When those we love pass away, we all grieve differently. Some choose to lament over these people while some completely ignore the grieving process and find some way to occupy their time to get over their loved one's death. The film, "Be Right Back," plays on this notion of death with the use of technology, which at this point in time is well enhanced beyond the present day. The technology in the film is used to help the main character, Martha, grieve over the loss of her husband, Ash, after he passes away on the road without Martha knowing until later. She eventually decides to run a program that scans Ash's social media posts and text messages that then uses all of the data it has collected to send messages to Martha in the same manner that Ash would have naturally said to her himself. Once Martha becomes obsessed with the program, she takes the next step and buys a robot that takes on the looks of Ash. Eventually after getting to live with robot Ash, she realizes that it is not the same as the real Ash and tries to get rid of it through having the robot kill itself. After the failed attempt of the robot's suicide, we later discover that the robot Ash is living in the attic of her house, which most likely means that she is not fully capable to living without Ash, even if it is not really him. While the thought of having a loved one be brought back sounds like the most ideal way to grieve over the loss of them, from the evidence shown in "Be Right Back," this is not what it all cracks up to be. From the film, we see the robot Ash not knowing how to react to many moments, such as not knowing how to react when Martha gets angry at it and shoves it and when Martha asks it to jump off the cliff and it does not resist her request. Martha's emotions also play a big role in the use of this technology. Her feelings for Ash make her almost addicted to these types of technology which eventually almost consume her life as she disregards her friends for this "new" Ash to cope with the loss. Eventually her emotions lead her to never be able to let the robot leave her as she still wants some reminder of Ash, which also gets in the way of raising her daughter who knows about Ash in the attic.
Technology is something that continues to be improved on everyday. Eventually, we may be able to obtain the technology that is seen in the film, which would be a breakthrough in society. It is up to the people of today to decide how to use this technology in order to benefit themselves. While this technology may be seen as a good thing, as we saw in the film, it can lead to dangerous consequences.
3 comments:
I like that your post included a thorough summary of the film. I didn't think to do this in my own post and I think it was very beneficial to readers that you had the information they needed to remember in your post. I think it's very interesting that you use the pronoun "it" when referring to Ash 2, instead of "him" because all of the posts I've read on here so far (including my own) use the "he/him" pronouns, and I believe that's how we referred to Ash 2 in class. I think that reading "it" in your post helped to put into perspective for me that Ash 2 ISN'T Ash.
Philip,
The recognition of Martha's dismissal of support from her friends makes this article unique. Many argue that the technology was the sole disruption of Martha's grieving process. While this is true, her intentional isolation added to her detrimental situation. In turn, her personal, singular relationship with Ash 2 allowed her to meticulously critique his flaws, bringing a greater understanding of his contrasting personality.
Hey Philip,
I love the points you make about technology and the improvements, however, I think that somethings could be taken a look at a little differently, or the way that I saw them were differently. For example, I didn't think that this new technology particularly "helped" Martha. I know I make a similar statement in my post, but I realize now that these gadgets and advances were actually hindering her from moving on and coping with the loss of her husband.
I also don't think that the programs made a "natural" reaction of what the real Ash would have said or how he would have reacted. Like it may seem very similar to the real thing, but progressively we see those differences, like in the picture/childhood flashback scene. Those things are the only two I really had a different view on, but I love the ideas.
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