Children of Men

Future based movies have always managed to peak my interests because of the correlations that can be drawn to them. In the 1980's, I remember this one movie, "2000", that featured psychotic cyborg teachers out to destroy their ill-behaved students. Then there was "Johnny Mnemonic", who could, at the time, download a whopping 4 gigs into his head for storage! And who can forget the "Back to the Future" trilogy - cheery, beautiful portrayal of the future-filled with hover boards and self-drying jackets. Why do I bring these movies up? Well, because I could draw zero correlations with any of the above movies, because quite frankly, the writers' vision was shortsighted and imagination lacking beyond the usual sci-fi drama (that is not to say that the movies weren't wildly entertaining).


With that said, the one movie that I could draw obvious connection between the present and soon to be future is "Children of Men", starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. Without a doubt, I can't recall being as disturbed with any movie in recent memory than this one. The movie covered many contemporary issues that afflict our society today: mass genocide, illegal immigration, warfare, homeland security, class-ism, and terrorism, and maybe even abortion - all conveniently lumped together into a movie based not too far into the future. There is just so much that I want to dissect about the movie, but that might yield a longer post than what I had originally cut out for. Instead, I merely want to express my thoughts regarding some of the topics covered.

First of all, the movie forces one to reassess the things that we consider important in our lives. As Americans living in a sheltered bubble of flat screen tv's, fast food, and poor dietary choices - we are not exposed to the pain and suffering of other countries - suffering like the genocide in Darfur, tsunami victims of Indonesia, famine in Africa, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and closer to home, death and destruction in New Orleans. We are not exposed to these societal woes because we have the choice not to. This society can be so pre-occupied with meaningless things like materialism, Friday night plans, perhaps even making crap tons of money (and I am not exempt) that we for the most part, fail to truly cherish those things that should matter - relationships, friends, families, and the mere fact that we live in such a sheltered environment at the expense of millions more around the world. We take simple aspects of our lives for granted everyday - safety, trust, access to health care and clean drinking water - that we are blinded from the true things that matter.

The movie thrusts the viewer in the middle; surrounded by the atrocities of war and yet, Clive Owen and the character he plays is immune to the death around him. Could this be a metaphor for Americans now; who are enjoying economic prosperity, low taxes, and cheap oil prices - all while U.S. soldiers fight and die for a cause that the majority of Americans no longer believe in, because we are preoccupied by the things that don't matter? Are we, as Americans generally intolerant of illegal immigrants because of their perceived ill-effects on the general public - effects that are perpetuated by special interest organizations (i.e. the government) to divert our attention from the more pressing issues of neo-colonialism that most people don't bat an eyelash towards? We have turned inward as a society because we fear those perceived threats that could potentially knock us off that pedestal of first-world conveniences - thereby exposing us to the rest of the world. Do we deserve it?

Lastly, in a somewhat related topic, I have been emailing my college professor back and forth since graduation, and he has since moved to the west coast because my college cut funding for the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Nevertheless, he recently spent a couple of weeks in the Nevada dessert, and has seemingly been imposing his Zen-like views onto me, and for the most part, I agree with him. He mentioned that the rocks in the desert took 20million years to crystallized, and yet, we as humans only have a mere few decades to create a meaningful life. He also eluded me to the fact that the serenity infused in him as a result of his experience in the desert, has forced him to reevaluate those things that are illusion (created by his desires) and those things that are real (relationships, family, etc...). How I manage to get into these conversations via email is beyond me. What is important, though, is that I agree with him. He urged me to do things that are fun and meaningful, because our existence on this earth is finite - why not take it to the fullest?