When I saw Bicentennial Man as a kid, my expectations were sky high. This anticipation was built around the fact that the trailer had a robot shaking its butt and singing, “U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi. You ugly! Yeah, you ugly!” and that Robin Williams was in it. As a child, that’s really all I needed to persuade me to watch a film. Robin Williams was a huge part of my childhood. He was the lovable goof in Flubber, Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Aladdin, so naturally, I was expecting this movie to be absolutely hilarious. I sat disappointed and bored before it was even halfway through. The “U.G.L.Y.” song wasn’t even in the actual movie! I filed it under “stinkers” in my brain and went about my life not giving it another thought. It wasn’t until I revisited it about ten years later that I couldn’t believe what I had missed. From then on, it became one of my favorite sci-fi dramas.
Bicentennial Man is a film based on Isaac Asimov’s novelette titled, “The Bicentennial Man.” As I’m sure many of you are aware, it completely bombed at the box office when it premiered in 1999. It takes place in the year 2005, a year we have long since passed, but in this reality automation and robots doing menial tasks have already become commonplace. You could now have an actual robot in your house that talked to you and did housekeeping and maintenance duties but with a few key functions missing. These robots were unable to have personalities, creativity, a sense of humor, wants, and needs. It was to keep them from wanting more out of life and to keep them in their place. Even then, a robot uprising was a scary thing to imagine. When Richard Martin (Sam Neill) brought one of these robots into his home to work and meet his family, he had no idea that he just so happened to get a malfunctioning one.
The family named him, Andrew (Robin Williams), a kind of pet name for “android.” He quickly becomes a favorite of the youngest daughter, Amanda, whom Andrew fondly calls Little Miss. Soon it’s apparent that Andrew is much different than a normal robot. He is curious and continuously asks Richard, whom he refers to as, Sir, questions about life and the world. Richard is a kind and analytical man. He recognizes the passion and curiosity for life that he once had now in Andrew, and much to the annoyance of his eldest daughter, Grace, he enthusiastically becomes a teacher and mentor to the robot. He teaches Andrew everything from corny jokes to the inner workings of the “birds and the bees.” Andrew begins to take up woodwork, showing his ability for creativity. Little Miss develops deeper feelings for the robot as she gets older, even considering turning down a marriage proposal from a young man due to her complicated feelings, and Grace continues terrorizing Andrew every chance she gets.
The movie follows Andrew’s journey finding himself and understanding what it is to be human. He realizes the sacrifices and pain that humanity regularly encounters with our inevitable deaths, and he longs to change it somehow. He also learns about something that is interwoven deep within humanity’s core from the day they’re born: love and the need to be loved. Love offers him a home and a family to call his own.
Sure, the first half of the movie is stronger than the second, but still, overall, it is one of the most wonderful and beautiful films I have ever seen. Andrew is essentially a child learning about being human, death, love, and the unspoken rules (and barriers) of our society, so the exploration of these themes is gentle and moving. Not only does Andrew encounter the pain of losing his loved ones, he learns why death must essentially be a part of life. He also learns about what it means to be an unaccepted minority and why it is important that we must love each other. He spends the majority of his life fighting to be recognized as human and to be accepted as one of them. There are themes of “non-traditional” relationships, racism, classism, and human rights. For being a family movie in the 90s, it tackles a lot of weighty subjects with care. It is truly a shame that movies like these aren’t made anymore.
It is obvious why this movie flopped when it premiered, and it’s not because it isn’t any good. It’s because of the terrible trailer and marketing. As previously mentioned, I was tricked by it as a kid too. The trailer made it seem like it was going to be a laugh riot and an extremely light movie. While the movie isn’t hilarious, it does have a good amount of funny moments and is full of heart. I still chuckle when I think about a few of them. Even Robin Williams was angry with Disney for how they handled the marketing of the film. When people saw that Williams was the lead, they assumed it was going to be a strictly comedic performance, but Williams’ performance in Bicentennial Man is anything but only comedic. It is stunning and also incredibly nuanced. He injects just the right amount of humor where it needs to be, but it is controlled and not over the top. Just the way he tilts his head or looks at someone is deeply moving at times.
This problem still happens today when someone like Will Ferrell has a movie coming out. People only see him as a comedic actor and forget that he possesses range (i.e. Stranger Than Fiction, Everything Must Go). They don’t bother to consider that the movie may be a drama. Audiences are setting themselves up to hate the movie by going in with the expectation of seeing only a comedy, and then, of course, give it bad reviews when they don’t laugh enough. It’s unfortunate this movie and so many others were and still are victims of this perfect storm of bad marketing.
If you too were less than impressed with Bicentennial Man when you saw it for the first time due to unrealistic expectations, give it another watch. I promise it is worth it. Honestly, it should be watched just to appreciate the gift that was Robin Williams alone. The movie is a welcome breath of fresh air with all of the darkness surrounding us today, and you can even learn a few things from it like how important it is to cherish our ability as humans to love and our fleeting time on Earth. You just might find, like myself, that it’s a new favorite. Don’t even worry about being the weirdo who keeps suggesting it to everyone you talk to because I’m already out here doing the same thing. We can be strange together in this beautiful mess.
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When I’m not busy daydreaming or having an existential crisis, I can usually be found watching a movie or TV, listening to music or a podcast, or with my nose in a book.
