Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Boundaries: A Reaction Paper to "The Fly (1958)"

            Films explore many things, many ideas. The Fly (1958) particularly tackled a lot. It was interesting, for me, because it was intriguing. But, what made it entertaining was its flow that slowly unveiled the mystery of how it all related back to a mere fly. It made the viewer wonder from the very beginning, how a science fiction plot could surround a mere fly.
            Science is far too wide and broad to have definite boundaries. At the edges of this blur lie arguments about how far science can go and how far it should only go. In this film, it asked whether or not scientists should dabble with teleportation; something that, in most cultures, can only rightfully be done by gods and deities. Deeper, it seemed to argue that inescapable human mistakes keep our innovations from perfection, endangering us from inevitable consequences; in this case, a mutation resulting from the idea of teleportation, two things often deemed impossible.
            Apart from this, the film also led us to a debate of morality, whether or not it’s immoral to kill animals, here in particular, mere flies. It presented, quite literally, what might happen if both were on equal terms and whether or not killing one or the other was wrong and unjust.
            The Fly (1958) is a film that presents an exploration of Science and Technology. It communicates scientific ideas from its generation, the various common opinions about these ideas, and whether or not these ideas were, in fact, even in the realm of technology we, humans, were capable of studying. It was a film that had questions, arguments, and answers but, in the end, still kept you asking, asking if all of science is possible and, more importantly, if all it can achieve is right.

Audrey Anne A. Arocha
2012-51626

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