The Creator (Endurance), the new film by Gareth Edwards, is an epic science fiction epic that, broadly speaking, explores the consequences of the coexistence of the human race with machines controlled by artificial intelligence. However, the issue of technological advances is only the basis of production.
In reality, the project has many more layers to peel off and find new interpretations on other issues. Additionally, his use of futuristic imagery is also key to the story.
With this in mind, the director sought for his film to evoke other audiovisual works with a similar thematic richness, for example, the saga Star Wars. This series of films, in which Edwards had the opportunity to collaborate by directing the spin-off RogueOne, attracted the director for its vast mythology and retrofuturist aesthetics. In a promotional video that talks about the inspirations for The Creatorhe said the following:
“I think what makes Star Wars so interesting from a world-building point of view is that George Lucas took the past, the old. He took myths, spirituality, religion, things that have been around for a long time, eons, and mixed it with the future.”
#RogueOne Director Gareth Edwards shares how Star Wars world-building helped inspire #TheCreator.#ThePhantomMenace, #AttackoftheClones, #ANewHope & #TheEmpireStrikesBack now streaming on Disney+. @creatorthefilm is now playing in theaters. pic.twitter.com/9Rz9MqNaRa
— Star Wars (@starwars) September 29, 2023
In the same way, in terms of world construction, other films that inspired the filmmaker were the “non-narrative” documentary Baraka (1992), by Ron Fricke, and Japanese animation cyberpunk Akira (1988), directed by Katsushiro Otomo.
In addition to this, Edwards always wanted his feature film to have dramatic overtones, and to address the dynamics of human relationships in an interesting way. Therefore, he took as a reference rain man (1988), by Barry Levinson; ET the alien (1982), The revenge (1984), by Stephen Frears, and paper moon (1973), by Peter Bogdanovich.
There’s two sides to it: the world building side and the emotional character side. In terms of world building, I’d say the following films are masterpieces: Apocalypse Now, Baraka, Blade Runner, Akira. Films like Rain Man, The Hit, ET, and Paper Moon for the emotional side. -… https://t.co/x86nVlqd81
— The Creator (@creatorthefilm) July 18, 2023
In visual and narrative terms, the coldness that humanity can have within a technologically advanced environment is explored, in addition to the ravages of war. These are explorations that are done both in blade runner (1982), by Ridley Scott, as in Apocalypse now (1979), by Francis Ford Coppola. During an interview with Screen RantGareth Edwards said that the idea for a film that would mix the best of these works came after a trip to Vietnam that he took with Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island):
«We ended up traveling all over Vietnam and seeing everything. You can’t help but look at all those images of the Vietnam War and think of movies like Apocalypse Now and all that. We were in some rice fields in the middle of nowhere and I kept thinking about science fiction. I just kept seeing everyone and turning them into robots and saying, ‘Oh my God, this is really cool.’ There were like Buddhist monks in the temples, and you imagined them as robots. I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ The quickest way to explain it to someone is that it’s like someone made Apocalypse Now in the Blade Runner universe.
The Creator It is already exhibited in Mexico. The criticism of PREMIERE Cinema you find it HERE.
José Roberto Landaverde I am fascinated by writing, listening, reading and commenting on everything related to cinema. I love music and I am a fan of The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Paramore. My favorite movies are Rocky and Back to the Future and obviously one day I will climb the “Philly Steps” and drive a DeLorean. Faithful believer that cinema is the best teleporting machine, and also that on the big screen we can all see ourselves represented.