Interstellar : A Tribute to the Best of Sci-Fi

“Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”

With this, Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’, revolves around a vision of what the Earth’s future could be. A team of astronauts is sent to find a new home for mankind as famine, sandstorms and droughts ravage the planet. The storyline focuses on Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, and his journey through space where time slows and extrinsic dimensions come to be. With a captivating plot and undeniably stellar cinematography, ‘Interstellar’ stands as one of the 2000s’ most appreciated works of science fiction. 

Nolan is famous for his ways of provoking thought through visual explorations of alien concepts and ‘Interstellar’ delivered just that. Van Hoytema’s unmatched cinematography won the movie the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects. In addition to the remarkable cinematics, Hans Zimmer’s score left viewers, including myself, awestruck. With ‘Interstellar’, Nolan made it clear to his audience that he knows his cinema. 

The movie is also very well known for its script. “We did not run out of planes and television sets. We ran out of food.” and other such dialogues, reflect upon a potential future for the Earth which powerfully impacted me as a viewer. In addition, specifically Anne Hathaway’s dialogue, “Love is the one thing that transcends time and space”, compliments the story by consummating both the idea of relationships and science that make up ‘Interstellar’. The movie further encompasses the concept of Murphy’s law which states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” with which the director speaks about possibility. With that, I would say the brothers, Jonathon and Christopher Nolan, did a phenomenal job with the script.

This 2014 movie was Nolan’s answer to Kubrick’s ‘2001 : A Space Odyssey‘, which is considered the best science fiction movie to date. Nolan worked with the same idea of the unfathomable nature of our universe and cultivated a masterpiece. Despite being pop science, the movie revolves around astronomical concepts that are still up in the air. Moreover, the use of extensive scientific jargon seemed to dilute the story for some viewers. The director culminated the ideas of wormholes, hidden dimensions and the construct of time into one movie, which overwhelmed many that watched it.

Another drawback of ‘Interstellar’ is its running time which stands at 169 minutes. It’s clear that the director attempted to cram too many ideas into one film. However, critics always seem to give long movies such as this one, a higher rating. I wouldn’t be keen to justify the ratings ‘Interstellar’ received with its running time, but that could quite possibly be the case.

Nonetheless, Christopher Nolan wanted ‘Interstellar’ to be a tribute to Kubrick’s iconic ‘2001 : A Space Odyssey’ and it delivered exactly that. Packing a mesmeric storyline, outstanding visuals and Hans Zimmer’s outstanding score, ‘Interstellar’ rightfully deserved the millions it made.

(this article is cross-posted from symposia)