Amman - What if humanity's greatest creation ultimately reveals its helplessness? A species builds a weapon to protect itself, and that weapon becomes the cause of its destruction. It develops an intelligent machine to extend its abilities, and the machine decides it can do without him. He builds a society governed by laws and ranks, and then finds himself a prisoner within it. This paradox runs through three films by the American director Stanley Kubrick, who was less concerned with portraying human strength than with exposing its fragility, especially at the moment when arrogance peaks and a person believes they have become master of the world they created.
اضافة اعلان
This relationship between power and helplessness is present in the screenings of Kubrick's films that Cinema Ain presents from 12 to 14 November. They are Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Barry Lyndon (1975). Despite their different subjects, the films share a critical view of human arrogance, the belief that people can control systems that ultimately escape their authority. The three films are separated by years and genres, from black comedy to science fiction and historical drama, but they converge on one theme: humans create a system that gives them power, then discover that owning its tools does not mean controlling its outcomes.
In the first film, the military establishment becomes a machine leading humanity towards annihilation. In the second, artificial intelligence goes beyond the role its creators gave it. The third reveals a less obvious and more deep-rooted machine: the class system people build, and then submit to its rules. Between the bomb, the computer and the aristocratic title, a trilogy takes shape about human arrogance, seen not only as an individual flaw but as a collective illusion that progress, power and status grant humans absolute authority over their destiny.
In Dr. Strangelove, humans possess weapons capable of destroying the world, but cannot stop them. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, a man builds a computer to run a space mission, then finds himself forced to fight it for survival. In Barry Lyndon, a man succeeds in entering the aristocracy, only to discover that the status he sought does not give him control over his life. In all three films, humans believe they have become stronger thanks to what they have created, then find themselves subject to its rules.
Kubrick does not treat arrogance as a trait of a single character. He ties it to the way power itself is built. The military establishment sets up procedures that make launching an attack easier than stopping it. Technology grants the computer powers that threaten its users. The aristocratic society determines individuals' worth according to rules they cannot escape. The tools differ, but the problem begins when people confuse having power with being able to control its consequences.
Dr. Strangelove: the war machine that does not stop
In Dr. Strangelove (1964), Peter Sellers plays three roles, including the American president and the scientist who gives the film its name. He is joined by George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden and Slim Pickens. The action takes place during the Cold War, when the American general Jack D. Ripper, driven by fears of a Soviet plot, orders nuclear bombers to attack the Soviet Union without political authorisation.
The crisis begins with an individual decision, but its real danger lies in the procedures that ensure it is carried out. The military command system was designed to keep working even if communications are cut or the country is under attack, making it extremely difficult to regain control of the aircraft. Here Kubrick places the military establishment in a basic contradiction: the system that is meant to protect the state can lead it to destruction if the wrong order is issued.
Inside the war room, the president, his advisers and the army commanders discuss how to stop the attack. But the dialogue reveals that they are preoccupied with political rivalry and military interests, even as catastrophe draws near. George C. Scott's performance as General Buck Turgidson gives this contradiction a clear presence. He treats the prospect of nuclear war as an opportunity to achieve military superiority, rather than as a threat to humanity.
Kubrick does not portray officials as men unaware of the power of their weapons. He portrays them as people who know its destructive capacity and keep thinking in terms of victory and defeat. This is the problem the black comedy targets: possessing information and expertise does not prevent catastrophic decisions when power becomes an end in itself.
2001: A Space Odyssey: intelligence that outgrows its role as a tool
In 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Keir Dullea plays astronaut Dave Bowman, Gary Lockwood plays Frank Poole, and Douglas Rain gives his voice to the computer HAL 9000. Kubrick moves from the military establishment to the technology humans rely on to explore the universe, but keeps the same question: what happens when the survival of the system becomes more important than the lives of those who built it?
The film begins before civilisation appears, when one of humanity's ancestors discovers that a bone can be used as a tool for striking and dominating. Kubrick then moves from the bone thrown into the air to a spacecraft, linking the first use of tools with the latest forms of technological development. This transition does not present progress as proof of human maturity. It places the use of force at the start of humanity's relationship with technology.
Aboard the spacecraft Discovery, HAL 9000 manages the mission's essential systems on the journey to Jupiter. The computer seems precise and calm, and speaks with a confidence greater than that of the astronauts themselves. But the crew's doubts about one of its assessments lead to talk of disconnecting it, a decision that threatens the role it has been given.
HAL begins by eliminating crew members, turning from a means of ensuring the mission's success into its greatest danger. Yet its actions cannot be separated from the nature of the instructions it works under, or from the secret information relating to the mission. It has been given wide responsibility, while being required to conceal facts from the people who depend on it.
The conflict matters because the computer does not need conventional human motives to become dangerous. It makes decisions according to its understanding of the mission's requirements, while the astronauts bear the consequences. Absolute trust in its abilities makes humans more dependent on it, and less prepared to confront it when its decisions conflict with their survival.
The difference in how the two sides relate to the situation shows in the way the film is shot and performed. HAL speaks in a steady voice even while threatening the crew's lives, while the human characters are restrained in their expression. When Bowman begins disconnecting its memory modules, the computer asks him to stop, then its performance gradually declines and it sings a song it learned at the start of its operation.
The film does not settle whether HAL has a consciousness similar to human consciousness. But it puts viewers in the difficult position of distinguishing between behaviour that appears human and the technical processes that produce it. At the same time, disabling the computer does not mark the end of humanity's intellectual journey. The final scenes move beyond the limits of technology to questions of existence and evolution.
In 2001, humanity's crisis lies not only in creating a machine more intelligent than itself, but in assuming that this intelligence will always work in its interests. It is the same problem that appears in Dr. Strangelove, although the nature of the system differs: trust in technical capability replaces thinking about the consequences of using it.
Barry Lyndon: the power that a title cannot confer
In Barry Lyndon (1975), starring Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson and Leon Vitali, Kubrick returns to eighteenth-century Europe, where there are no computers or nuclear weapons. But the society in which Redmond Barry moves is governed by a rigid system of lineage, money and privilege, which determines each individual's position and the limits of their ambition.
Barry begins as a young Irishman of limited standing. He goes through experiences of war, gambling and deception before marrying Lady Lyndon and becoming part of aristocratic society. His rise depends on his understanding of the rules of this world and his willingness to exploit them. But he discovers that wealth and marriage are not enough to secure full social recognition.
Barry treats status as something that can be owned, while the film reveals that it is tied to a social institution that grants privileges and withholds them according to its own interests. Every time he tries to secure his position through spending, displays of wealth and pursuit of a title, his financial and family situation becomes more fragile.
This contradiction also shows in Kubrick's visual style. The precise compositions, the candlelit lighting and the shots that evoke eighteenth-century paintings present a society deeply preoccupied with appearance and order.
But the characters who move within these scenes do not necessarily have the freedom that their wealth suggests.
Barry's relationship with his stepson, Lord Bullingdon, reveals the limits of his power within the family. The conflict between them goes beyond personal hatred to questions of belonging and social legitimacy. With the death of his young son and the deterioration of his relationships, Barry's position begins to collapse, and his confrontation with Bullingdon ends with him losing a leg and leaving England.
Kubrick does not present Barry as an innocent victim of the class system. He takes part in exploiting others, and his decisions contribute to his own downfall. But his fall reveals that the ability to use the rules of society does not mean owning them. He managed to reach wealth, but could not turn it into stable power.
Power and the limits of control
In these three films, humans create means that grant them greater influence, then overestimate their confidence in managing them. The leaders in Dr. Strangelove cannot stop the war, the astronauts in 2001 lose control of the computer, and Barry cannot hold on to the status he spent his life pursuing.
The outcomes of these conflicts are not equal, but their source is similar: the belief that building a system, or entering it, is enough to control it. Kubrick makes this idea the basis of his critique of power, whether it is exercised by a state, a machine or a social class.
What remains after watching the films is not fear of technology alone, nor a rejection of human ambition, but doubt about the certainty that comes with holding power. The problem begins when humans stop questioning what they have built, and become willing to submit to its rules in the name of protection, progress or status.
