Kubrick’s Story, Spielberg’s Film: ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’

Rice (The Jarmusch Way), a retired English professor, takes a deep dive into the 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, concentrating on its background as a Stanley Kubrick project taken over by Steven Spielberg after Kubrick’s death. The writing is dense and scholarly, yet consistently inviting to the non-specialist. Throughout the text, Rice teases out the film’s thematic concerns and their resonances with other films in both Spielberg and Kubrick’s oeuvres, particularly Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the work that created the initial bond between the two filmmakers; 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick’s other, notably bleaker reflection on artificial intelligence; and the apocalyptic vision of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. Rice’s work is eclectic and wide-reaching, with equal insight brought to bear on A.I.’s roots in Arthurian legend, Joseph Campbell’s concept of the hero’s journey, and Jungian archetypes, as well as its legacy as a cautionary tale about global warming. This eloquently written book will foster a deeper appreciation for a unique posthumous collaboration between two celebrated filmmakers, even for readers who aren’t fervent fans of the film itself. (June)