Modern Dystopian Films Seem to Have Moved Away from Their Cult Status and Now Occupy a Place in the Mainstream. Discuss with Reference to Children of Men
Introduction
Dystopian film, the sub-genre of sci-fi, has featured in films since the beginning of the 20th century. Dystopians are typically characterised by their bleak vision of the future, either through totalitarianistic states, post-apocalyptic events, or even a change in society that has alienated people that, in contrast to our civilisation, makes them inhumane. The number of dystopian films has grown each decade, along with their popularity. This may be because advancements in special effects has made it easier to create locations and technology seen in films, or even because fear has grown in our society due to the varied development of media texts. Despite their negative storylines, less than appealing visions of the future, and non-Hollywood endings, their appeal is still growing. In recent years they have moved away from their ‘cult’ status and into mainstream cinema. ‘Children of Men’ is a good example of a new age dystopian. Through it’s filming techniques, attention to detail, relevance to our current political climate, social commentary and it’s modestly hopeful ending, it has become a film which can be watched by a larger and more accessible audience than it’s predecessors
Social Commentary
One of the main reasons dystopians exist is any text is to convey a message to the receiving audience. Dystopian novels were written because the author has observed, or believed they have observed an injustice or unbalanced social responsibility in the system, a problem that they believe will escalate into a catastrophe that would change our futures for the worst. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood was a protest of equal rights in 1980’s America, a male dominated society that could one day revoke all the rights they were forced to give to women. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ was a novel against Stalinist communism and the looming threat of totalitarianism Russia. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess was focused on the growing violent youth gangs forming in the 60’s, separated into Mods and Rockers, put placing it in a not-too-distant future with split becoming greater so that most groups only consist of a few members.
Dystopian films are usually made for the same reasons as the novels they are adapted from. Films, however, focus more on the elements that affect the modern audience. By decade dystopians have followed a trend. In the 1950’s and 60’s the threat of the cold war and totalitarianistic governments was hanging over the US and Western Europe. ‘On the beach’ (1959, Stanley Kramer) was a film about the last days of man after a nuclear war. ‘Fahrenheit 451’ (1966, Francois Truffaut) was a film where reading was banned and a fascist state controlled all. In the 70’s the fear of environmental degradation and over population inspired films such as ‘Soylent Green’ (1973, Richard Fleischer) and ‘Silent Running’ (1972, Douglas Trumbull). The 80’s was a technological fear, with ‘Terminator’ (1984, James Cameron) and Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott) being the most notable. Interestingly the 90’s lacked dystopian films. This may suggest the stability of the 90’s, or even a social disregard or political apathy. However, it’s important to note that not all dystopian films followed these decade trends. These films not only played on the audiences heightened fear, but also tried to make people realise the real threat that our civilisation may be heading towards.
Çuaron also does this in ‘Children of Men’, taking the current moral panics in the nation, and using them to create a meaningful film which explains, in a much more visual way than any other media text, the threats our society is moving into. Çuaron includes messages of violent youths, racism, patriotism, religion, governmental subterfuge and Islamic terrorism. In the film two youths kill the leader of their own renegade group to cause a re-shuffle of power. When one of the bikers is accidentally killed by Theo, his friend vows to take revenge on him. Near the end of ‘Children of Men’ the biker has the chance to deliver retribution to Theo, but before he does he calmly and coldly shoots an innocent man in the head. The way he swaggers, hums a tune and calmly turns his head so he can see the damage the bullet will do to the mans brain suggests at the inbred violence in this youth. Analysis of the biker suggests a lot about the current violence bred into our youths and society. When you take into account the approximate age of the biker, around early twenties, and the date when infertility occurred world wide, this youth was born in the first decade of the new millennium. Most personality traits originate from childhood. The biker was born when violent crime is on the rise and violence in the media is commonplace, this suggests a lot about our current society and out apathy for suffering and pain.
Man’s fear of the afterlife tends to manifest when somebody close to us dies, or when our own demise is near. With all of humanities extinction certain within the next century a lot of new cults and religious sects have appeared. Clive Owen’s character, Theo, and Michael Caine’s, Jasper, briefly discuss a couple of well known religious cults. One such cult sit on their knees for a month and the other flagellate themselves, both groups begging for mercy from god for the crimes of mankind. The desperateness and selfishness of humans and their fear of death has made create new religions and sects to find a way to save themselves, when most of them had no care or belief in religion before.
At the start of the film the coffee shop Theo had only just left explodes, killing almost everybody inside. When Theo travels with Jasper to his secluded house they discuss the bombing incident. Jasper’s belief is that the government plants the bombs themselves, using the excuse of terrorism to drag the spotlight away from their mis-endeavours. With the July 7th bombing only a year behind at the time of the films release, it’s questions the credibility and trust we place in our infallible government. Could our own government be involved in similar actions, or is it really terrorists?
The government supports racism, with civilians told to report anybody they believe not to be British Nationals. Immigrants or refugees, known in the film as ‘fugees’, and rounded up to be placed in camps. With constant panic over the amount of immigrants living in England and the numbers increasing every year it’s not surprising that a large portion of the film focuses on ‘fugees’. Çuaron takes the British opinion of ‘fugees’ one step further then it currently is, with the army and police having little compassion for them, the way they’re collected in cages on street sides, waiting to be sent to camps. It’s not hard to believe the UK travelling down this road.
Although all this extra information adds little to the plot of the film, it gives it depth, prevents it from being a two dimensional world solely focused on the plot. It allows the audience to analyse our own society within the film.
Reality
Dystopians have always held the reputation of ‘cult’, either because of their unpleasant endings, alternative plots, lack of media coverage or simply because they are purposefully aimed at a narrow margin audience. One of the major reasons for their lack of popularity is the realism portrayed in the film. THX 1138 (1971, George Lucas) is a film that has almost no basis on the reality of our society. Set in an underground city where humans are given numbers instead of names, made to consume tranquilisers as part of their diet, robotic masturbation systems are used for sexual release and people are told to buy pointless items to keep industry running. THX 1138 is a film that is focused more on symbolism rather than plot or reality.
Unlike most dystopians where there are only one or two explanations as to why the world has changed drastically from our own, Çuaron has more then one explanation. Although infertility plays a large role in the downfall of humanity, it’s not the only event to happen, we learn that Theo and his ex-wife, Julian, attended large protests against the Iraq War when they were young. A nuclear bomb was detonated in Africa, floods of immigrants have fled from their own war torn countries to England, only to be rounded up and sent to concentration camps, racism is promoted by the government and there is speculation whether terrorist bombs in London are planned by extremists, or by the government themselves and a pandemic in 2010 (a current hot topic with the growing fear of avian flu) has destroyed a large part of the worlds population.
Using all these aspects of political, military, environmental and social downfall, Çuaron creates richly detailed and solid world, its attention to detail makes it a lot more frighteningly realistic. Its references to the Iraq war and the terrorist exploits of Muslim fanatics immediately give us something to relate to. It seems that even if the infertility problem didn’t occur it wouldn’t make much difference to the state of the world, a thought shared by Theo in a discussion with Jasper,
‘The whole world went to shit even before the baby crisis for fucks sake’
The use of well-known locations such as Regent Street also helps the audience relate to the film. By making the well known street look run down and full of black rubbish bags, we can see how low the country is sinking if one of the cleanest and most famous streets in London is full of filth.
Çuaron’s choice in camera angles and filming style greatly affects the realism of the film. Referring back to THX 1138, George Lucas’ use of camera style, stable long shots and cold lighting creates a distanced feeling between the audience and the film. Children of Men is filmed completely with hand held camera’s, every shot shakes and Çuaron tries to keep the shots at eye level. One scene where Theo watches his friend die whilst hiding in the forest is shot from a long distance. We see the shot from about the same distance as Theo does. Relating to the film is easier for the audience because Çuaron has almost lent us the use of eyes, instead of a camera. In the war town street of the ‘fugee’ camp we run along behind Theo, we hide in rubble as bullets thud into the wall behind. We feel like we are experiencing what the characters are living through. The mixture of events, filming style and location helps the audience relate to the film, and the hopeful ending is less likely to effect people in a negative way once they’ve left the cinema.
Psychology of Audience/Happy Endings
Hollywood is famous for it’s happy endings, a tradition that dystopians classically ignore. ‘1984’ (1984, Michael Radford), ‘Eraser Head’ (1977, David Lynch) and ‘Brazil’ (1985, Terry Gilliam) are all examples of negative films. In fact, Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ had such a negative ending the studio feared they wouldn’t make a profit and re-edited the film to create the infamous ‘Happily Ever After’ version. Other dystopians decided to use the negative end format, but much more subtly, for example, in Soylent Green Charleton Heston’s character manages to tell his superior officer, along with a church full of homeless people the secret behind Soylent Green. However, the audience already knows that without Soylent Green, the food supplies wouldn’t be able to support the population. Despite the hope of the character, dramatic irony means that the audience understands the earth has reached such a state that it can never heal or repair fully. Humanity is nearing its end.
As discussed, directors usually end dystopians on a sad or despairing action. This is a moral challenge to the audience. Dystopians question our lifestyles, social aspects or even political apathy and the depravity that may spawn from them if we continue in our current habits. If the characters experience a positive ending, the entire impact of the film would be destabilised. A negative ending gives the audience ‘food for thought’ when they leave the cinema. We question our society, are we doing enough to prevent a situation like this, morally, politically and industrially? The seminal question which begins all of these being, ‘could this really happen to us?’
A dystopians effect on the audience is greatly increased by the relevance of the character to modern society, if they share our morals and ideologies. In Equilibrium the hero, John Preston believes people should be allowed access to their emotions. Although eh understands the pain and problems that emotions can inflict on people, he believes them to be well worth it. Dupont, however, believes the opposite. Without emotions people are joined in unity, war is forgotten and peace reins supreme, albeit at a costly price. Although both sides of the argument have valid points today’s audience would almost unanimously flock to the Hero’s point of view. We believe being emotionless would remove what makes us human.
Another reason that dystopians have never been in the mainstream is because of audience denial. When we watch these films and we see the events currently surrounding our society and how they have created these nightmarish worlds, we don’t like it. People don’t like the thought that we’re destroying our children’s future. It’s similar when the news is broadcasting information about a murder or rape, we deny the thought that it could happen to us, it’s something that only happens to other people. This is belief is shared when people watch a dystopian film, we deny the idea that the events could ever possibly happen to us, and the easiest way to reinforce this is to ignore the film, or hate it.
Genres
In the last decade cinema has become more varied. With Holly Wood drying out of original ideas many more independent and foreign films are entering the cinema. With their increase in popularity Holly Wood has also begun to experiment, not just with stories, but with directors as well. As Holly Wood in the 60’s began to hand cameras over to newer and younger directors and a new wave of cinema began, Holly Wood is beginning to hand cameras, and budgets, to independent directors. Çuaron Çuaron, with only a few films underneath his belt, and one of them being a Mexican
One of the current experiments occurring in cinema is the amalgamation of clichéd genres, comedy with horror, action with drama; directors are constantly playing with traditional genres. A modern example is Shaun Of The Dead. Shaun of the Dead used the plot of a typical zombie film, defend and wait for rescue, and then mixed in the romantic comedy genre.
This crossover of genres could also be another explanation as to why Children of Men and other modern dystopians have moved into the mainstream. At a quick glance the last big three dystopians are; ‘The Matrix’, ‘V for Vendetta’ and Children of Men. Each of these films used a genre crossing technique. The Matrix and V for Vendetta crossed over sci-fi dystopian with action. The blend of technological, social and environmental events surrounding the past of these worlds, along with their ‘high-octane’ action made them hugely popular at the box office. They also had a large effect on the way people looked at technology and their government. When the matrix was released people began to question reality, and whether AI was, and is, a good idea, and how far we should let it evolve. After v for vendetta was released newspapers began to compare events in the film to what is happening in our current society. With several newspapers warning Tony Blair to be careful!
Children of Men, although having several action sequences, is focused on the traditional British drama. This is one of the reasons why Çuaron was able to create a world much richer and deeper than either of the Wachowski Brother’s films. By giving the film time to focus on characters relationships and their emotions, we have a better understanding why they do what they do. Çuaron’s ability to create a more detailed and believable world than most previous dystopians using a mixture of techniques and genres has made it more accessible to a larger audience that it’s predecessors. We have dramatic scenes where Theo and Jasper are sitting and discussing their situations in life, in typical dramatical dialogue. However, near the end of the film we are thrown into scenes that could of come from Saving Private Ryan.
Conclusion
As the above evidence suggests there is no single reason why dystopian films have grown in popularity in the last few decades. It has been a mixture of technique, social and moral panic, plotline and relevance to our modern society. These elements have moved dystopians out of their old niche and into a larger audience. The problem is, if there are more dystopians being released, will they lose their edge and effect on people, and most important, the whole point of their creation?
