At the onset, let me clarify that this is not a proper movie review of the movie “Minority Report” in the sense that I won’t talk about the direction, acting, special effects etc. There are hundreds of reviews which have discussed that in detail, but very few which go beyond the surface.
This movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, who as we all know is a gifted director who specializes in paranormal, mysteries, sci-fi and other such genres. It is interesting to note that all Hollywood futuristic movies portray such a dark, bleak future, a future of earth ravaged due to nuclear wars, or a world run by a tyrannical dictators or a world full of crime, habituated by robotic creatures, humanoids, androids etc. The reason for that is that this is the vision of future that is envisioned by powerful studio bosses and directors like Steven Spielberg, who have sold their art to these mercenaries.
Coming back to the movie, it is supposed to take place in the year 2054. Fifty years later, we will be living in a society where future murderers are pre-empted by a group of three human mutants, who have the ability to see the future. Once these Oracles see a crime being committed, the actual crime is averted with the potential murderer being arrested by the department of Pre-crime. Wonderful! This is the essence of the movie – the rest of the story about Special Officer John (Tom Cruise) finding himself in the docks, as the oracles name him as a potential murderer -is just a detail needed to make the movie.
What I feel appalling is that there are people, who don’t mind this kind of future, where every human being is subjected to strict surveillance by the state, so that crime is completely eliminated, a future where personal liberties don’t matter. Remember we live under a constitution that says that it is better that hundred guilty go scot-free, rather than one innocent getting punishment. Whoever inserted that in our constitution was certainly an enlightened fellow and deserves our gratitude! Today we crib about criminals not being punished due to loopholes in our crime-justice system, but fifty years hence we would be looking at the current system with nostalgia, if the future envisioned by the elitists comes to pass.
And no! – this is not just science-fiction crime thriller. It’s already happening. Its Minority Report 2002, at least when it comes to the domain of sole superpower of the world – USA. Think Iraq – Oracle George Bush has already seen the future – a future in which Iraq uses the nuclear weapons against USA and Israel. No further proof is required. All that needs to be done is to avert the future crime that Saddam Hussein will commit. It doesn’t matter that Iraq is complying with all the laws of the UN, it doesn’t even matter that the enforcers of the laws – the UN inspectors haven’t found a single evidence of Iraq building nuclear, biological or chemical weaponry.
If you need proof that this movie and the ongoing attempt to take “pre-emptive” action against Iraq are related, read this report at : https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2282774.stm
According to this report, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, at a press conference in Rome, to promote the Italian release of Minority Report, backed George Bush on Iraq. ’’If Bush, as I believe, has reliable information on the fact that Saddam Hussein is making weapons of mass destruction, I cannot not support the policies of his government, ’’ Spielberg said.
Equally interesting is the report that Steven Spielberg attended the meeting of the secretive Bilderberg group in 1999. (https://global-gts.com/gt00101.htm) For those who don’t know, the Bilderberg conference is held every year secretly, where top politicians, administrators and business leaders come together to formulate one-world-order policies (https://bilderberg.org/)
Since I haven’t seen this movie, I am pasting this very interesting off-beat review - https://steamshovelpress.com/altmedia.html
’Minority Report’: Spielberg’s Psychic Dictatorship
It’s 2054, and it’s bleaker than ever. It’s not only bleak, but it’s ugly.
In ’Minority Report, ’ future murders are ’’seen’’ by ’’pre-cognitives, ’’ three shaved-head human-like mutants in a flotation tank, hooked up electronically so their predictive results come out as lottery balls naming the perpetrators. The Department of Pre-Crime then supposedly averts the murders that are supposed to be committed.
’Minority Report’ is the ultimate in theocratic psychic dictatorship, where the pre-cognitives’ storage facility is actually called ’’The Temple.’’ Viewers are also reminded that, ’’The oracle isn’t where the power is. The priests are where the power is.’’ And the Fed-Thugs all agree -- ’’We’re more like clergy than cops, ’’ they brag -- without a hint of irony. After all ’’the pre-cogs are never wrong’’ -- except sometimes they are. When one of the mutants disagrees with the majority, the dissenting opinion is called a Minority Report.
Based on a Phillip K. Dick short story, director Steven Spielberg’s ’Minority Report’ is set in the ultimate surveillance society, where eye scans are so ubiquitous that billboards actually speak to individuals by name. Minority Report’ is a control freak’s version of the world, where commercials are really personalized based on eye-scan information. The only way out for an illegal alien or an info-rebel? Eye replacement surgery. Even in the Future, it’s a horrific world out there, especially when white-collar criminals are running the Justice Department. You understand, it’s kind of like today - but set in the future.
John Anderton (Tom Cruise), Chief of the Department of Pre-Crime, says, ’’I believe in the system. I’m not going to kill anybody.’’ He believes all right - until he’s set up for a murder, which he claims he won’t commit. Try to prove that you’re not guilty of a crime you haven’t committed yet. Yuck yuck. That’s another subtext of the plot.
But don’t worry -- the Department of Justice in the future will put you away in the ’’Department of Containment, ’’ a long-term storage deep freeze, where people are encapsulated to hibernate forever -- without having to worry about laws, or courts, or judges, or any of that minutiae which the Attorney General finds so bothersome.
So Tom Cruise and his Gang of Future Crime Fighters race to the future crime scene before the murder happens. Evidently, in the future, nobody cares about white-collar crime like fraud, narcotics trafficking, or money laundering. After all, the criminals run the so-called System.
Spielberg’s cinematographer Janusz Kaminski has made ’Minority Report’ one of the ugliest pictures in memory. Desaturated, washed out colors like all the juice got sucked out and there ain’t nothing left. But that must have been a deliberate decision. Bleak production design takes Today’s Nascent Police State into a Nasty Dictatorship Tomorrow. ’Minority Report’ is a horror movie disguised as a science fiction thriller. It exploits subconscious fears. Constant Surveillance. Imprisonment. The Loss of a Child. The Loss of a Civilized Nation. Global Slavery.