'Children of Men' film discussion

 

Children of Men is set in a Britain of the near future, in the midst of global warfare and strife, and also years after a crisis of infertility among women; no babies have been born for over a decade and a half. The action is almost literally centered around the main character Theo, as nearly the entirety of the film is shot from a hand-held, shaky, voyeuristic perspective, and we view the surrounding action based on what is happening around Theo. The film itself feels very much like a videogame vignette. The vivid, sharp visuals; the mechanical, fast-paced, superficial dialogues; the camera suddenly and voyeuristically tilting this way or that to expose another action-scene taking place from another angle; all contribute to the sense the film texturally is not very different from a videogame vignette. 

Throughout the film, elements of a Big Brother, 1984-style techno-authoritarianism are interspersed: in the midst of total decay, chaos and poverty are clean, hi-tech screens advertising or spreading anti-immigrant propaganda. The anti-immigrant, or illegal immigrant, policy is so heavy handed in the film that immigrants from every corner of the planet are kept in cages and transported to prisoner camps. As always, the wealthy in the film are living in extreme luxury, though popping pills, and the poor suffering the full effects of the global meltdown: a trope found in nearly every dystopian film and essay so far.

Often the camera spins around in an ‘eyeline match’ shot, following the direction of Theo’s gaze, suggesting total immersion in the action of the film. In this way the film almost seems to be unconsciously mimicking videogames. Emotional or human depth of any kind isn’t there, or is only hinted at; though that is a common facet of dystopian fictions. Instead the film focuses on short, choppy conversation, and in detailing the environment and action within the mutilated environment. Again, there is the suggestion of respite from the horror and chaos of the dystopian society to be found in nature, or symbolized at least by nature; in this instance, at the hidden home in the forest of the old science-wizard hippie. Many times the film hints at, that in the midst of global meltdown, invoking old traditional spirituality, in almost a New-Age kind of way: for example, Hindu language and ‘OMMM…’ after Julia had been killed and laid out in the forest.

The film is very successful in creating a devastated landscape, where people from all over the world are being hunted down, imprisoned, or killed by black-outfitted military personnel. Is it a coincidence that the final skirmish scene, the Uprising, happens right after or during an Islamic protest march (which much like the rest of the actions in the film has no background context, but comes out of nowhere, going to nowhere)? It seems that a dystopian film like Children of Men, with its title apparently suggesting some kind of profundity, might end up serving as a kind of dystopian ‘realism’ of some kind, and which may ‘ideologically inoculate’ its audience of probably younger viewers (videogame players) in many ways that end up ‘enclosing them within the very social realities they disparagingly oppose’(Naturalism and Dystopia). This may be the case if only in utilizing the videogame format visually and texturally and ideologically in a way that seems to leave people feeling comfortable or ‘enclosed’; this is also shown in the kind of soppy sentimental witty-banter the characters often display. So its not quite clear at what level, if any, Children of Men functions in a didactic, cautionary, or contributive way.