Comments on: REVIEW – Moon (2009)

By: The Hundred Thousand Linkdoms « Torque Control

The Hundred Thousand Linkdoms « Torque Control — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:50:53 +0000

[...] McCalmont on Moon, and at VideoVista on John From Cincinati, of which you may remember I was rather [...]

By: Phoenix « Everything Is Nice

Phoenix « Everything Is Nice — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:05:49 +0000

[...] I saw Moon last night which I won’t be reviewing but having been thinking about. It has the courage to do something very different to most science fiction cinema but unfortunately it doens’t have the courage to follow its convictions through. So while it is a welcome change it is not the great film that a lot of us hoped for. I have some further thoughts over on Jonathan’s post. [...]

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:22:05 +0000

You are right that the chatter is inconclusive but I certainly read it as Sam2 being successful. I take the”insane or immigrant” line to be a joke, a pretty crass one to end such a film actually.

Sam1 doesn’t cremate himself because he can use his death to serve some purpose (save the life of Sam3). He still essentially just lies down and dies.

It fits with your reading of them (the Sams) being interchangeable cogs in the machine. They start off shiny and new like Sam2 and are eventually worn down and degraded like Sam1. Sam1 doesn’t have any agency of his own, he mocks Sam2 for hunting for the secret room, he just wants to water his plants.

By: Jonathan M

Jonathan M — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:39:41 +0000

I take your point on Sam2. I think my view of that was jaundiced by the radio chatter at the end suggesting that while his arrival and decision to spill the beans might well have caused hearings, the corporate media were against him from the beginning suggesting that nothing would change.

I’m not sure about the previous Sams just wanting it all to end. The film drives home the idea that there is no psychological difference between the Sams other than the passage of time. Sam1 is in a similar situation to the previous Sams but he acts because he knows the truth. Had any of the previous Sams known the truth I think the implication is that they would have tried to do something too. Sam1 doesn’t cremate himself. He keeps going until the end.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:08:48 +0000

I would also quibble with: “They all have varying degrees of facial hair and they all appear proud of what they have accomplished and are grateful to the company for having allowed them the opportunity.” They all seem to be suffering from severe radiation sickness (just like Sam1) and they only thing they seem grateful for is the chance to lay down. I’m not sure it would make much difference to them if they knew the cryogenic box was actually a crematorium.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:05:17 +0000

Moon is all the more powerful a work of science fiction for its refusal to pay lip service to this most palliative of formulae.

Well, not exactly. In the third act Sam2 becomes very much the traditional Gernsbackian science fiction hero: inquisitive, resourceful, competent. He solves the puzzle, engineers his own escape, sets up the answers for Sam3 and then spills the beans about the company. This is the biggest fantasy of agency there is; one good man can bring down the evil corporate through the righteous power of the truth.

This rather undermines what has gone before.