"Dream Big, Take Big Risks"
I watched Real Steel (2011) recently. It has an interesting premise, but plays out like the typical Hollywood film where the protagonist (In this case, former boxer Charlie) eventually makes it big, and also reconciles with estranged family, in this case his son, Max. Admittedly, the producers tried to balance out the ending by having Zeus win, but having watched apocalyptic animes and mangas such as 新世紀エヴァゲリオン and 未来日記, the ending still comes across as very feel-good. The completely one-sided characterisation of Mashido-san still grates on my nerves.
A closer look, however, together with a comparison to Death of a Salesman, reveals how Real Steel plays down the real world consequences of Charlie's initially irresponsible attitude and pursuit of the American Dream, a theme also explored in Death of a Salesman. The beginning half, up to the discovery of Atom, portrays quite realistically the consequences of Charlie's constant evasion of his creditors, his recklessness and carelessness and overconfidence regarding his future. One slightly redeeming moment of the film is when Max attempts to convince his father to play small first and not try to win it big in one go, typical of the American Dream. Charlie ignores him, to his peril. This is still subverted though, when Max attempts to win big money from Kingpin, putting the duo's only viable robot at risk, and still wins. And, of course, the fight with Twin Cities and subsequent challenge to Zeus throws risk moderation right out the window.
The multiple wins by Atom also contribute to the lack of realism. While Atom apparently relies on speed and durability to win, it uses voice control, which, when you think about it, is probably just about the slowest control medium available. It takes about half a second to say the word "uppercut!" and an additional penalty for the speed at which Noisy Boy's speech recognition can recognise it (although the film presents it as instantaneous, which then raises the issue of other, more practical uses of that sort of processing speed). On the other hand, pressing a button only has the delay of the control rig sending the command (presumably through IR) to the robot. One might also ask why professional robot boxing teams have not adopted shadow boxing control, as it seems to be one of the reasons for Atom's success. One would also expect that a team with multiple technicians managing and monitoring Zeus's and Twin Cities's internal systems to minimise damage and optimise performance would be able to keep their robots functioning longer than a semi-professional duo who can only control their bot externally and carry out a semblance of repair between rounds.
Death of a Salesman paints a much more realistic picture of the American Dream. Willy is trapped within his dream of making it big (Inception, anyone?) and repeatedly turns down offers of a steady, stable, though okay-paying job from his neighbour and instead seeks to make it big with the right gamble. He ends up committing suicide, unable to face reality. While this is extreme in its depiction, I daresay that it gives an idea of the reasons, perhaps, behind the decline of America.
On the other hand, Real Steel sends the message that if you put your needs before that of others (Charlie attempting to bargain with his childhood friend Bailey, who runs the gym that he trains in but is in danger of having to sell it), gamble all your chances on the big prize, rather than do steady regular work, you will still eventually succeed. Whether this is true is a different issue.
This post was jointly authored by my father and I.
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