MovieChat Forums > Bicentennial Man (1999) Discussion > Robin Williams and how much this movie h...

Robin Williams and how much this movie helped him make his decision

posted 8 years ago by alicecbr
2 replies | jump to latest

I still miss Robin Williams. In this movie, as I watch it for the 3rd time, he changes the innards of his robot, "I would rather die a man, than live for all eternity as a machine." Did any of the themes from this movie enter into his decision?

We were told he was entering the first stages of Parkinson's Disease. Was he also thinking of his body of work, that would be ironically elongated by his suicide?
For those of us who believe in Death with Dignity, Compassionate Death that will allow us to 'slip these earthly bounds' when we come down with a terminal disease, I can ony say that he jumped ahead of the rest of us.

Perhaps there could have been something invented, just as Robot Andrew invented substitute organs for the human body, to make his latter days pain free and pleasant. Perhaps he couldn't stand the idea of the human being Robin Williams growing more infirm of body not equating with the public persona Robin Williams.

I find it terrible that no one in his life had a tight enough bond with him to make him want to live. We will never know who or if he had discussed this with anyone. Maybe he never escaped being the lonely rich child of a corporate executive.

If I believed in an afterlife, I'd say, "He knows the truth now", but that presupposes a human brain, which rots with death. Or a substitute organ such as Robot Andrew invents in this movies. Fascinating movie. I just hope the script didn't guide his decision to end his own life.

"He who swaps his liberty for the promise of 'security' deserves neither." Ben Franklin

[–] suzanne-lawson1 8 years ago

It would be strange if he let a fictional film influence on if he would live.

[–] pennilayne 7 years ago

I highly doubt it. He had severe depression and unfortunately it's as simple as that.

And when people have that sort of depression, finding people you have "a tight enough bond with" is never going to be enough to make someone want to stay alive, because their pain is excruciating, and it's lonely. You always end up feeling sad and beyond alone, because even the people you are closest to do not understand you, and you stop feeling that close to anyone. It's difficult for people with severe depression to feel a real connection. You start feeling either very sad or numb. You unfortunately either push people away or alienate people whether you want that or not. And it's difficult for others to understand so they alienate themselves.

Either way, their parents, children, wives, husbands, best friends, anyone can never make someone who is suicidally depressed want to stay. Especially once they've made the decision to die. It's tragic but true. It's just never as simple as having a strong enough support system.

So his movies, are probably the last thing to ever influence such a decision. It's not even really a decision, it's all that they feel they can do. It almost feels like it's controlling them, and they are being suffocated by life---- and death is their relief.