As movies about robots go, this one is very gentle. Maybe that’s why it was a box office disaster. It’s very different to I, Robot, which was released only a few years later and which resembled Isaac Asimov’s work very loosely. I confess to liking Bicentennial Man because of the optimistic tone and the performance of Robin Williams, who spends much of the film in a metallic robot costume. It was directed by Chris Columbus and although it’s not one of the best films he’s directed, I think it’s a good one, if sometimes let down by the dialogue.
The film is based on Asimov’s short story of the same name (1976) and his later novel with Robert Silverberg, The Positronic Man (1992). I haven’t read the novel, so perhaps I’m cheating a little by comparing the film to the original story only. ‘The Bicentennial Man’ opens with the usual Three Laws of Robotics that are everywhere in Asimov’s robot stories. It then tells us about the Martin family who buy a robot, which acquires the name Andrew, to help around the house. The robot displays signs of creativity and independence, gradually becoming more and more human. Eventually he is mostly organic and wants to be legally recognised as human, but for that he will need to be mortal. He ends up living for two centuries, hence the title.
One of the main additions to the story is the romance, as a granddaughter of Little Miss is invented so that Andrew has another reason to become a real man. Another addition is a horrible older sister who orders the robot to throw himself out of the window, perhaps influenced by the youths in the story who threaten to make him take himself apart. Andrew is given a lot more personality than in the story, a love of music, a sense of humour and an urge to seek out fellow androids which takes him on a long quest. The film is described as ‘heartwarming’ and that’s definitely not a characteristic of Asimov. The futuristic look of this film has, surprisingly, not dated as much as you’d expect, which is possibly due to the tasteful accommodation in which everyone seems to live, where technology is hidden away.
In summary, the source material was adapted into a thought-provoking, sentimental movie which didn’t deserve all the negative reviews.
Image from IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4288262