Director Alfonso Cuaron Responds To Scientific Critics About ‘Gravity’

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Director Alfonso Cuaron Responds To Scientific Critics About ‘Gravity’

Scientist Neil DeGrasse-Tyson went on quite a Twitter rant after seeing Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Gravity’ this summer’s sleeper hit starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. You can read DeGrasse-Tyson’s tirade here.

The director has remained mum regarding this and other criticisms of his sci-fi thriller, but he finally opened up about it in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“It is [accurate]! I mean, maybe those people did not realize that Sandra Bullock is not an astronaut in real life. We tried to be as accurate as possible in the frame of our fiction. And the funny thing is that we get the criticism from people on Earth, but astronauts love the film. They say it’s the closest thing to being in space. That we have things that are not accurate? Of course — and actually, we know about them. And we chose to disregard those things, because we wanted first of all to honor the emotional journey of the film. The funny thing in all of these things — nobody has picked up on the most obvious one. And that is that when Sandra takes off her astronaut suit, she would be wearing an adult diaper. And obviously, we chose not to do that. And the same thing with the orbital planes and stuff. We chose not to do that. It’s a movie. It’s a movie!”

Despite the shaky reaction, the film turned into a surprise hit this summer, serving as a more subtle alternative to the fast-paced action norm. I don’t see anyone dissecting ‘Thor: The Dark World’ over its scientific inaccuracy. At no point was ‘Gravity’ sold as a documentary or “based on a true story.”

As an aside, can I just point out that in movies that are based on true stories, the people are always MUCH, MUCH more attractive?

Are you willing to overlook inaccurate elements in favor of entertainment value? Or would you prefer movie makers take a more realistic approach?