Close Reading of Film Stills in I, Robot

 The film still is an image from the beginning of the movie when a FedEx robot delivered Will Smith his mail.  This still reveals that robots are apart of everyday human life and it is normal to receive mail from a robot. In this still the director has chosen to make the main emphasis on the FedEx robot. Everything else in the background is kind of a blur and you can't really see the faces clearly of the humans in the background.  I think this was a great decision by the director because it kind of foreshadows what life is like in the movie and how robots interact with humans.  While watching the movie and seeing this part I thought of it as kind of comedic and very cool that a robot could deliver mail.  But after taking a closer read at the film still that's when I read that this is a symbolic part of the beginning of the movie. For my paper this could be a great discussion because this would be some of the jobs that humans would no longer have if there were robots. This proves that many jobs would be lost.  Looking at the film still this way made me use my critical thinking skills and really analyze the photo.  It also has given me a focus of something that could be written about in my paper.

This film still reveals that the character Detective Spooner (Will Smith) feels threatened by robots.  It also shows that the robot was actually innocent and was trying to help a woman get her purse.  This shows that Will Smith wants a reason to attack the robots or even get rid of all of them for good.  The director has chosen to show clearly the looks of the pedestrians faces as Detective Spooner has the robot down.  This was a great move by the director because it shows that these people are comfortable with robots and they are looking at Detective Spooner in disbelief.  This shows that Detective Spooner is one of the only ones who isn't comfortable with the idea of robots in humans everyday life.  Will Smith's facial expressions in this scene is like "listen I got this guy, look I caught him doing something bad."  But in reality the robot is innocent and was just trying to be helpful.  Looking at the film still has helped me analyze the pedestrians faces which I missed when watching the movie.  This is actually really helpful because it helps me understand that many people may be comfortable with the idea of robots.