Children of Men - Discussion thread (1 Viewer)

[Tim Glover]

I do understand the point about that....but Caine was a free spirit in this film so to speak...the long hair....the drug usage....the music....that somehow fit his character.

He knew he was a dead man anyway....

With guns pointed at me I would be quickly begging for forgiveness to whom all I was an asshole to in my life but that's just me.

 

[Henry Gale]

Pointed?

His last "pull my finger" came after being capped in both knees.

I'll just assume the character self-medicated knowing the end was not going to be pretty.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Especially On Deadly Ground.

 

[Blake Siefken]

Oh ...right. Well, I'm an idiot.

[sound of foot being inserted into mouth]

 

[rich_d]

I really liked it. I (like many others) would like to see it again.

Alfonso Cuarón is a director that I don't know that much about but now am interested in learning more. I've had Y tu mamá también for a couple years on DVD and never watched it. It's now on the viewing list.

 

[Adam_S]

netlfix just shipped me y tu mama tambien. definitelylooking forward to it.

 

[SteveJKo]

Caught this excellent movie Tuesday night. There was a group of us, and every one of us needed a beer after the film. This lead to hours of discussion, which I felt was fueled by the director not spelling everything out to us, but simply "dropping hints". The two biggest topics (at least for this round, we're all going to see it again) were:

- What other laws have come into existence due to the infertility? This was started by the quick glimpse of a billboard saying it was against the law to NOT be tested for fertility. Of our group of six, exactly half are gay, and it was a gay friend who suggested the outlawing of homosexuality (and any other form of sex that wouldn't have a chance to result in pregnancy) taking place in the world of "Children of Men"

- Theo's nephew, was he ill or "out of touch". Suprisingly, this one very brief scene with Theo's brother screaming to his son to take his pill became a major topic of discussion. And it was the one father in our group who suggested that the boy was not ill at all, instead he suggested this was the directors sly comment on our overmedication of children, as well as their "addiction" to computer "gaming".

Looking forward to seeing this again over the weekend. No doubt we'll be back at that bar right after the film!

 

[Stephen_L]

SteveJKO, the more I thought about your question of the laws of an infertile world the more intrigued I became with the question. Wasn't there a best-seller and film called "The Handmaid's Tale" where only a few women were fertile in the world and it became their duty to be inseminated at the orders of government authorities? I can imagine the outlawing of birth control, manditory testing of all adolescents and other draconian measures to try to save the species.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I can see heterosexual sex being a mandated obligation of society regardless of sexual orientation. I don't, however, see how safe consentual homosexual sex interferes with that. They probably figure, the world's ending, the species is dying, let people do whatever the hell they want.

 

[SteveJKo]

Adam those were my thoughts too. But my friend pointed out that in this world where no new people are being born, where you'd expect people to have a live and let live attitude, there are those who are still finding reasons to kill each other, therefore it's not unreasonable to expect some people to still be trying to control other peoples personal lives. I'm still not sure I agree, but it's an interesting train of thought in any case.

Stephen_L, I was trying to remember the name of that film, thanks for bringing it up. Very good, but very depressing (some might say just like the one we are discussing here).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The thing I found interesting was that Alfonso Cuarón created a new character to be pregnant, instead of it being Julian like in the book. Kee being an illegal immigrant from Fiji and Cuarón being a Mexican national, I wonder if it was his idea to make the character as a statement about the unforeseen value of the illegal aliens in our midst.

 

[Mike.P]

I'm not really sure if I agree with that was the purpose he was speaking on - while it certainly could be perceived he was speaking directly at the value of illegal aliens, I felt he was speaking more on the value of any human being.

It seems an important point was made by Cuaron that, much like our own society, so many people are concerned with their own agendas that it clouds their judgement. The fishers (fishes? whatever ) felt they needed Kee and her baby to unite their struggle for freedom, and they also felt that the government would want no part of a black refugee giving birth to the first child in nearly 20 years.

Then there was Theo, the voice of reason. He said to make it public - and it would seem that the end of the film proved that ultimately, his voice may have been the right one. When people saw that Kee had a baby, they stopped fighting - the refugees in the camp, the soldiers, the guerillas - they all stopped and just marveled that there may be hope. When someone broke the silence of that part of the film with a mortar shot, the soldiers (and seemingly everyone) responded by absolutely bombarding the area where the shots came from, almost to say "What the hell is the matter with you?".

It actually reminded me in a way of the end of the Watchmen (if you've read the comic) - what event would need to occur where people could set aside differences in ideologies and political agendas and realize that something needs to be done? It would seem that something as monumental as the first birth in 20 years would certainly cause people to set aside their differences.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The most stirring scene I've experienced in a theater in a very long time, literally to the point of choking me up. It's also the most important scene in the film because (in addition to summarizing the whole theme of the movie in one scene) it's the scene that cemented the film's status as not another guts-and-gore flick. I wrote in my review, "During their journey we see people dying and dead [via] very gruesome [means]. The horrific acts are shown unflinchingly, even casually, yet they carry more impact than the bodies that pile up in so many films. Cuarón spaces each despicable sight perfectly, holding back just enough that we never become desensitized to the violence and brutality." These is the scene that elevates the menagerie of brutality by providing a contrast. The violence and death is necessary to unflinchingly demonstrate what's at stake. The procession of the newborn — in addition to affirming the sanctity of childhood, which has always been an important part of my values — showcases the power of hope. How much of the real world violence churns out from the desperation and hopelessness of the people that became engaged in it? It reminds me of Marlon Brando's speech from the beginning of the 1978 Superman movie: "They can be a great people ... they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way." That the light to show these people the way is life itself is staggeringly moving in a way that I just can't get my head around.

 

[Brian-A]

Wait a second... there were gorillas in the film?

 

[Patrick Sun]

This is the scene that would have had me crying for 10 minutes had I watched this in the privacy of my home and not at the theater.

 

[Mike.P]

Oh, damn - that was an unforgivable typo on my part! I really need to get into the habit of proofreading .

 

[Brian-A]

I know what you mean. Sitting in awe in the theatre as I watched that scene, part of me was drawn into the movie but another part realized how profound and amazing this was... this was historic cinema.

 

[nickGreenwood]

My friend Nate and I went saw this last night, firstly we have a newly built theater in our area which has an amazing sound system, we could hear things that we would never have dreamed of hearing. People talking behind Theo as he was walking and so forth. Comfy seats also help.

We both said we weren't sure what to expect when we walked in, at the end we both agreed it was an amazing piece of film. Such a conversation fodder film, it hits all sorts of things, politics, religion, and more. I didn't remember during the film that Cuaron was the director of the film, but I loved the way it was shot, a lot of walking with the characters, almost gave it that documentary feel to it. Sort of a "we're actually here shooting it and we're not going to stop until we feel we need to" look, one of the most interesting choices was the scene where the blood splattered on the camera, most directors would switch to another shot to get a "clean" look, but Cuaron kept the shot going and for the next 2 minutes or so we still had the blood drying on the lens. Very effective directing, and he was the co-writer on the film, which worked, I think it made the directing that much more effective.

I agree with the scene at the end where Kee, Theo and the baby are walking out of the apartment building was one of the best scenes in the movie, and that was the full of hope moment. Since the topic of Mary and Joseph has been sort of tied into this, the people trying to touch/see the baby, were similar in ways to the Shepard's that were told to visit the baby Jesus. When the mortar started back up it scared the crap out of me, and that was one of the most intriguing parts of the film was the sound. I normally can get comfortable with the guns going off and stuff, but I never could with this film, I just never knew when it was going to happen and it sounded so realistic and loud that I almost always jumped when a gun shot went off.

I very much want to see this film again, especially with a group of my other friends, it would be interesting to get some conversations going.

 

[SteveJKo]

Adam I found it interesting that after seeing the first baby in almost two decades, the "power of hope" only lasted long enough for the baby to be carried away. Kee is barely out of the building and soldiers and "Fishers", or whatever they were called, are at it again. Their need to kill each other just could not be overriden even by this sign that humanity just might go on after all.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Well, that's just life. It held off until the opponents (who presumably knew nothing about the baby) started pounding the piss out of them with mortar shells. Hope and awe aside, if they don't fight back they'll die. Just getting it to stop for a moment, in the middle of a scene of total war, is miracle enough.