Children of Men

My husband and I watched Children of Men yesterday. The premise of the movie in itself is incredibly interesting, but if you don't watch the commentary after the movie, you miss out on probably the most important parts of it. While the movie is one big metaphor exaggerating our current reality and projecting what might happen to the world as a result of capitalism and globalization, the commentary after the movie was by far the most thought-provoking part of this DVD.

The gist of it is that while capitalism tries to break down physical barriers in order to facilitate the free exchange of money, the result of globalization has been the actual opposite -- with physical barriers being put up everywhere, e.g. in the border between Mexico and the US. I also thought some comments about how our global economy is more like a "crack addict" than a "thinking human being who learns from his/her mistakes" were very true (though sad). There is also in the commentary section a great piece about how our current political system is based on fear, some other comments about "Green Zones" places in international locations where the rich people live in a gated community or "bubble" while the world around them goes to pieces. It reminds me of how our company ex-pats that get sent abroad talk about this very same thing. And finally, there was some more commentary about Global Warming which was really quite scary. Suffice it to say once I sell the other house I will be buying land in Alaska (you have to see the commentary to get that comment).

All the commentary is brought to you by philosophers and cultural critics such as Slavoj Zizek which I felt were very interesting even if I didn't always agree with their point of view.

For some reason all I could think last night was imagine if I had only gone to the movie theater instead of renting the movie on Netflix? I would have missed out on this incredible commentary. (Added 5/31/07: last night we went back into the special features and found a section about how the movie was shot, this blew my mind as well! Turns out they set out to shoot it in documentary style which meant longer shots without cutting, which meant every scene had to be rehearsed many many times so that they could get it perfectly timed. There's a CONTINUOUS 12 minute scene in a car which was shot using completely new techniques. It's sad that as you're watching the movie you don't appreciate that very much. You know there's something DIFFERENT about the scene but you just can't put your finger on it. Those camera guys do some amazing work that sometimes goes completely unrecognized).

Anyway, here's the excerpt from the movie's web site, the movie is based on the 1992 novel written by P.D. James:

No children. No future. No hope.

In the year 2027, eighteen years since the last baby was born, disillusioned Theo (Clive Owen) becomes an unlikely champion of the human race when he is asked by his former lover (Julianne Moore) to escort a young pregnant woman out of the country as quickly as possible. In a thrilling race against time, Theo will risk everything to deliver the miracle the whole world has been waiting for. Co-starring Michael Caine, filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men is the powerful film Pete Hammon of Maxim calls 'magnificent...a unique and totally original vision'.

Rent it today, you really won't regret it. And don't forget to watch the commentary, but only AFTER seeing the movie. I also thought I'd add another link I found to a blog that previously reviewed the movie, especially since I borrowed their image for this blog entry.