WALL-E
Directed by Andrew Stanton. Starring Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight and Jeff Garlin. (2008)
WALL-E is a little trash compacting robot working on the earth's surface to clean up the trash so that the earth's inhabitants can return someday. He takes garbage and compacts it into nice little cubes that he neatly stacks into tall towers. After years of work, the landscape has taken on a new look, with towers of trash resembling Mayan ruins. More than a hard worker, WALL-E is a hobbyist and collector, looking for interesting articles that suit his fancy which he brings back to his home base - a very much larger WALL-E trash collector. He has a friend, some sort of cockroach that has survived through the years of devastation and has a special talent for not being crushed.
It's easy to identify with WALL-E. At the end of a long day, he takes off the metal tracks that go on his base wheels similarly to how we take off our shoes upon arriving home. He takes inspiration and comfort from an old video tape of Hello Dolly. Though seemingly happy with his work and his various collections, like the pile of old lighters he has amassed, like most of us he is looking for something else; in this case the love that's on display in his favorite scenes from the Hello Dolly videotape.
One day, a rocket from space lands on earth, leaving a space probe behind and WALL-E's world is turned upside down. He falls in love with the sleek new robot, after initially being terrified, a quite reasonable response since this new robot has the tendency to shoot laser-like beams at anything that moves. Oddly enough while searching through the rubble the day before, WALL-E had come across a growing plant which he moved to a nearby discarded boot. He presents the plant to the new robot, EVA, as a gift, and she snatches it away. EVA has a green patch on her front side that lights up at the sight of the plant and she promptly powers down. But enough re-hashing of the plot. I'm having some questions about the movie.
Misperceptions and Connections
What does it mean that WALL-E loves the movie Hello Dolly? Is this the only videotape that has survived through earth's devastation? Did he find other movies that he didn't care for? Did this movie survive because it was so popular at one time? Should we be squirreling away copies of really good movies, so that the robots of the future have something better to watch? It's interesting to me that of all of the scenes from the movie that we watch WALL-E see, none of them are scenes with Barbara Streisand, the star of the movie. What is that telling us? Is this an echo of the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead where the focus is on the secondary characters, while the scenes with Hamlet take a back seat and are not the focus of our attention? Should we be paying more attention to the secondary characters' actions? Are they the ones who will save us?
WALL-E and his new found love the robot EVA, are certainly second tier characters. WALL-E is toiling away at his assigned task, EVA is carrying out her prime directive, but who is running the show? The captain of the space ship circling earth is no longer in control, the ship has long been on auto-pilot. Some deep dark force is now controlling everything. We are now dependent on the secondary characters, the "rogue robots" like EVA and WALL-E to save us. If not for their heroism, our opportunity to leave the pleasure ship rotating earth will never come.
I have some more questions about the Hello Dolly tape. Okay the music is memorable, and WALL-E records it for us. It provides an inspirational soundtrack to get us through the tough times. WALL-E is inspirational as he uses that music to fuel his heroism and toughness. But I can't help wondering, what if WALL-E had been able to see the original Broadway production of Hello Dolly starring Carol Channing? How would that have affected him? What if he had been able to find videotapes of Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris or perhaps even A Star is Born starring Judy Garland? And what does it mean that a VCR survived through all of this and not one DVD player? Are we to assume that our new less expensive technology just doesn't hold up as well. Those VCR players were made of higher quality?
I also have one big problem with the film. We learn that they have been sending probes off from the space ship for the last seven hundred years. So how come this is the first time that WALL-E has seen one? Is it possible that he has been working away for all of these many years while the probes have been deposited all around the planet and they finally got to this square of earth that WALL-E has been working on? No, I just can't believe that. I think this has got to be one of those examples of perceivable space. This something has been there for you all of this time, and finally you are ready to see it. After watching so many scenes of Hello Dolly, it's finally this one day that you can notice the probe. I'm certain if we could watch earlier scenes of WALL-E working on the planet, there would have been many times when a spaceship with probes had landed, but he was so busy, bending down to pick up a cigarette lighter and put it in his "trash can of treasures", that the space ship came and left outside of his view.
It's a parallel to WALL-E's relationship to his collection of lighters. For years, he has been collecting them. It seems that he likes their nice shiny boxiness. When he shows one to EVA, who opens the lid and fires up the lighter, it's as if for the first time he recognizes what these lighters can really do. Those lighters had been sitting there for all of this time, but he never started one up, never knew them. He loved them, but he had no idea of what they really could do. Ah, how many of us feel that way about our own partners, they have no idea of the secret spark inside of us. EVA brings new perceptions about the lighters' true essence to WALL-E. This brings them closer together. The lighter is used throughout the movie, to remind them of their love as they continue to face difficult circumstances -- lighting the lighter sparks them to further heroics and increases their courage.
I'm also interested in the part of the movie where WALL-E hangs on to the rocket ship that's returning to the rotating space ship. As the space ship lands on the larger space craft, we can see that EVA is just one of many robots that look just the same. What quality does she have that sets her apart? How is WALL-E able to chase her through the space ship and make sure that he is chasing the one that he loves? Well you might say, "it's obvious, she's the one with the little plant icon on her chest that is glowing green." Well yes of course, but once the plant is removed, how does he still know? After their adventure which appears to lead to a happy life on the planet, how will he continue to know? Won't there be other probe robots from the ship around? Or has only the collection of rogue robots joined them on earth?
I think it was interesting near the end of the movie when WALL-E was repaired with a bunch of new parts, including a new circuit board, that he appeared to have lost his memory and his personality. He was an inanimate object for a moment, something we did not know and who did not know us. What happened, what spark occurred to bring him back to life? How did he remember who he was and start enjoying the fact that he was back on earth with the robot that he loved and his friend the cockroach-like creature?
As humans ourselves, when we find our circuit boards burned to disfunctionality, what do we do to re-integrate ourselves on reboot once the sun shines long enough on us and power is re-applied?
The Subversiveness of WALL-E
The humans who we meet aboard the circling spaceship can be easily compared to the moviegoers in a modern theatre. Yes, if you are sitting in one of the latest theatres in a very comfortable lounge-type chair with a built in cup holder perhaps swilling down a purchase from the snack bar, you can seem a lot like those humans, with the movie theatre screen itself substituting for the little video screens that are permanently floating just a few inches away from each human's eyes, reining in their line of sight, and drawing their attention to whatever whoever is control of the video wishes them to see -- daily announcements from the captain, or automatic alerts to troublesome robots in the area. One could say the the humans suffer from the same perceivable space problem. After falling off their hovering couches and being set free from their video screens, a pair of humans dip their toes in the centrally located swimming pool and experience real enjoyment for the first time, "I didn't know there was a pool', they say.
The movie argues against monolithic centrality of any type. When the earth is controlled by the Buy 'N Large corporation it suffers and dies. The space ship is controlled by the auto pilot. All of the individual humans have given up their individuality, their souls, their uniqueness, in exchange for a life of comfort and boredom on the hovering couches.
It's only when the rogue-robots show their spirit and fight against the monolithic power of oneness that change occurs. They are tracked down by the robots that are still in line who attempt to destroy them. It's ironic that the robots that we have created to do our work for us and have enabled us to be removed from our humanity are the ones that are able to bring us back. It's the rouge robots who save the day.
This has got to be seen as more than just a love story between some cute robots, but an embrace of the independent voices that are still out here. The movie makers who don't have the budget of a Hello Dolly. The writers and thinkers who don't get broadcast on the daily small screen that permanently rides just a few inches away from our noses. The workers for peace and justice who are trying to alert us to messages that get covered up, just as the rogue robots fight for the truth. For once WALL-E has his eyes open and he is powered by love for a fellow robot, not even the strength of the monolith can stop him. But it is only with the assistance of his fellow robots along with his friend the cockroach that WALL-E is able to survive and enjoy the peace and happiness that follows.
Let's open our eyes, and get off those hovering couches! At least for a few hours a day. I understand how painful it can be to try to be conscious for a longer period of time. For the strain of consciousness exhausts us all.
Yes, this is a very fascinating movie which has left me with many topics to ponder. Yes today, I, Buddy the Gourd am deep in thought and yes I can say, I really liked this movie.