Conflict of Artificial and Living Body in Cinema the Theme of Fear and its Overcoming

Abstract

The article discusses the conflict between a human and an
artificial anthropomorphic object, which is based on the theme of fear. First of
all, the article analyzes the causes of fear resulting from the interaction with an
anthropomorphic machine, including the phenomenon of the “valley of death”,
first described by Japanese robotics engineer M. Mori, and specifies the features
of this phenomenon in cinema. The author compares the justified use of the
“sinister valley” effect from the point of view of structuring the plot (“Humans”
series) and the unsuccessful experience (“The Polar Express”, “Beowulf ”).
Next the article studies the basic and the original strategies in plot
construction in modern cinema, which are determined by the “man-machine”
or “man-artificial body” conflict. Primarily the article investigates the causes of
plot predictability in a number of film works, where the fear is the main theme
(“Frankenstein”, “Westworld”). Considerable attention is given to the analysis of
films where attempts are made to overcome fear thanks to a more complex and
multifaceted plot structure, including the bodily transformation of an artificial
body and attempts to bring it closer to the human creator. Various scripts of
humanization are considered: a magical body that has acquired the human form
with the aid of magic (“Alraune”), a technogenic digital body (“Bicentennial
man”), a human body with mechanical elements (“RoboCop, “Hardcore”). The
proposed conclusion is that the elimination of the fear of the machine is a
necessity dictated by modern reality and that cinema offers its own original
ways of solving this problem.