upsidedown house

Children of Men

Walking out of the film Children of Men (universal pictures) my world is upsidedown, but of course I already knew that. Among the 4 of us who went, afterwards we perhaps said a sentence each to one another regarding something we all just experienced that I beleive all felt deserves a good deal of attention. I was so blown away I could barely communicate.

I was told by a Folci loving anarchist punk from Phili, who happens to be one of my best friends, to make sure to go see this film, so now that I can again talk and have been, I am offereing the same advice.

Wow. It's a sci-fi film that takes place 21 years from now in Britain, which by the way, according to the BBC propaganda and other media you see often in the back ground of this film, is the only country that "soldiers on" in the world, which has supposedly collapsed. All women are infertile.

The film came out Jan 5th and we went to see it on MLK day, seemed fitting. I got the feeling that it would not be around for too long, since there were only maybe 4 other people in this huge theatre besides us, but looking at the reviews and such, it seems like everyone is praising it and that it should make some dough for this major media company. Fuck all that though. The reviews are probably mostly crap, including the philosopher film critic they have on the homepage talking about "Christian parables and rootlessness of the boat", whatever. My advice is don't see any trailers, if you want read about it do it after, and go see it immediately, maybe twice. What I want to focus on here is personal and regarding the question: have I ever say anything like it?

Yes, of course there have been other worlds and future times created with magnificence and awesome artistic virtues to it, but never with the ferocity of such dystopian vision for our near future, 2027. Perhaps, two words are in order "what if?", and not just what if women or men became infertile from PVC or some messed up disaster of what used to be our environment, but what if there were any major calamity? I think we would likely see somethings similar to this. I really appreciated what it pulled from recent events and other very subtle cultural nods from the now, because they are of no little consequence for our world to come in my book, or blog. I would even dare say the film is fortuitously unnerving.

Let's see...Tarkovsky's Stalker, no way. Hardware? Used to love it for it's bleak dialogue and romantic vision of radiated zones you are advised to stay out of, but that shit does not even come close. The Children of Men reminded me of nothing I've seen, except when I've witnessed cops abusing people in real life and Abu Graib torture scenes in the media. I'm so gald I am not in the military, that would really expand my horizons. Children of Men was the holocaust meets the apocalypse meets a miracle, all shot in 16 days using a handheld camera! That's just frichin nuts.

At first I was wondering how the hell they got this made and was a little surpised because of the content of this film to see it was made by one of the biggies, but I guess that's just how it works these days and the director turned out to be one of the new big guns on the scene also, so what do I know? I wasn't able to recall the other films of his I'd seen, but got clued in after a little research.

I'm wondering aloud here, but do we live in times when any single peice of art/media stands a chance of widening cracks in the system? The cracks we see through and inform how we interact with the world today? It's a loaded question, but I throw it out there cause I hope that this film could sorta make people wonder and do more than go to the lame fan club thing the film site has set up called, well I won't mention the name, in case it gives something away in the film. Anyways, it seems like it will be a good conversation piece for a minute.

Going back to "what if"; my fingers are usually crossed because the future does not look so good from where I'm standing. Judgiong by the way the US reacted and fell for the war cry, if... if there is an even bigger attack on the US or a new epidemic, say more deadly than AIDS and kills so many so fast that it is too hard to ignore this time, I swear the click will be audible around the world. That is, the click of the ratcheting up of the power the state already weilds to make lives seem worthless and wholly expendable for the sake of maintaining the power and privelege of the few.

Lastly, the violence in the film from both the state and the resistance was intense, but I don't think glorified and that is what I like the most. The "hero" had heart, a decent head, humor, and wasn't down with killing. It obvioulsy would have ruined the message of the movie, at least what I took from it, and I think that matters. They had the good sense not risk that for the sake of money making formulas, like the films we previewed before Children of Men, along with adds for the army and buying some crap we don't need, all of which were infuriating because I already paid my 9 bucks and I'm so over having this shoved down my throat. So, this message I speak of, which maybe I am the only one who gets this from it, was so not so much as preachy for even a moment, and maybe did not even exist beyond what each of us takes from it, for me came from the actions of the hero. I think Children of Men said 'step up and do what it takes to really live and die for all our sake, because it's worth it'. Having seen the film on MLK Day I would like to conclude with this thought. Is what I took from the film all that much different from what Dr. King said in his last speech regarding the Memphis workers he was there to support the day before he was assasinated, when he himself paraphrased someone so many beleive to be wise and one to follow, none other than the jesus, in asking "the question is not what will happen to me if I act, but what will happen to these workers if I do not"?

posted by the upsidedown house @ 2:23 PM