Art Fags Corner - Childern Of Men

[Sleazy]

OK I just saw Children Of Men and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the artsy side of the film. Definitely had a lot of things going on. Here's some of my thoughts(warning, spoilers below):

Main Theme

The evils of fascism\politics\bigotry and how people loose sight of the big picture (Human Rights, we're all in the same boat, etc...) when they become blinded by politics\ideology. And that one person can make a difference.


Thematic Elements

the baby
represents the human factor, human rights, caring about humanity

fertility plague
represents the human race loosing it's ability to care more about people than politics

baby's momma
I think it was important that she was a refugee. I think this was putting emphasis on how they get swept under the rug and have their human rights violated and how it would take something this monumental for people to actually care about a refugee's child

Theo (hero)
represents the political apathy of middle age. represents giving up on problems that are too big and too out of control, accepting the world for the mess that it has become (possibly represents the middle in American politics but maybe not)

Future
represents now. the way the director showed the future in such a realistic and current way to me seems to indicate that the future is now

Floating Pig
obvious Floyd reference but I don't know Floyd well enough to know. It was given in the context of Theo's rich cousin who was protecting "his" great works of art (Picasso, etc...) from the world but this was also preventing this art from being shared.

Morning the Death of the youngest human
Mob mentality at it's worst. sums up all the bad things about it. flags after 9-11, celebrity worship, etc... Also shows how much more people put weight into celebrity over real world events like war

Jasper (liberal hippy)
not sure, seemed to be most sympathetic to the viewer so possibly telling a bit about how the director feels politically but at the same time, his main obsession is growing exotic strains of weed which is a pretty shallow exploit considering the state of the world and the fact that he is a liberal hippy.

Julianne Moore
represents what Theo has lost. she represents the purity of the ideals of the rebellion without being blinded by politics and missing the big picture like the other rebels

Human Project
reinforces the main theme, the goal is to find your way back to humanity where there is a better tomorrow (which was also the name of the boat that you had to ride on to get to the human project)

[loophole]

i really like the film, but i havent really thought a lot of things through all that much. i'm wondering what the political statements and messages are in the film that are relevant in todays world.


i'm sounding like i'm some teacher asking for an essay, aren't i

[Sleazy]

I think it can be applied to a lot of politcal themes of today.

Bigotry against homosexuals and how people loose sight of the human side. Channey??? WTF that's your daughter...


The War - pretty obvious. Americans were blinded by politics and will eventually become Theo about the situation. I think the movie maker may be hoping that we are also like theo in that we could find our inner spirit again and quest after bigger things like we did when we were a younger nation. Each of the players in the film could represent a political offiliation and it's problems under this interpretation. Julien Moore represent objective idealism, Jasper the good hearted liberal left and it's lack of maximizing on it's potential due to too much hippy chilling, "the youngest man dies" shows the problems with how we reacted to 9-11, etc...

Actually now that I have fleshed this out a bit, I like it. Maybe this movie is a call to the American public. Don't forget your principles, dont' forget the ideals you had as a young nation.


I think there are plenty of other applications that could be made but to me it seemed like the director was making a bigger point about the problems with the team mentality in politics that pop up in almost every situation. People get too tied up in their cause without thinking about the human side. Without being able to be concerned about the poeple who's lifes are crushed in the presuit of their cause.

[jared...]

The Science of Sleep left me in a bewildered state...I went home and painted.

it comes out on DVD tomorrow.  I'm pretty excited.  I relate a lot to the main character, in that I live in my head too much and overanalyze everything to the point where I can't cope with reality.

children of men...I'll play the stupid american stereotype and say I didn't like the ending.  even though I did.  I went with some friends and they were bummed because it wasn't spelled out for them.  Same with Pan's labyrinth.  I left the theater with my jaw on the floor for all of these films.  You can apply a lot of christian themes to the children of men storyline...but I don't really like talking about this shit.

[bert]

I liked the film but I found it a bit too on the nose sometimes. Also, a bit more context would have been nice.

[strutter]

[the j]

call me a conspiracy theorist but

the vaccinations we've been getting and our children will be getting could cause shit happening to the body like the new hpv shit out in texas

and fuckin autism alot of times kids get that soon after immunization asthe trace amounts of aluminum and other metals in the vaccine  have gone to the brain(this shit happens)

so in context to the movie it seems like one of those things written way long ago that seems to be the inevitable truth of the future.

[plastic bench nerd]

OK I just saw Children Of Men and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the artsy side of the film. Definitely had a lot of things going on. Here's some of my thoughts(warning, spoilers below):

Main Theme

The evils of fascism\politics\bigotry and how people loose sight of the big picture (Human Rights, we're all in the same boat, etc...) when they become blinded by politics\ideology. And that one person can make a difference.


Thematic Elements

the baby
represents the human factor, human rights, caring about humanity

fertility plague
represents the human race loosing it's ability to care more about people than politics

baby's momma
I think it was important that she was a refugee. I think this was putting emphasis on how they get swept under the rug and have their human rights violated and how it would take something this monumental for people to actually care about a refugee's child

Theo (hero)
represents the political apathy of middle age. represents giving up on problems that are too big and too out of control, accepting the world for the mess that it has become (possibly represents the middle in American politics but maybe not)

Future
represents now. the way the director showed the future in such a realistic and current way to me seems to indicate that the future is now

Floating Pig
obvious Floyd reference but I don't know Floyd well enough to know. It was given in the context of Theo's rich cousin who was protecting "his" great works of art (Picasso, etc...) from the world but this was also preventing this art from being shared.

Morning the Death of the youngest human
Mob mentality at it's worst. sums up all the bad things about it. flags after 9-11, celebrity worship, etc... Also shows how much more people put weight into celebrity over real world events like war

Jasper (liberal hippy)
not sure, seemed to be most sympathetic to the viewer so possibly telling a bit about how the director feels politically but at the same time, his main obsession is growing exotic strains of weed which is a pretty shallow exploit considering the state of the world and the fact that he is a liberal hippy.

Julianne Moore
represents what Theo has lost. she represents the purity of the ideals of the rebellion without being blinded by politics and missing the big picture like the other rebels

Human Project
reinforces the main theme, the goal is to find your way back to humanity where there is a better tomorrow (which was also the name of the boat that you had to ride on to get to the human project)

going to watch it tonight.

[j....soy.....]

someone told me they didn't have any lazers or nothing in this movie....

[hair_this_raw]

Theo is also Greek for God

[realitycontrol]

i think i remember a 1984 reference, how you can lower the volume of the tv (or telescreen) but it can never be turned off.

[Alexactly]

Hey guys, thanks for ruining my favorite movie of the year.

[syn]

I think I'm the only person that disliked this movie. Seemed like an overly long political ad - loud, biased, and not very clever

[trent steel]

i enjoyed the recent straight to dvd american pie moves, would i like this?

[hair_this_raw]

i enjoyed the 20 minute long takes that put to shame tarantinos

[Sleazy]

i enjoyed the 20 minute long takes that put to shame tarantinos

I believe that they used their special effects on things like this, which is a welcome change from the not so subtle pixel bombardment you usually get with these films.

[Sleazy]

children of men...I'll play the stupid american stereotype and say I didn't like the ending.

I fucking hate that. Some people can't make the distinction between art films and films that are purely for literal entertainment (romantic comedys, block buster action films, etc...). Some films satisfy both sides well, like the english patient, quiz show, purple rose of cario, etc... but some are more just on the art side of the fence and don't really felsh out a literal plot.

Like peolpe who were disappointed when the frogs rained down in Magnolias or people who didn't like the "lets go home and fuck" ending of eyes wide open.

The point of these films is not to provide an easily assesible warm fuzzy for the lowest common denominator, thats what Terminator and the Breakup are for, these films are more for people who want to think deeper about a movies.

It's like reading a poem but critiquing it as a short story.

"I didn't like the way that ended, what happened to the boy..."

Your missing the ponit. Thats just not way you read poetry, you read it for imagery and themes and all that shit.

[syn]

Expand Quote

children of men...I'll play the stupid american stereotype and say I didn't like the ending.

[close]

I fucking hate that. Some people can't make the distinction between art films and films that are purely for literal entertainment (romantic comedys, block buster action films, etc...). Some films satisfy both sides well, like the english patient, quiz show, purple rose of cario, etc... but some are more just on the art side of the fence and don't really felsh out a literal plot.

Like peolpe who were disappointed when the frogs rained down in Magnolias or people who didn't like the "lets go home and fuck" ending of eyes wide open.

The point of these films is not to provide an easily assesible warm fuzzy for the lowest common denominator, thats what Terminator and the Breakup are for, these films are more for people who want to think deeper about a movies.

It's like reading a poem but critiquing it as a short story.

"I didn't like the way that ended, what happened to the boy..."

Your missing the ponit. Thats just not way you read poetry, you read it for imagery and themes and all that shit.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


the themes in it are what? a dystopia created by the government? the gap between the rich and the poor? environmental degradation? immigration nightmares? loss of humanity?

Blade Runner addressed every single one of these themes 20 years ago, and didnt treat the audience like idiots by constantly screaming it in their face.  I thought the story was poorly written by lazy industry types - oh shit, how will they get out now with a baby? wait, heres a freindy gypsy lady who's only purpose and intent in the film is to help them out, then dissappear, and conveniently return to give them a boat.

I'm not american, and I'm not right wing, and I hated the ending. In contrast to your view, I believe what they chose to go with gave it a 'feel good' finish, so people would say "wow, im going to bring my kids to see this, its deep!". If they wanted to make a point, she should have missed the boat and died out there, but then again there really wasnt a point to be made; just a holier-than-thou director trying to relate his 'unique vision' to us - the fat, apathetic, ignorant audience


fuck this movie

[Sleazy]

I thought it was more about fascism and dangers of being blinded by politics. I haven't seen blade runner in a while so not sure if that was a central theme there or not.

the ending for me was just wrapping up the themes by suggesting that the key to Tomorrow (name of boat) was returning to humanity (human project).

The name of the boat is too obvious not to have meaning and same with the Human Project.

[syn]

I thought it was more about fascism and dangers of being blinded by politics. I haven't seen blade runner in a while so not sure if that was a central theme there or not.

the ending for me was just wrapping up the themes by suggesting that the key to Tomorrow (name of boat) was returning to humanity (human project).

The name of the boat is too obvious not to have meaning and same with the Human Project.

well thats why I'm dissappointed in this movie - everything is so obvious and transparent, its as if we're too stupid to figure it out for ourselves. I'd heard alot about children of men and was excited about seeing it, but then came out of the cinema and felt as if I'd just listened to a church sermon delivered by a patronising preacher.

Getting arty, a theme he could have explored more thoroughly was the extinction of man in the world he creates , whether by design or acident (a good movie for this is 12 Monkeys, based on an old French film called La Jetee), but instead, he chooses the easy way out for science fiction movie adaptors: 1 part 1984, 1 part Brave New World, 99 parts blowing shit up

[tonycoxhox]

I'm starting to have second thoughts about taking film studies in college.

[Sleazy]

I'd try a bit of everything if I was you. I definitely enjoyed the film classes I took. Kind of ruined a lot of movies for me but then opened up a lot of things too.

Like we talked about how Speilberg hits pretty hard on the artsy side even in his big block busters which suprised me as I thought his blockbusters where all just eye candy. The old guy who ran Jurassic Park was supposed to represent speilberg in that movie. The scene where he talks about running a flea circus and making things appear to be what they aren't definitely was unnecessary unless it was Speilberg referencing himself and his craft and speilberg was the creator of Jurassic park, just like the guy in the movie so it makes sense.

[Penis_Monster]

I'd try a bit of everything if I was you. I definitely enjoyed the film classes I took. Kind of ruined a lot of movies for me but then opened up a lot of things too.

i know what you mean. I'm doing that right now. The majority of my time spent in class consists of me rolling my eyes and thinking "really???" But it's all good though..

[Penis_Monster]

if i were to do redo the end of 'children of men'........i woul've just left Kee out there all by herself after Theo died. Just let the audience watch her sit there alone. Do that for 60 seconds.....and fade to black. No "Tomorrow". Perfect. Its more ambigious this way.

..but i would leave that track of kids laughing in...just to fuck with the audience more