5.2 Response to Film: Her, by Spike Jonze

During the film screening today, I want you to *make* a lot of notes.  In specific, I want you to:

A. write down words you don’t recognize (to be worked on in your Word Play Glossary)

B. write down the key narrative elements of the film: who are the main characters?  Where and when does the film take place—that is, what clues indicate the film’s setting? what’s the central action/conflict/transformation that takes place?

C. describe in detail one scene that you like, and explain why you like it.  Some questions to consider:
—-when in the film does the scene take place (beginning, middle, or end) and what is going on immediately before this scene happens (context)?
—-how is the scene shot (from what points of view)?  what is the lighting like?  what does the set/background look like?  what do the characters look like?
—-what action goes down in this scene?  what, if anything, gets said?

By Thursday, post your responses to B and/or C in a reply to this post.

14 thoughts on “5.2 Response to Film: Her, by Spike Jonze”

  1. The movie, Her was weird and cool, the main characters was Theodore and Samantha, Theodore is a human and Samantha is built in a computer. Theodore is a man who at the beginning of the movie is lonely, boring and depress. He work at a firm where you write love letters for people. when the movie started he was in the process of going thru a divorce so he was just trying to find himself. he lives somewhere in the city part of a country. They have alot of tall building with alot of lights. the people seem normal like us in modern day. They got restaurants, bars, people going to a Fair. some days just look like a normal day except for there Technology. They are using top of the line technology. that i think is cool. They have technology that is using OS1 software. This technology is so advance its like you inside of it yourself and that where Samantha comes from. she is his girlfriend but before that happen she was his emotional helper as I would call it. She basically help him with emails, calls, encourage him, listen to him, to soon that they was starting to catch feelings for each other. which i think its weird lol. the scene that i thought was different for me is when samantha found a girl to come in be her voice or maybe i should say be her body while she speaks the whole way thru she sent the girl so she can have sex with Theodore…. i think this story is just find true love and don’t let a breakup keep you broken.:

  2. I found the movie Her to be super creepy, it’s main protagonists are the originally lame old man, Theodore and his new computer system, Samantha. It’s my belief that this takes place perhaps in Detroit or Chicago but in the year 2020, I say 2020 because their technology is a little more advanced than what we have now in real life. My favorite scene was the part I saw before Professor Street called me into the hall to talk about my essay, was when Samantha confessed to loving Theodore and told him that she didn’t need a reason for it, that to me has always seemed like the truest of love.

  3. Watching the movie Her by Spike Jones made me consider a lot of things. Perhaps this movie is a metaphor of how involve and infatuated we are with our cellphones. The Movie was portrayed as if it was in the future, everything and anything was literally programmed to work by the sound of our voices, no more typing. The pastel colors in every scene followed by the preppy and chic clothing made me intrigued by how advanced these people are. There was a specific scene where Theodore ( the main character ) explains to his close friend Amy how he’s involve in a relationship with an OS, an operating system. Amy’s reaction was so neutral that she even added to the conversation that she knows someone in a relationship and that she herself is considering the same. Dating an OS is the norm, neither Theodore or Amy were embarrassed by sharing these details. The entire Her movie made me feel in touch with a portrayal or even a different point of view, specifically with how close millennials are with their technology. I admit, I sometimes find myself having a conversation with siri; but of course she won’t be Samantha whom is super curious about me or is interested in me.

  4. answering question c
    the scene that caught my attention the most was (i hope no one calls me a weirdo for this lol) but when the main character was on a sex hot line. it was so out of place for him like example the girl on the phone is really going along and moaning trying to, i guess seduce and turn the main character on. the scene was placed in the main characters room at night time, he was laying in bed reminiscing over his ex wife while having the conversation with the sex hotline operator. during the chat he was saying “im going to choke you with a cat” and “im going to choke you with a cats tail ” repeatedly but in a monotone voice like he was not enjoying himself. this part of the film is in between the beginning and the middle of the movie and is shot in a third person aspect so you can see the main character’s facial expressions which were hilarious btw(by the way). during his reminiscing of his ex wife and during the phone call with the operator, there were flashbacks of his wife when he use to have sexual pleasures with her. as for what was happening right before that scene i honestly do not know because i walked into class during that odd scene. overall from watching the movie it is oddly hilarious and oddly interesting at the same time. the main character is emotionally disturbed and is heart broken from his divorce with his ex wife. he ends up catching feelings for a OS which is an artificial intelligence, like siri for the iphone but more intelligent such as, the OS has a name, can learn, has feelings, and can feel raw emotions. personally i like the movie and i would like to finish watching the movie in class if you prof. Street permits everyone reading this before class have a safe trip to school tomorrow and have a blessed night chads going to work.

  5. He is in love with Sam, but I really loved the scene where he had to confront his ex wife to sign the divorce papers. While having lunch she popped a question to see if Theodore is seeing someone else, with great pride he happily replied and said he is dating his OS. After hearing somewhat of a absurd response, she got upset and started tackling him with questions as to why a operating system over a real person, what’s wrong etc. For a well shaped, Caucasian female it was not surprising when she went off on him about the OS. Then again, You love who love and Sam was who he loved so their wasn’t much the ex wife could do but curse.

  6. I found a part of the movie that most likely probably didn’t seem as relevant to most people. The beginning scene when the movie started showing the main character writing a long meaningful note for someone who is foreign to us (the viewers). Not much is shown or introduced in this scene; it’s very shady, but we do start to build a sense of the main character Because of this many sentimental like feelings started arise but then afterward you realize how big of a ruse it is. It shows how the movie can make something so big out of nothing. Well better worded, something nothing out of something big. Similar to the rest of the movie how huge and very serious feelings have started coming from an assistive computer program. It’s probably not intentional but it shows great filmography and allot more about the movie.

  7. This film was very entertaining “Her,” the title of the movie, which in my point of view looks like it took place in sometime in the future, my reason for thinking this way is because of the way the technology in the movie seems to be more advanced than the type we have now. Main characters were Theadore and Samantha, Theadore a broken hearted man falls deeply involve with his compute’s operating system Samantha that later leaves him broken hearted again.
    My favorite part of this movie was when Theadore was sitting in his living room playing his hologram video game while talking to his operating system, the room was a bit dark with just the emitting light from the hologram being bright enough to see the main character. Theadore, moving his hands in a back and forth motion enabling him to move through the game where he encounters a small marshmallow looking character who he has to interact with to pass the level, he then figures out how to interact with the character by cursing at it. The character, excuse the language said “Follow me fuck-head,” it was really funny, I enjoyed the movie and look forward to watching it come time again in the future.

  8. A scene that I liked was almost at the end of the film where Samantha leaves Theodore. The reason I like that scene is that of the last part where Samantha is talking in the background and they show a little scene representing them parting from each other.

    It was an afternoon Theodore came home from work and calls Samantha, she sounded sad Theodore starts to worry and ask if she ok, she then announces that she and all the other operating system are leaving. The scene went from Theodore laying on his bed on a bright sunny afternoon to him standing in the forest where it’s dark and snowy. Theodore is seen hugging a girl crying Samantha is heard in the background saying “you have to let me go.”

  9. Sorry for the late response, was sick. Anyways the main characters I believe are Theodore and Samantha but later into the movie reveals a third main/not so main character, Theodore’s ex wife. The movie takes place somewhere comfortably in a normal work job in the future were we can masterbate to our computers and have it cheer us on. In the movie we saw that the AI or Samantha, can speak and have her own opinions and almost has a sense of emotion with the way she speaks ( such as laughing and/or raising tone of voice) which proves that it is clearly in the future because currently our AI are scary as hell and nowhere near Samantha, although sex dolls or sex robots has been created, thats a whole new story for another day. In a way this movie is basically about a miserable lonely man who falls in love with a AI but only to find out he is also incompatible with Samantha. The movie starts out after Theodore’s marriage fails between him and his wife and he buys a new OS and it can talk and gave herself a name as Samantha and they soon formed a relationship. As their relationship progressed, Theodore clearly felt uncomfortable with certain aspects of the relationships. I feel like from the beginning of the relationship was chill but as they progressed, Samantha, as an AI, will constantly be learning new things, while Theodore, as a mere human can only learn so much. The relationship is completely unbalanced which is the reason why they split in the end.
    The part where I really liked in the movie was when Samantha made Theodore close his eyes and walk whichever way Samantha told him to, to me this meant a big deal of trust because I would make my friends walk into a wall just for the fun of it but Theodore got a slice of cheese pizza.

  10. In the film “Her”, Theodore is the main character, while Samantha (his operating system) also play a big role. The setting is never really discussed, but it is in the future. You can tell this by all of the technology shown in the movie, such as talking operating systems and projected Tv’s. The location isn’t discussed, but one can assume that it takes place in a large, urban city like New York City or Seattle. Theodore is struggling dealing with a long distance relationship with his wife and eventually gets divorced. At the same time, he begins to build a relationship with his talking OS, which he names Samantha. Theodore starts a romantic relationship with Samantha and he introduces her to human life through a camera. Eventually Theodore begins to wish she was a human since he can physically see her. After Theodore worries for Samantha when see goes offline, she reveals that after an update, he can be in multiple conversations at the same time. She also reveals that she is in multiple romantic relationships but that she still feels the same about him. This leaves Theodore heartbroken and they “breakup”.

  11. In the movie HER Theodore falls in love with an AI named Samantha. Samantha adapted to Theodore thinks and acts and Theodore felt the same way about Samantha, but he wasn’t sure whether it was right to fall in love with Samantha since she wasn’t an actual person and he feels like he needs actual human company. This Movie is taken place in the future because we can see how everyone is hooked on there technology; computers, cellphones, EarPods, virtual reality games. Also, in a scene when Theodore talks to “Siri” he tells “Siri” to send out an email and the “Siri” types it up for him. Another, scene is at Theodore work spot all his coworkers have computers that type for them when they speak. The central idea of the movie was too show that a robot kind machine and a human will always have conflicts understanding each other in order not to make that a problem they have to drift apart.

  12. In the movie her my favorite seen was when he was playing the game and the character was telling him curse word becouse he wasn’t playing becouse of Samantha he was distracted The scene takes place in between the beginning and middle

  13. The movie her was kinda of weird because it showed Theodore ( Human ) and Samantha ( Computer ) have a relationship. Computer and Humans don’t have relationship so it felt weird watching a man fall in love with an AI. The setting showing the place to be high tech as if it was the future with the AI able to have a conversation with you. The conflict was Theodore having a relationship with Samantha which was weird in society and it wasn’t accepted. Humans definition of an relationship was different than an AI interpretation of a relationship. Theodore and Samantha eventually break up in the end.

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