About a year ago I was buying some DVDs with my friend Paul. I've known Paul for well over a decade now. We grew up together. Every dumb movie cliché about friendship applies to us. Little did we know that this friendship was about to be shaken to its very core. Paul suggested that I buy the Clive Owen film 'Children of Men'. If I’m totally honest dear reader, I’ve never really forgiven him.
Children of Men which came out in 2006 is, as Wikipedia tells us, 'Set in the United Kingdom of 2027, the film explores a grim world in which two decades of global human infertility have left humanity with less than a century to survive. Societal collapse, terrorism, and environmental destruction accompany the impending extinction. Meanwhile, the
My repeated attempts at editing the films Wikipedia page so that it reads 'How is babby formed? Clive Owen's is a good actor but hasn't picked a good script since Closer' have led to my ip being locked out. So much for democracy.
Children of Men won a number of awards and was critically acclaimed. If this doesn't upset you on some level then we probably don't have much in common. The problem with the movie is its forced political message. Film is a wonderful medium and is great at making people aware of political issues but a political message should never be the reason for the movies existence otherwise you end up with D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. A subtler way to get the message across would have been to send Alec Baldwin on a round the world trip and have him punch anyone with a right wing ideology. I've actually pitched this idea to a number of TV stations and, fingers crossed 'Brawlin' with
Even if you agree with the political message -which I do- it's impossible not to view the movie as preachy. Yeah, ok we get it; immigrants have it pretty fucking rough. Yeah no, I know, people shouldn't allow governments to become all powerful. Stop detracting from your otherwise superb imagery you dumb movie. And, to be fair, the movie really does have some amazing imagery. Its believable vision of the future (ok aside from the whole mystery infertility MacGuffin) is amazing and the movie has a haunting atmosphere. You find you self watching and thinking, 'Actually this isn’t too bad its pretty neat if only they'd stop with the heavy handed oh, no, they've started again.'
Ok, pretend you're at a party (something I do most weekends). You've met a few cool people and then across the room you see a really attractive person standing on their own. You can't understand why nobody is talking to them that’s how hot they are so, you head on over and strike up a conversation. You learn that they're a first year political student so you start talking about politics and realise that you agree on most things. An hour passes and it's become painfully clear why nobody was talking to them. They have not SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. about the evils of Western society. Jesus Christ shut up please. You agree with them, poor people are shit on, racism is bad, the power of government should be kept in che... oh what the hell did they just reference Rage Against the Machine?
Children of Men is that person!
I think the main reason I find Children of Men so repugnant is due to its wasted potential. There's so much going for the movie. The acting is good, the atmosphere and feel of the movie are splendid and it is an interesting story and Michael Caine's role as the scientifically created child of Cheech Marion and Tommy Chong is almost a must see. It's just impossible to get into a movie when any sense of verisimilitude is constantly obliterated by the misuse of heavy handed metaphor.
Anyway, enough of this I’ve got problems to deal with. Alec Baldwin just emailed me about a scheduling conflict we need to resolve ASAP.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
I love you Clive Owen but goddamn is that love complex.
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