I wanted to do something special for my 5,000th post, so here I am to explain The Fountain. It is a rather sloppy post, but I threw it together rather quick as I was being slammed with a sudden understanding of the film. Anyways, major spoilers in this post, so skip it if you wanna see the film first.
*SPOILERS*
“What the hell is going on? I don’t understand this movie! That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen!” These are all phrases I hear/read when people talk about The Fountain. Well, it’s one of my absolute favorite films, and I can’t stand back to see it trashed so carelessly. I must admit, it took me awhile to get a grip on the film after watching it for the first time. Ever since then my following viewings have revealed new ideas and theories to me. After watching it once again, I think I may have a comprehensive understanding of the film. I’m going to start from the beginning and work my way to the end explaining my thoughts. This thread is meant for people who’ve watched it, hence the spoiler tag in the thread title. Remember, film is free to be interpreted any number of ways, especially films like this one, and these are just my thoughts.
The film opens during the 16th century and we are following a Spanish conquistador. He is the only one to survive a trap and is eventually forced to the top of a great Mayan temple. Where he meets, and does battle with a temple guardian. We do not see his fate as we are thrown nearly 1,000 years into the future – here we find the astronaut. He is traveling through space with what we may first guess to be the actual tree of life.
Eventually, we are shown that he is tormented by his lover – “finish it.” He refuses to listen and we continue to follow him until the torment is unbearable. Finally cracking to it, he accepts to be shown something and we are thrown into the present day where we find Tommy – the scientist.
Tommy is in love. It is powerful, and it drives him because his wife, Izzie, is dying. She has brain cancer and he is searching for a cure. We follow this couple, see how genuine their love is, and then discover that Izzie is writing a book. When Tommy sits down to read this story we discover that the 16th century conquistador is not real, but the character in Izzie’s novel. This fact explains why the conquistador has the very same ring that Tommy loses (it is his wedding band) during one of his surgeries.
Moving on, we follow the conquistador and the scientist; switching back and forth when Tommy sits down to read, which makes the fact that the past isn’t real more obvious. During one of the scientist bits, Izzie expresses how she is unable to finish the last chapter in her book and that Tommy must finish it. She also tells him how she is not afraid to die because she believes in “death as an act of creation.” This devastates Tommy because he is not ready to let go of his wife. Eventually, though, Izzie passes.
The next thing we see is one of the most gut wrenching break downs I’ve ever seen on film – ever. Tommy tattoos his ring finger to replace the band he lost, and this is where we are given a connection to the astronaut. However, I do not believe that the astronaut is, in fact, Tommy.
The ending of the 16th century story is revealed to us, which means Tommy has finally finished his wife’s work. Also, we flash to the future to see the astronaut finally let go of his love and “finish it.” He dies to give life.
As for the scientist, that’s the only part of this film that I believe to actually be real. I feel that the astronaut portion is a continuing dream that Tommy has until he is finally able to let go of his wife. When he’s finally able to say goodbye we witness the end to the 16th century story, the astronaut die, and the scientist plant a seed over Izzie’s grave. For me, these are symbols of his ability to let go. The dream is finally over (the astronaut), his wife’s story is finished (the 16th century), and now he is finally able to accept Izzie’s wishes to plant a seed over her grave and say goodbye (the scientist).
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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza
Last edited by John McClane; 07-17-08 at 06:36 PM.