Philip K. Dick's The Minority Report

The Minority Report, by author Phillip Dick, is a short story of the science fiction genre. The tale was adapted to film by director Steven Spielberg, and exhibits numerous changes to Dick’s basic narrative. Spielberg’s film leans more toward a radical translation because it maintains the fundamental integrity of Phillip Dick’s short story, yet reveals numerous changes to the central narrative and visual texture.
Both short story and film versions of the work depict protagonist John Anderton as department head of Precrime, a law enforcement organization that uses “precogs” to observe the occurrence of crimes before they happen. Suspecting conspiracy, Anderton finds himself facing murder charges at the hand of his own organization, and attempts
escape. The short story however lacks description, both of the future world and the immediate environments and characters. Anything that must be described receives minimal description. Taking place in New York, under the control of the Federal Westbloc Government, There was a devastating Anglo-Chinese War, during which the Westbloc was controlled entirely by the military, which operated a domestic police force in addition to fighting the war (Dick 19). After the war, the Westbloc was demilitarized and the Precrime Agency founded to run the police force. There is a Senate, but it’s not clear what it does or what the government looks like at all. This is almost the entirety of the setting information provided by the story itself. There are a few other details, none of which implies a deeper world than is explicitly presented. However, the first thing you notice about Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report is how good it looks. Not only good, but polished and shiny; the entire movie has a hazy, slightly overexposed glow. The movie uses a photographic technique called “desaturation” to help echo the threatening, bleak, noir setting (MR Film). This is a process by which the film’s colour is muted, chemically desaturated rather than enriched. Instead of using warm, rich colours, Minority report employs an unearthly looking use of blue shades which help to suggest a modernistic police state. Throughout the movie, odd camera angles imply tension, disparity, and dread. A police raid scene, where mechanical spiders are used to track Anderton, is shot at a high angle, making him appear increasingly vulnerable as the camera bears down (Minority Report). Finally, fast-paced editing techniques help to enhance the ultramodern tone and futuristic setting of the film. Where Dick’s story lacks style, Spielberg’s film is intensely stylized; and where Dick’s world is sparse, Spielberg’s is dense.
This density is necessary for Spielberg’s Hollywood brand of realism.
He goes to great lengths to present a plausible future reality. The film is grounded in this future reality or “science future” as opposed to science fiction (Balfour). The tension throughout the movie is between safety and freedom, a timely topic in 2002 that could allude to the events of 9/11 (Urie). Not to mention the whole plot of the movie centers around the notion that this Precog system is infallible. Only then can it be seen as reasonable grounds for arrest. Philip K. Dick did not go through this much depth and detail in his short story. The film adds a reality to that which is even seemingly impossible because it is filmable, and the genre of science fiction indulges in this possibility because of what is left indeterminate in print (Balfour Minority Report). Details of world-building are seemingly unimportant in the short story, so they are absent. The film however incorporated an assortment of diverse components to Dick’s basic story format. For example, the characters of Howard and Sarah Marks, a couple in the midst of marital strife, are not found in the literature version of the story (Minority Report). The short story does not include the kidnapping of Anderton’s young son, Sean, yet this feature figures prominently into the movie’s plot as Anderton’s motivation to joining and supporting Precrime (Minority Report). Furthermore, the murder of Ann Lively represents yet another pivotal
difference between the literature and film translations, as this is the event that solidified the possibility of a Precrime organization existing (Minority Report). Steven Spielberg even inserts humor into the film version. This is noted when Anderton, on the run from his own organization, literally drops in to an advanced yoga session via the roof (Minority Report). These elements further broaden the original story, providing additional interest for the viewing audience, and help to enhance the film’s marketability.
While Director Spielberg remained truthful to the basic themes of technology, corruption, and free will versus fate found in Dick’s The Minority Report, I feel as though Philip K. Dick’s metaphysical implications are overshadowed in the film. His point is that the people who will commit a crime have no free will and their future is determined, but for the police who know the future, it remains undetermined; they can prevent a crime they know will be committed. It is not so much about how the Constitution would have to change to allow the existence of a Precrime police agency, but discovering the more fundamental change required in society, the moral implications of that change and the impossibility of unchanging it. For Spielberg, it would appear as though the spectacle of an amazing future is more important than the moral implications of that future. In Minority Report, this metaphysical point is brought up when Witwer first arrives at Precrime headquarters, when Agatha repeats “you can choose”, and at the end of the film at the faceoff between Anderton and Burgess (Minority Report). While viewers have the ability to identify the social and political themes that Dick considered in his short story, they are overshadowed by the changes to major plot points, and the addition of an action-adventure component. It is for these reasons that Minority Report remains independent from Phillip Dick’s short story.
While action is present in both the film and short story, the action-adventure component evidenced in the film is far superior.
And, the presence of a futuristic element helps to make this true. For example, Anderton wards off his Precrime attackers in several scenes, one of which shows jet propelled police officers flying through the air as they fight (Minority Report). Throughout the film, Steven Spielberg employs flashy special effects to provide a visual excitement for his work that most literature is frequently unable to offer. Phillip Dick on the other hand rendered his action scenes in a manner that is blander in comparison, “Protesting and astonished, he was hustled outside the house to a waiting limousine. Instantly three heavily armed men closed in behind him. The door slammed and the car shot off down the highway, away from the city. Impassive and remote, the faces around him jogged with the motion of the speeding vehicle as open filed, dark and somber, swept past” (Dick 7). By using Tom Cruise as the leading character in his film, Steven Spielberg made a vast departure from the John Anderton persona found in the short story. Cruise is noted as much for his physique and his ability to portray larger-than-life characters in action-adventure movies (Balfour). Yet Phillip Dick described his protagonist quite differently, “the first thought Anderton had when he saw the young man was: I’m getting bald. Bald and fat and old” (Dick 1). The literary version of the story
takes Anderton’s insecurities a step further by referencing his aging physical appearance. In Hollywood, however, the use of an attractive, well-known star like Tom Cruise, assures a more successful box office draw because of his popularity and prior successes.
In summary, the film adaptation of The Minority report effectively incorporates and conveys major themes found in the writing of Phillip K. Dick, such as society’s use of technology, and free will versus fate. Director Steven Spielberg’s extensive use of visual effects and by the use of abundant filmmaking techniques, crafts a movie that is independent, yet still related to the original text. Minority Report does exhibit certain marked differences, such as major plot changes and the use of a bankable actor as a protagonist. The addition of a showy action-adventure ingredient is unmistakable. However, there is still satisfactory balance between both film and literature. Though changes found in the movie are quite transparent, these alterations seem to work within the context of the film without destroying the basic premise of Phillip Dick’s narrative. The film is not so self-governing as to be completely independent or antithetical to the source material, so the adaptation displays a clear-cut connection to the The Minority Report takes the framework and the concept of Precrime as a building block and embellishes upon it to produce a film suitable for a major box office draw.