For my first cultural artifact, I chose a
movie called the “Real Steel.” Directed by Shawn Levy, “Real Steel” is about
robot boxing in the near future. The film involves action, drama, and
science-fiction factors to portray a transformation of a formal, immature boxing
champion to grown champion of the robot boxing with his trash-like robot and 11
years old son. As the story develops with the main character, Charlie Kenton
(Hugh Jackman), discovering back the glittering moments by winning the robot
boxing, the director emphasizes the importance of one’s gift and happiness as
the crucial factors of human purpose. The portrayal of the ancient boxing robot
from the trash becoming the champion of the competition signifies one’s
creation and talent in fulfilling his/her purpose of life. Evil, therefore, originates
from anything that hinders people from realizing their vocation in lives. Consumerism
is one of the main interrupter as appeared with bankruptcy and destruction in
Kenton’s personal life. Many owners of the boxing robots are obsessed with consuming
better fighting robots. The main villain named Tak Mashido invests a lot of
finance into Zeus robot to win the robot boxing competitions. However, Zeus is
defeated by the trash robot and Kenton, who fought with their true purposes in
lives. Redemption is found in the relationship between Charlie Kenton and his
son Max Kenton. Not only Charlie had left Max with his mother, but also Charlie
has sold his custody to Max for money. In the final scene, Max forgives and
contributes Charlie to start a new life by encouraging him on his vocation. The
artifact unnecessarily mentions of the Kingdom of God, but it certainly
supports cultural empire to respect old creation and development. The trash
robot succeeding to be the champion of the robot boxing competition clearly
conveys potential of once thrown away stuff.
Real Steel
was a “feel good” movie with dramas, action, and
dynamic moments. The movie, however, fails to convey profound meanings. Would
this kind of movie be able to impact on the viewers or make the audience
ignorant of the worldly concerns?
The movie is set on the environment where technology
has developed to include robots in sports. The film, however, does not focus
its light to the potential detrimental effects of such development in humanity.
How would the director’s single-sided worldviews and perceptions impact our
thoughts? How should we discern on such kind of unclear existence of
worldviews?
Your questions are very good and could result in some interesting insight. In the end, though, I was left with a lot of additional questions. When is this film set (what year)? How did human beings get to the point that it is using robots as stand-ins for fighting sports? What does this say about what it means to be human in the world of the film? And why would the writer and director want to tell this story? Is it mostly an excuse to show off special effects?
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