Thoughts on Solaris

Soderbergh’s film really brought the concept to light of when we realize that we love only an image and that our worshiped beloved is not real, what happens? The plot of the film utilized the modern science fiction setting to its advantage by making this hypothetical situation become a reality in a sense. To put things in perspective realize that the apparitions of loved ones who had passed on were a product mostly of the crews mind, yes some other worldly force made it possible for these people to appear in a tangible form but they were built from memories. That fact is scrutinized when the reincarnated wife of Chris tells him that she’s suicidal because that’s how he remembered her. Yes, the film does confront other issues like what would most people do in that situation? Would they kill the reincarnated loved one like Dr. Gordon because once they realized that it was just an image the illusion was shattered? Or would they try and cling to the lifeless image like Chris to Rheya despite the nagging better judgment that he should just let her go.  This film was loosely a modern representation of the myth of Narcissus, in which Chris at first basks in the joy of having the image of his love back in his life but is then he is brought to a startling realization by Dr. Gordon that the Rheya on the ship is literally just an image of his past love made by something potentially dangerous. Just like Narcissus once the image is shattered Chris meets his demise, something that is echoed in the beginning of the film by Gibarian who also loses his life to an image of his own creation. Oddly enough every main character in the film dies due to an image of their own creation in one way or another except for Dr. Gordon who was the only character to realize the truth of the matter and took it into her own hands a way of dispelling the image from her life. Perhaps this is background commentary that alludes to the fact that we need to free ourselves from the false image of love that we create within ourselves in order to truly love and be loved.