Most movies are just not very good. Lots of money goes into turning out boring repetitive garbage. You watch it and then dispose of it and make room for the next thing. There are some who do more, but the more you do, the greater the risk. Most filmmakers are not given the freedom to take really big risks, but someone who has been given the opportunity to take the big risk is Christopher Nolan. Interstellar is $165,000,000 gamble shooting for the moon. Actually Nolan is shooting for something way past the moon. He wants to take us to another galaxy. There is so much speculative science in this film that it is mind-boggling. The cutting edge of real science is, frankly, getting crazier and crazier. The average person really has no idea how crazy, but Interstellar is going to try to show us just how crazy. The true nature of some of the elements of the theory of relativity and other related theories is that they defy all logic.
One of the most important things in Interstellar is its attempts to deal with some of the properties of time. The laws of physics tell us time acts differently in different situations. In this movie time rules everything in people’s lives, but the main character is given the power to do something with time that most of us don’t even imagine. It’s important to know some of these situations are described in actual scientific theory. In fact, real science is getting closer and closer to God all the time. Most people who don’t believe in God don’t expect science to contradict that way of thinking. Interstellar doesn’t talk about God, but it comes close to doing something similar. It is science’s contention to state statistically there are millions of planets with intelligent life out there. Some of those intelligence forces will seem like God to us. This is simple science, but people have such a wide range of beliefs that no one will ever agree on what is the truth. The reason we don’t agree is because mankind is just not smart enough to have real answers.
Interstellar takes us through a wormhole first and then a black hole. No human being has ever encountered either. No human being has made it farther than the only moon of the planet Earth. Our knowledge is just way too limited, but real scientists are able to speculate on all sorts of seemingly impossible possibilities.
Earth is in great peril at the end of the 21st century due to massive dust bowls and an unidentified blight. The only chance is to start over somewhere else off the surface of our planet. Most people don’t realize how bad things are, but Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former astronaut who is recruited by a secretly reformed NASA. He doesn’t want to leave on what may be a very long journey into the unknown, but his young daughter is devastated. I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot, but I will say it takes nearly three hours for all the plot points to be revealed. It might be helpful to know that Nolan’s goal was to deal with many of the same themes as 2001: A Space Odyssey but expand on them in light of new knowledge. It is suggested that some aliens have powers we can’t even imagine. It is suggested you can walk down a corridor of time and visit any point at will. Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass where anything is possible.
The movie is long, and some of the dialog is garbled and overpowered by Hans Zimmer’s score, but that adds to the disorientation and mystery. There is no doubt a large part of the audience will walk out dazed and confused and mystified. For those interested, it will definitely benefit from multiple viewings. McConaughey has continued his remarkable transformation as an actor, but he is ably supported by a roster of major stars including Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn and others.
Scientists say that the human race is at the lowest rung of intellectual development and that there is a hierarchy of advancement that we should aspire to. This is science, not religion. Interstellar is suggesting that love is one of the great unexplored powers science has not truly understood. The ideas that are being explored might seem ridiculous to some but show a connection between science and religion. I have an open mind and am ready to accept these ideas. Those who are not ready can stay behind on a dying Earth.
