The Adjustment Bureau, based on one of my favorite sci-fi author's short stories (Philip K. Dick, "The Adjustment Team"), deals with fate and how our choices can be adjusted.
What's your take on this film with the bureau men / guardian angels who can slip through doors that lead to other places? Is the Chairman simply God and the Bureau just an extended metaphor for angels? Why was mankind given free will just twice? And since we've had it taken away since 1962, does that mean the awful things that have happened since then are the doings of the bureau men?
Thanks. Due by Sunday, March 20.
Mr. W,
ReplyDeleteI decided to root out the parts of my email response that had nothing to do with the questions above. Bare in mind that I did not remove some of the other stuff in these responses since the questions were different.
3) He doesn't steal the hat. Harry feels bad for him so he helps Norris with his plan (see 2). This likely does represent the wings because the hats are what makes the bureau members able to travel through the secret door system. Without a hat, its just a regular door. Also there is a secret about the doors: if a person wearing the special hat turns it clockwise it takes them to a different door in the system (It wasn't clear but I think each door is paired with one other door and you have to know which doors lead where to get places quickly); if a person turns it counterclockwise it will take them to what is essentially the headquarters (business metaphor) of the bureau.
6) All decisions come through the chairman so in my summary during this part I used "bureau" and "chairman" interchangably (like white house and Obama). I don't remember for certain but I feel like Thompson said free will was returned before the turn of the century and again, it was returned to all.
7) Water was said to be the chairman's way of limiting the powers of the bureau members. They were created with the abilities to track the changes in the plan and the water is naturally something that dampens those abilities. In the same way, they can't have the abilities without the hats on (they are different from normal people, though, because normal people can just use the doors with the hat on. They can't change what will happen to a person, nor see their plan).
8) That's a good point. But they (the chairman) may have seen the peace talks and the creation of Israel as a good sign so they (the chairman) chose to let it go a little longer.
9) I saw the movie with my cousin (hannah katz...smart), my brother (also smart) and his friends (also very smart). None of us understood this and questioned how that could have happened. It is possible that the chairman is indeed all powerful but wished to remain somewhat secret and that in order to prevent the war and such, he would have needed to do something extremely great that would let his presence be known (early in the movie, the bureau threatens Norris that if he tells anyone about them they will erase his mind because they want to be secret).
10) The chairman definitely exists because at the end when Norris tries to take Elise to see him to convince him to change the plan, the bureau members change the layout of the headquarters building so he can't make it to that room. Harry tells Norris that everyone meets the chairman in their life and that only the bureau members and very special people (Ghandi or MLK perhaps) are able to realize when it happens. I think that the chairman is capable of intervening because when Norris's plan gets changed, Thompson says to him "not many people have what it takes to make the chairman notice them." The chairman just can't intervene too much because he would otherwise be relied upon too much and it is possible that the chairman is striving for the world to eventually have free will again.
I personally don’t like the idea of the “magical doorways.” Or in better explanation, I don’t like the idea of magical doorways. I feel that this concept of the doors could have been better explained in the movie. I mean there are so many variables to the doors, and they just don’t explain the way the adjustment members know every route that just happens to take them to where they need to go. But when David goes through the doors, they take him on a so-called path; that yet again isn’t explained very well.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that from the movie your supposed to take infer that the chairman is God, and there is strong evidence that’s so. Like when Richardson says something along the lines of, “some people call us angels, and some people call us other things…” Then later on in the movie, Harry says, “HE (most likely referring to the chairman or God) is every where, everyone has seen him in one form or another, not knowing that he is there…” so if go does exist as the movie claims, then I'm sure with every decision he makes, there must be some compassion shown, and this compassion I'm referring to, is the decision to give us free will. However he had to take it back because as the movie stated, we become destructive, hence all of the dark periods in time. And the bad things since 1962 I feel are the doings of people “going off the path. Logically there’s no other explanation, especially if the bureau is supposed to be the keepers of peace.
Jared Monchnik
3rd hour
I don't agree with the bureau men...except Henry (or is his name harry? naw I think Henry better...we'll call him Henry), I liked him, but as for the rest of them I didn't understand how they could freely mess with people's lives and possible destroy what makes them happiest just because its "in the plan". The concept of the doors confused me just like Jared said. I think it was explained poorly. I know when Henry was teaching him the path he had the book of all of the doors, but their explanation was lacking and I didn't like that too much. I felt like after the first hour of the movie they were just rushing for an ending so they had to cram all of this information into it and hope that everyone understood. I don't think the chairman is g-d simply because I think this movie was trying to stray from religion. It seemed to emphasize human choice...if you don't chose your fate than someone else will a.k.a. the chairman. Now I know that technically your path is made at birth but as you grow you changes, but who changes it? The chairman or you? At the end Henry said that because they risked everything for eachother the chairman was touched and adjusted the plan. Woohoo happy ending, but why didn't the chairman see that they clearly wanted to be together the past 3 years? I also didn't quite understand how or why they kept such close tabs on him. Was it because he knew the secret? Or is there a little alarm that goes off in the Bureau library everytime someone strays from the path. I mean there are 6 million other people in the world so how come he was watched so closely? Mankind was given free wil only twice becayse both times we started wars and killed millions of people, and I think that all the awful things that have happened since then are because of simple mistakes, like the one Henry made when he fell asleep on the park bench and didn' t spill the coffee. So I don't think the bureau men planned on all the natural disasters they just sort-of happened. Or people were simply straying from their paths again, that is always a possibility.
ReplyDeleteJaimmie Koss
3rd hour
I saw The Adjustment Bureau with Evan, Matt, and Bean today. I think that we all enjoyed it. (As an aside, we decided to sit in the order that we do on the couch in your class: Evan, me, Matt, and Bean, just for old time’s sake). In my opinion, the movie was very well made. Matt Damon did an excellent job, and Emily Blunt was very good also. I thought that the first “angel” that Damon was introduced to was a perfect choice for this movie. He did not play a huge role, but he was very good as a character that is mysterious, you don’t really know who or what he is, and he seemed just a little bit evil.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite parts of the movie is when Damon is discussing with Thomson (I believe it’s him) about fate vs. free will. I like how they used the angel’s interfering as the best times in human history, such as the height of the Roman Empire. He then says that humans were given free will, which resulted in the Dark Ages, and then fate, which resulted in the Renaissance. It was interesting to hear him talk about these two time periods, because we learned about them throughout the trimester.
I would agree that the Chairman is God. They never say specifically either way, but I think this is what they mean. When Harry says “Everyone has met him, just in a different shape or form”. I think this would definitely refer to God. As to whether the recent troubles should be blamed on the angels, I think that they probably would have to be. I would have really liked to see this addressed in the movie (is it addressed in the book?). They would probably deny it themselves though, as they do not always seem like the most responsible ethereal beings.
As Tyler previously mentioned, the self proclaimed “couch crew” saw The Adjustment Bureau Wednesday afternoon. If I had to rate the film just from a cinematic point of view, the film was real well made, and it was hard to not enjoy. I personally thought that the Bureau men being able to slip through doors that to other areas of the city was a fun, action packed way of saying, wherever you may go or end up, the Bureau men have a way of getting to you, and ultimately altering your fate. What I was unclear on was when Harry was describing the door system, and how to bureau men maneuver around it. I understood the concept that in order to get through, a hat was needed, without that hat, it is just a plain, regular door. What I didn’t understand really was why a knob needed to be turned a certain way. If you wore the hat and turned the knob a certain way, it would be a door that lets you slip to a different location in the area, but where would it take you? Also, I thought that the movie could have made the door situation easier to understand if they explained the areas that the Bureau men could go to. For example, when Norris was just in the city, the bureau men could maneuver, opening different doors to different New York City landmarks, but when Norris was out of the city, no bureau men were in sight. Are the Bureau men just planted into the fibers of the city, determining city folk’s fate? Maybe they are called bureau men to determine the fate of New York City’s bureau. Maybe New York City is the only place that doesn’t have free will.
ReplyDeleteI think that the chairman is God in these certain situations. In some people’s lives, if something happens, it is just my fate in the hands of God. That is how certain individuals would react to things happening around them. So, if your fate is in the hands of the chairman, the chairman could then be perceived as God. Then, if the chairman is God, what does that make the bureau men? In mostly every way it makes them somewhat of a guardian angel, to protect and keep in line your predetermined fate. What is man did have free will in society? Well, according to the film mankind had free will twice in all life times, but each and every time, tragedies and war came out of it. One of the bureau men said that when man had free will, it led to such things as the dark ages, world war one, world war two, and the Holocaust. Even though these events are seen as the definition of evil in many ways, it can be viewed as a mistake. Even bureau men can make mistakes, which was real evident in this film. For example, a minor mistake made was when Henry had to make Norris spill his coffee the first time, but he accidently fell asleep on a park bench, and delayed the process. That is an example of a mistake that was made. So, time without fate led to a mistake, but even with fate, mistakes can be made as well.
I still have one question that went real unanswered by this film, if everyone on Earth has a determined fate that can be held in check by the bureau, what about global phenomenon’s, like tsunami’s, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and more. If the bureau men didn’t plan those, how did those events happen? Does the Earth itself have its own bureau, determining weather patterns fate? These are questions all up for debate, but maybe the people determine human fate is also determining global fate.
Jake Stein
3rd Hour
In the film, The Adjustment Bureau, the bureau men/ guardian angels are the ones who overlook how everyone is living their lives and if they’re on the right path. In order to make things easier for them to do their jobs and get to the people they’re watching as soon as possible, they have the ability to open doors that lead to different places with the help of their hats of course. I feel as though the doors were put into this film in order to cut out the explanations for how the characters got everywhere. I guess it allowed the movie to have a wider range of scenery, which was nice. The movie definitely portrayed the chairman to be God along with the bureau being angels. The chairman was the one who decided the fate of David and Elise, which in a way is how people believe God to be in reality. Also, the way the bureau looks after people is similar to that of how people believe angels are and how they hover around someone in times of need or to put them back on the path that is best for them. Mankind was given free will two times because the adjustment bureau decided to let people take their life into their own hands… but clearly that didn’t workout because war and depression happened. Since our free will was taken away in 1962 (in the movie), bad things can most definitely occur. Sometimes it may be someone’s fate to die tragically. Then again, not all of those deaths and sob stories are due to fate and the bureau. There are only so many people who can be able to watch everyone in the whole world. Sometimes the bureau will allow a person to take their life into their own hands if they feel like things are going well. Sort of like in Sophie’s World, when the writer stopped writing, the characters still moved on with their lives and did their own thing.
ReplyDeleteNatalie H.
The Adjustment Bureau overall was a great movie, but I feel like it could have done more.
ReplyDeleteFor example it could have easily been something on Matrix or Inception but this movie focused
on romance. I thought that the bureau men was a creative use of the angels. It was a unique idea to show them something like agent Smith from the Matrix. The film suggest that the chairman is God, all they mention that he was higher up. He could simply be some manager of this universe and they are "workers" for God. We really do not know concretely who that chariman was, we never see him. The second part about the Bureau's being an extended metaphor for angel is a fact. Matt Damon's character was talking to Harry and he outright said that he was angel. We were given two free wills one for the dark ages and the second during the 1940's during World War 2. The assumption that the film makes is that free will is a bad thing and when we are given free will we do bad things. Damon's character says that there are bad things happening all over the world, and Harry says "yes thats true but you are going to survive" This is the fundamental flaw in the film, if we look at the world as it is now I would say there has never been a greater possiblity of us killing ourselves. We have more nuclear weapons now than we did in 1940's and more likelihood of usage. Either we have free will now and we are failing again or this plan isnt exactly to our best interest. My opinion for the last question is that it is fundamentally free will. There are moments that are like destiny, but than there are other times where the path has been set. There are critical places where you have choices. I think this idea of God and destiny isn't so much that God decides the plan but knows the plan that we are going to take. All the wrong that we have done are just messing up at the critical points.
Mariam Sharaf
hour 3
(had to use brothers Gmail account)
I loved the film. This is my first Matt Damon film ever and he did a really good job. Most of the ideas in the movie are exactly what I believe. For example, how during a certain period in time, the bureau decided to leave up to humanity for a while, which lead to chaos and tragedies. I also do believe that there are slight hints of fate, and that we can choose to either take what it gives us or stand up for something different. I like that David (Damon's character) decided to choose something different and blow everyone out of the water, literally.
ReplyDeleteNow about the bureau, I thought that their work was too hard for them and I would never want to go into that line of work. Their jobs however confused me a little bit. If humans are allowed to choose free will over what they want to drink or what shoe they should wear, why can’t they choose who they can love or not? I was very upset about that because they mentioned that the bureau doesn’t control emotions. However, they were controlling David’s emotions because in order for the bureau to make him choose the right path, they needed him to feel something different towards her. I thought it was wrong of them to do that to David, but it made a good movie.
I believe that the Chairman is God and nothing else. I also believed what Harry Mitchell (angel who looked over David) said that everyone has a different version of God and that you could have seen him in your lifetime but you didn’t notice. However, I am confused of why Harry is the only good angel. I don’t think that the Chairman wants our lives to stick exactly to the plan he gave us because sometimes the angels don’t even know why some certain plans are the way they are. I think that they were taking their job too seriously and if God wanted to leave the last two times, maybe it is time for the bureau to take a few steps back. The angels reminded me of over protective parents. They don’t want you to make mistakes in your life because they think they know what is best for you. They need to take a step back and watch your kid grow and be by their side and not in front of them.
However, in the film, humanity couldn’t survive without them. I also feel like that has happened in real life. We cannot make the right choices. For example, from the 1900s-now, we have made terrible decisions about war, money, and our resources like terrorists, the great depression, and running out of nonrenewable resources. I feel that now there are only so many people trying to save humanity. And that isn’t going to help anyone unless we ask the Chairman himself.
I really enjoyed this movie. It was funny to see my friends react to this movie and think it was “boring” since there wasn’t a lot of action in it. I enjoyed it from a thoughtful perspective. After watching this, the way I see things is that the chairman is “God” or some sort of almighty creator and just like it sort of explains in the movie, the Adjustment Bureau men are his workers or his angels. I think that with this idea behind it, the movie was well made. One of the things that I didn’t like and thought was kind of cheesy was the idea of the hat being able to unlock any door. I think they could have come up with something better. What really caught my interest and probably my favorite part of the whole movie was how they explain all of the bad time periods like the fall of Rome, the Dark Ages, and WWI and II as the Adjustment Bureau giving man free will. That’s something I have never thought about, that all of the time periods we have had happened because “God” has stepped out of the picture. Now the only issue I have with that is how does that explain all of the other bad events like all of the other wars and things like 9-11? Was that just part of the plan? Overall it was a good movie, although the ending could have been a little better.
ReplyDeleteAlex G.