Saw the re-make that had George Clooney. Yeah you can forward me spirits interpretation or spirit can send it himself if he wants. Not that it'll make too much sense as I really wasn't paying too much attention. But I did have an idea of what was going on.
Yeah well basically the film centers around psychologist Chris Kelvin's trip to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris where wierd and unexplained phenomena are taking place. Kelvin is sent to find out why communication with the space station has stopped and to make an evaluation as to whether the space program at Solaris should continue.
When Kelvin arrives on the space station he learns that certain crew memebers have suicided, been killed, are missing or are wrapped in their own psychological states which they struggle to make sense of.
Kelvin finally falls asleep for the night and when he wakes up he is shocked to find his wife, who had been deceased for years, there on the space station with him as if conjured out of his psyche. It seems as if Solaris is able to materialise beings from out of the recesses of people's minds on the space station.
The rest of the film is spent with Kelvin trying to come to grips with his failed relationship with his wife, for she had actually suicided years ago on earth after Kelvin made to abandon her after she aborted their baby.
That's probably too brief a plot to come to grips with Tiger Spirit's heavy reply to the film, but here it is anyway for all to appreciate.
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Hey JohnF,
As you can appreciate, this is just one of many ways of looking at it and it would be different for everyone. It might seem like I’ve made stuff up along the way, but it just depends on whose doing the interpreting I guess. Anyway, with much hesitation and trepidation here’s my interpretation.
Solaris deals with many human fears and issues and is merely a reflection of what happens here on earth, so it’s interesting that this film is set in outer space. Maybe the reason for that is that when things are too painful for us to see, sometimes we need to remove ourselves from reality, in order to see what is really going on in our lives. As freaky and mind bending as this film might seem, it perhaps is no different to how we experience reality.
The situations that Solaris confronted Kelvin, Gordon, Snow and Gibarian with were their own fears and issues and they each dealt with these ‘returned beings’ as best they could.
Kelvin deals with unconditional love and his relationship with his wife. When someone passes on, it is for our own selfish reasons that we want them back. But, for whatever reason, they have chosen to move on and so should we. The alternative is to continue to re-run the past and forget to live in the now, because before we know it life can pass us by.
“…And death shall have no dominion.”
Many treat death as final, but death has no power over the feelings for and memories we have of someone. Their spirit lives with us for as long as we remember them and the lessons they had to teach us remain. The stronger the feelings we have for these people and the bigger the lessons we have to learn from them, the longer their memory remains with us.
When we have unresolved issues, we continue to develop and then break similar type relationships until we resolve those issues and finally move on (i.e., we continue to make the same mistakes over and over until we understand why we do so. Or we put ourselves in situations we fear, because we have something to learn from them. Once we resolve the issue, it no longer has any power or hold over us).
Kelvin struggles with the thought that he originally “…remembered her wrong”. He sends her away the first time and immediately wants her back, as he had done before. When she returns the second time, she struggles with who she is and what she is doing there. He doesn’t want to lose her again, but she convinces Gordon to let her go. This leaves the way open for Kelvin to dream Rheva (is that her right name?) back, both having developed greater awareness the next time round. He finally sees and accepts her as she is, even though she may not be who she was before. Is he settling for what he thinks will make him happy; because the question I have is does she now have a soul? And is he one of them or is he still human?
Kelvin and Rheva continue their relationship, through new understanding. That’s what we humans do every day. We reconcile our differences or finish one relationship and start another, hopefully through greater understanding of what went right/wrong with the previous relationship. Or we continue to make the same mistakes, or just cut ourselves off from life, as Kelvin had done, and don’t understand why we are miserable.
Gordon deals with her own power and fear of not being in control and wants to be in control of a situation she doesn’t understand. Does the potential situation she fears really pose the devastating outcomes she believes, or is it her own fear and lack of awareness and trust that she is dealing with?
Snow struggles with himself. From the outset, this guy is an el weirdo. Freaky character. The ‘being’ kills his human self, but can he ever really get away from himself when he’s always there? At times, we all struggle with ourselves, some more than others. We can run away, move away or get away, but wherever we go we’re always there. The soul can never forget.
Snow is a very mysterious character throughout. He’s really interesting and mixed up, all at the same time. What is the context of his existence now that he’s done himself in? Can he dream himself back into existence and will it be the real him?
As freaky as his character is, he says some noteworthy things (I think it was him who said them anyway):
- “Solaris is acting like it knows it’s being observed.” Perhaps what he is dealing with is living up to someone else’s expectations, and perhaps feeling uncomfortable or unsure about who he is, so is unable to just be himself, regardless of who is watching. And perhaps he doesn’t know who he really is; especially if he believes he has to live up to the expectations of others. He obviously didn’t like himself too much if he done himself in. If he was confused and unsure before, how must he be now?
- “Women together on the same team. Things get solved.”
Not sure why he really says this, but because it’s in the film there would be a reason for it. It’s true what he says. Our society has treated women as second class citizens. Life needs balance. Without that balance, life can never really flow. Societies and cultures that have evolved through the exclusion of the involvement and decision-making ability of women, or men for that matter, provide for an unbalanced existence and view of life.
Gibarian struggled with what was happening and commits suicide. According to him, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but maybe now he’s not so sure. Might have to see it again to understand his role better.
Back to Solaris, each time Rheva was dreamed back into existence, she gave Kelvin greater understanding and awareness of how life could be if he changed his memories of her. In other words, she is helping him to see things more clearly and how life can be different if you change your state of mind, awareness and focus.
This sort of ties in with what life is really all about. And some believe the purpose of life is the evolution of the soul, which they believe occurs through many, many different life times and experiences, in order to become whole and complete.
Bringing these people back makes us need to deal with the issues we were confronted with before their departure, or risk going back to how things were before. Something has to give in such cases. So we get to learn, grow and evolve.
The question Solaris brings up for me is, could these ‘beings’ ever really evolve this way, as it is intended for the soul to do through each life time? If these ‘beings’ have a soul then the answer would be yes. Regardless, in these circumstances, they serve a purpose and are helping the evolution of those who bring them back. Even if it is through death, as Snow experienced. For the soul, death is the beginning of new life.
Should occurrences as happen on Solaris be a reality, would they be morally right or wrong? Gibarian said, “There are no answers only choices.” When we understand that we are always in choice, we see how true that statement really is and the answer becomes easier to see. Our soul, so that it can evolve, chooses for us to be here or not and can choose when to return.
If these beings are robot-like, yet become part of human society anyway, then what? Is it humans just hanging on to the past, whether it is good for them and us or not? For these beings, what could the meaning of their existence be and what could life and death mean to them? We can understand why they would be here from a human perspective, but what do they gain from the experience?
It’s that sort of film that the more answers you come up with the more questions you have. Just when you think you have it solved, you see another twist.
