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| Bicentennial Man, the Movie 1999 |
This story was written by Isaac Asimov, on of my favourite writers, and it's a novel that I fully recomend because of all the social, ethic and human implications that has. The idea is about a man that can live 200 years...
The story was written during the 200th aniversary of the independence of the United States. During this time a lot of writers were asked to write about this. The concept was to write about a man that lives 200 years in allusion to the years that the U.S have been through this world. Isaac Asimov took the story to another level and created this special plot.
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| Isaac Asimov |
Asimov talks about a robot that lives 200 years. During this process he receives a lot of improvements that makes him look more human and the whole plot is about his strong desire and will to be human and how the humankind can't accept "something" that the society doesn't understand as part of us. We can learn from this kind of stories that can be easily adapted to many situations in life or history.
The book was adapted to movies and Robin Williams did the job of the Robot. Were can see his particular style in the form of a character with oil and metal as blood and skin. A lot of people will not agree that this movie is not accurate as the original story but to be honest there is no story that can be perfectly adapted to a movie just because they interact with the people in different ways and we are not here to talk about this.
Today according to the most recent news it seems that the actor Robin Williams has passed away. I am not going to talk about the details of his death, this is a task for the local and global media. I would like to say something more about the man and work behind that name.
For me as many of us, Robin Williams was an actor that marked my childhood. I remember watching his first movie, Hook, in a movie theater in Mexico with my parents. Everybody knows the story of Peter Pan and that was the idea that I had when I wanted to watch the movie. The result was something that I didn't expected. Peter Pan was old and he was not able to remember his friends and what was making him so powerfull. This particular perspective about the story opened my eyes to the posibility that there are no happy stories if we just forget the essence of what we are and what makes us happy. The story was the same but told from another point of view. This was one of the first lessons that I learned through the work of Robin Williams and his particular way of doing it. He made me think for the first time in other possibilities and It became right away in one of my favourite actors.
It's hard to explain why he was so unique. You just need to watch some of his movies to get caught by his own style and charisma. The way he act his role and the message he transmit plus his shy smile that puts to all his movies his particular mark that he was only possible to make. Also another thing that I find just awesome about this actor is that in his movies he always delivers a message that makes you think about the way we are and he is able to deliver this message while he makes you laugh. I learned that the best way to transmit an idea is with the power of making someone laugh, having empathy and showing how much you care.
A lot of movies that I just simply love and I can watch 100 times are there to last forever. The man that was in charge to give life to this characters is gone but I would like to remember his work that will last as much as the technology allow us to remember and as long as we want, at the end I am pretty sure that Robin Williams will live for more than 200 years and will show us that the concept of the Bicentennial Man is not about living 200 years but is about being remembered for more than 200 years.
I'll just leave some of his awesome movies that I recomend to watch:
- Awakenings, 1990
- Hook, 1991
- Aladdin, 1992
- Mrs. Doubtfire, 1993
- Jumanji, 1995
- Flubber, 1997
- Patch Adams, 1998
- What Dreams May Come, 1998
- Bicentennial Man, 1999
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence, 2001
- One Hour Photo, 2002
- Robots, 2005
Rest in peace Mr. Robin Williams and thanks for making me laugh, cry, feel sad, think and reflect about so many topics in life through your work.
Luis O
