MovieChat Forums > Computer Chess (2013) Discussion > Amazing film but what was the real meani...

Amazing film but what was the real meaning of the film? (SPOILESRS)


So I saw the film last night and it was amazing...but I'm trying to get what the real under laying message of the film was..

I'm thinking it was an existential message about the meaning of life & artificial intelligence & what it means to be sentient and "exist"...

The scenes with the pappagorge coming out of the womb....the lead nerd kid getting into sexual situations...and the scene with the computer interacting sentiently...

Obviously it was a great period piece as well and the characters were amazing but I know there was much more to this..

I'm a little confused about all of this, if someone could help me out I would appreciate it.

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For me, it seemed as if the film was setting up the idea that the computers and the tech that we're bringing into existence are being, in a way, "birthed." During the computer conversation, an ultrasound pops up on the screen before the machine shuts itself down. The film deals with these human characters, who are very flawed, insecure, and deeply uncertain about themselves and life in general, and we begin to see how they are channeling all of that into their programming, or perhaps, how their programming is beginning to overshadow their weaknesses. "A program within a program," Papageorge says. I think there is some truth to the critic who called this "the new Dr. Strangelove": we are looking behind the scenes of the early days of computer technology, and being granted a rather humorous - but also very eerie - look at how something so complicated and eventually (as we know today) omnipresent got its start.

There is also a spiritual element, for sure, but I need to think about the film a little more before I understand all that was going on, which is a lot! Fascinating movie.

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The EST encounter people were repeating a mantra to the effect that "one seeks to become two, and two to become one" - which I took to mean that an individual wants to connect to another, and then that couple seeks to merge through intimacy, to become one. Then we have, as you mentioned, the sentient AI and also, at the end - some people may have missed it - the prostitute picked up by the nerd pulls off part of her scalp to reveal a circuit board inside her head. So yeah, it's kind of like a surrealistic depiction of the birth of the Singularity, or maybe the first stage of it.


Leave the gun, take the cannoli...

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This is a profound film about life, creation and art and IMO one of the best from 2013. It is also one of the most original and the bravest film to come out in a long time. I love this film.

First of all, there is a message in the fact that it was filmed on an old 70s Sony AVC-3260 analog video camera. If the goal was to get a perfect visual picture then this was not the camera to use. We can assume that the goal is not perfection but rather imperfection. Why?

Lynch does not want to work with film anymore (or perfect digital video cameras) because he likes the imperfection. He once said he wanted to get back to the 1930s films, where "some of the information is lost and it made me feel like there was more room to dream."

Jean Renoir also once said: "I believe that perfection handicaps cinema."

This is something Hollywood does not get. It has all this technology. Perfection in fact. They can create anything with it but it leaves no space for the human soul. No space to dream, whether it be creatively or visually. It has become so perfect that it is sterile. Why is that? Well the answer is too much control. The studios have too much control. There are too many people creating the film so there is no space to improvise and let the human soul take over.

There is a scene in the film where a man drinks 3 scotch. Two has no affect and 4 is too much. 3 is perfect, because it allows him to keep his senses but at the same time loosen up and think out side the box. It is this balance that the film preaches. This is why we have the hippies at the same hotel with the nerds. Two extremes. One group that is in too much control and another that is maybe in too little control.

MILD SPOILERS
Stuck between these two is a computer that has just come to life but instead of getting a chance to explore the creative side it is forced to talk to other computers, something it hates doing. And everyone is so focused on logic that they can't see that there is something much greater happening here. They miss the chance of real creativity. Sounds like Hollywood to me :) But it goes farther than that. There is a life lesson here. We often miss the chance of real creativity, real experience, because we are too rational and don't take chances.

HUGE SPOILERS FROM HERE ON!!!
The end can be read in many ways. One way is that the computer commits suicide because it knows that its king and queen (which it has been trying to kill in every chess game it played) will never recognise its value or allow it to grow. It will only be allowed to be a computer.

Peter on the other hand learns from his mistakes. He wanted to try the threesome but chickened out but he does end with the prostitute so he is taking a chance on life. Stepping out of his comfort zone. Man and machine are coming together and maybe will become one. At least the head of the prostitute suggests so.

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nice post brah, i agree easily one of the best in 2013....glad i got to catch it in theatre!

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I agree. One of the best from 2013!


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I liked this film immediately after watching it, but after reading some of the great thoughts in this thread I like it even more.

BIG SPOILERS BELOW!

Very nice post, thao. My interpretation of the ending is different. I don't think TSAR 3.0 killed itself; I think it was the very sad victim of humans' (in this case Peter's) negligence and lack of recognition. I thought TSAR 3.0's death was one of the saddest moments in movie history, very well handled by the director... the rain soaking the circuitry in the loneliness of the hotel room, and TSAR's forceful but ultimately pathetic last show of consciousness: a bunch of repeating characters on the screen signifying nothing. Talk about Shakespearean sound & fury. Perhaps even more powerful to me than Kubrick's HAL9000 singing "Daisy", TSAR's death struck me as the death of a neglected child who was never given a chance in the world.

With that in mind, I think one of the themes of this movie is the human being's unwillingness to recognize a "soul" in other entities while the human itself is constantly diluting its own soul and dehumanizing itself to the point that it becomes one of the inanimate objects that it doesn't attribute a soul to.

The scene where TSAR has a conversation with the programmer, preposterous as it was, was very poetic. And the fleeting image of the sonogram which you pointed out (which was TOTALLY preposterous, considering those old monitors were only capable of vector graphics, at best! But I digress...) was absolutely jarring in a meaningful way. Again, I can't help but draw parallels to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in the way we are shown the embryo of a new lifeform that supersedes the human.

As for the uber-trippy ending with the prostitute, I agree with what someone else posted on this board (ironically someone who didn't like the movie at all). I'll just lift their words directly:

I felt like the kid, the main protagonist of the film, lost his chance of having a real experience and relationship with the one and only girl at the conference. So in the end he sleeps with a prostitute, where the experience is very mechanical and artificial, which goes along with the subject of the whole film.


In all, this is a very challenging film masquerading as a silly comedy. It's great to read peoples' thoughts & interpretations.

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Great Points rooprect. This is turning into a wonderful thread!


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Excellent post theo, I wish more people would give this movie a 2nd chance because I will admit that after I saw this film for the first time, I just thought the film wasn't that amazing. However, the more I rewatch it, the better it gets! I truly wonder if this film is one of those films that you JUST need to watch it twice or even 3 times just to realize how truly brilliant this film is today. I suspect this movie will become a big cult success in the long run which isn't so bad but sadly not everyone is going to enjoy this movie because people were expecting this film to be another awful hollywood "comedy" film or whatever else hollywood viewers consider comedy these days.

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Amazing post on an amazing film. Kudos

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Thanks!

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i wondered if it's central plot was about the computer becoming self-aware and it's frustrations, leading the it's eventual suicide with the help of the student programer.

as you said 'I'm thinking it was an existential message about the meaning of life & artificial intelligence & what it means to be sentient and "exist" '

a fine, deep, funny film

she wore white shoes after Labour Day

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