It's hard to tell what being human really is supposed to look like from these nebulous vignettes by Robin Williams. The best I can come up with is the above equation, but I don't really think that was his goal in this ill-advised attempt at a serious film about the subject.
First, the narrators, far from provoking interest in the upcoming material, bore us to death with pretentious generalizations and leading questions until we no longer care much what's coming as long as it means they'll soon shut up for a while as the next vignette is dramatized.
Second, Robin's recurring male character, Hector, presents us with a rather doubtful example of humanity, since he is out of step with the rest of his peers. How can Hector be a valid example when there are so many humans that contradict his character? Far from being an everyman, he is a marginal example at best. He never seems to aspire to anything higher than his own selfish desires. He takes advantage of people with nobler aspirations, and then wonders why they disparage him as a loser and a fool. If being human means being largely clueless about virtues, I guess that shows something, but I'm not buying it. Using a recurring male character as the focus of humanity seems also to be rather sexist, doesn't it?
Then there's the whole question of whether reincarnation is implied..... Unfortunately, nothing in this film is consistent enough to say one way or the other. If Hector is being reincarnated, he's going to be at it for a long time, since he's not learning anything from one cycle to the next. He hates being a slave, but then becomes the same type of foolish master that he himself had in a previous incarnation. I think it's best to just not consider this question further, since either way this film proves nothing about being human either way.
Bottom line, if Hector is being human, then count me out of humanity, PLEASE!
First, the narrators, far from provoking interest in the upcoming material, bore us to death with pretentious generalizations and leading questions until we no longer care much what's coming as long as it means they'll soon shut up for a while as the next vignette is dramatized.
Second, Robin's recurring male character, Hector, presents us with a rather doubtful example of humanity, since he is out of step with the rest of his peers. How can Hector be a valid example when there are so many humans that contradict his character? Far from being an everyman, he is a marginal example at best. He never seems to aspire to anything higher than his own selfish desires. He takes advantage of people with nobler aspirations, and then wonders why they disparage him as a loser and a fool. If being human means being largely clueless about virtues, I guess that shows something, but I'm not buying it. Using a recurring male character as the focus of humanity seems also to be rather sexist, doesn't it?
Then there's the whole question of whether reincarnation is implied..... Unfortunately, nothing in this film is consistent enough to say one way or the other. If Hector is being reincarnated, he's going to be at it for a long time, since he's not learning anything from one cycle to the next. He hates being a slave, but then becomes the same type of foolish master that he himself had in a previous incarnation. I think it's best to just not consider this question further, since either way this film proves nothing about being human either way.
Bottom line, if Hector is being human, then count me out of humanity, PLEASE!