BICENTENNIAL MEN

Film Review by:

Leonor Sales Carona

10A4; N:2
 Bicentennial Men
Can you imagine if robots had intelligence and conscience and could feel emotions just
like us?! Then I advise you to watch “Bicentennial Men”. This movie is suitable to
watch with friends and family as it is quite funny and moving containing one scene and
another of a totally unexpected romance. This film was directed by Chris Columbus and
the main actors who brought this story to life are: Robin Williams with the main role of
android servant Andrew; Sam Neil who played the role of Martin its first owner;
Embeth Davidtz who played different characters starting with “Little Miss” or Amanda
Martin throughout her life and Portia daughter of Amanda; and last but not least Wendy
Crewson played the role of Andrew's first owner Rachel.
Giving a brief idea of this film Andrew is an android who arrives at the Martin family
home with the aim of responding to the needs of each one of the family. Through living
with this family Andrew proves not to be an ordinary android as he develops the ability
to learn, feel emotions and reason. Upon realizing his abilities, Andrew undergoes
several transformations to prove to himself, Portia, with whom he felt deeply in love,
and to everyone else that he was capable of becoming a human being. Andrew is only
considered a human being on the second attempt at trial, but it turns out to be too late as
he dies along with Portia who ended up being his girlfriend to show that Andrew was a
human.
One of my favourite scenes is when Andrew arrives at Martin’s home and his
interaction with the family which is quite comical because he attributed a new reality to
this family that was in the process of adapting in his presence and the sound effects
were in accordance with this atmosphere of confusion. Another scene that I enjoyed is
when Andrew falls in love with Portia and they try to create a normal life and the sets
became simple and romantic which contrasts with the other general scenarios that
illustrate the expectation of an extremely evolved future in whitch there are robots that
do everything for humans and where we can even have flying cars, and that was a detail
I thougth was very interesting.
On the negative aspects I don't have much to say except for the ending, which made me
very sad. I hoped that Andrew and Portia would get married and that Andrew would
have been considered a human much earlier.
In short, I liked the movie I think it's a great movie to watch as a family because it's
funny and dramatic. The film also explores important concepts such as slavery,
prejudice, maturity, intellectual freedom, love, sex, mortality and eternal life. In
conclusion I would consider Andrew as human because like us he has the ability to feel
emotions, learn and reason so why wouldn’t we consider him human?!