Minority Report 「マイノリティ・リポート」

2002年 12月 03日
作者: Andrew "Nick" Nichols
カテゴリー:

2002年アメリカ作品
監督:スティーブン・スピルバーグ
出演者:トム・クルーズ 、コリン・ファレル 、サマンサ・モートン 、マックス・フォン・シドー
2054年、ワシントン。まだ起きていない犯罪を 超能者の力で予知し防ぐという防犯課に、次なるターゲットにされたのは・・ トム・クルーズの 手に汗握る迫力の場面は 観るものをスクリーンに釘付けにすること間違いなし。  ただ今 津山明宝で公開中のこのお正月 必見の作品だ。

‘Minority Report’ opened at Meihou Theater here in Tsuyama early in December, coinciding with its national release. With Tom Cruise in the lead role, Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair, a well-paced script and an alluring vision of future technology, this dark drama has a lot to recommend itself to those of you looking for a worthy diversion over the holiday break.

The setting is Washington, D.C. 2054, and for the past 5 years an unprecedented experiment has been underway to rid the city of crime. A chance discovery in the treatment of the children of drug addicted women has disclosed three of the surviving patients capable of seeing crimes yet to be committed, mostly acts of premeditated violence and murder that disturb the fabric that defines the future. Future murders when seen by the three, known as ‘Precogs,’ are reported to special officers of the Department of Pre-Crime for whom they work, who then attempt to aprehend the murderer and incarcerate him or her before the crime can take place. With the city cleared of murder, the program is a clear-cut success and destined to be voted on by the government to be extended nationally.

Only days before the vote, and while the Department of Pre-Crime is under the greatest scrutiny from the media and federal authorities, John Anderton (Tom Cruise), the top Pre-Crime Officer is accused of a murder he is to commit in 36 hours, of a man he doesn’t know. He goes on the run and hunts for the chance that the ‘perfect’ system he championed has a flaw, and he may change his own destiny either through his actions or through the previously unknown ‘minority report;’ the rare time when the three Precogs disagree on their visions of the future. The movie opens in high gear, and from here on shifts into overdrive. The near two and a half hour movie flies by.

It’s a whole lot more than just an action flick and does address themes very pertinent to us today. Central to the movie is the questioning of an over dependence on technology, and that ultimately technology is as flawed as the men who create and serve it. A system of justice based on such flaws can only fail to serve the needs of those it must serve; to survive it can only be dictatorial and self-serving, denying the populace their rights. The greatest question it raises in these post 9-11 days is how much freedom citizens are willing to sacrifice to a promise of security from an inherently imperfect system of justice.