2747.htm
5. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2002/SOLAR.html