Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Net (1995)

Starring:

Sandra Bullock as Angela Bennett

Jeremy Northam as Jack Devlin

Dennis Miller as Dr. Alan Champion

Diane Baker as Mrs. Bennett

Watch for:

New technologies—what kinds of 1990s technology do we see and what is it used for? Pay attention to how computers have become integrated into everyday life.

The recurring theme of memory/forgetting—where do you see this and what does it mean?

Think about the significance of various names in the film: “Devlin,” “Marx,” “Champion”, “Cathedral”, “Gatekeeper,” etc.

Trivia:

The game that Angela is playing/debugging at the beginning of the movie is the Apple version Wolfenstein 3D, similar to the console editions of the game released on the Atari Jaguar and 3DO.

The Operating System Angela is using throughout the movie is Mac OS 7

Look for the unlikely message that appears on the airport “flight status” screen early in the movie.

Questions for discussion:

What is Angela’s specialization in her work with computers?

What do Angela’s chat buddies mean when they say that she’s “one of us”?

What’s the significance of the name of Angela’s employer, “Cathedral”?

Why is Angela so socially awkward and uncomfortable?

What is the larger goal of the “Praetorians” (the bad guys) and how are they trying to accomplish it?

How believable is it that our identity might be electronically altered or erased?

What can we do to prevent similar types of “identity theft”?

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