Steven Spielberg is known for his imagination, his ability to create unseen worlds onscreen, and his sense of suspense and adventure. A master creator, he fully realizes the specific worlds in which his films take place. Minority Report puts his skills as a film craftsman on full display. For this film, he called in a group of futurists and consultants to help him construct the world of 2054 dystopian Washington D.C., full of advanced technology, including vertical road systems, self driving cars, flight packs, energy guns and a whole system of PreCrime. Every detail in the film enhances the story and pulls the viewer more fully into the action.
Additionally, Spielberg uses his trademark high contrast lighting in order to increase the dramatic effect of the film. Often, we see Tom Cruise with a dark contrast on one side of his face. Spielberg uses this to great narrative effect, as the image represents how all the characters have a dual nature. Just as the narrative stakes of the film are ethically ambiguous, with characters constantly traversing the line between right and wrong, the visual world reflects this high contrast in the use of lighting, with the chiaroscuro effect mirroring the moral gradient between light and dark. Spielberg also uses a highly specific color palette to create a tone and atmosphere for the film. A blue tint pervades, which creates a moody feeling and a sense of coldness which pulls us further into the narrative and the sense that we are in the future.
Spielberg also uses a slanted camera in many of the suspenseful high-action scenes in order to show the ways that John Anderton is off balance. Additionally, he enhances and highlights emotional moments, such as the moment in which Agatha tells John and Lara about the potential life of their son, Sean, by backlighting the actors with light flooding in from the windows behind them. This natural lighting lends an uncharacteristic softness to the mise en scéne, and inflects the scene with a spiritual quality, as if Agatha is some kind of angelic being sent to bring the couple comfort.
Finally, Spielberg’s masterful camera work is on full display in Minority Report. In the scene between Anderton and Witwer in the elevator of the PrCcrime precinct, Spielberg uses a Steadicam to start on a single shot of Anderton. Then, as Witwer enters the elevator, it becomes a two-shot before moving with the characters as Anderton points his gun at Witwer. Finally, the camera moves out of the elevator leaving Witwer looking baffled as the shot widens. The camera work is reminiscent of Kurosawa, one of Spielberg’s favorite directors, who would in the same shot create multiple camera angles.
