Mark Harrison Feb 27, 2017
Alfonso Cuaron's Children Of Men is a film from a decade ago that very much stands the test of time...
“Last one to die, please turn out the light.”
The tenth anniversary of Children Of Men came at the end of a tumultuous year in politics. You don't have to look far on the web for thinkpieces about how the results of the Brexit referendum or the election of Donald Trump as Us President have brought us closer to the grim forecast of Alfonso Cuarón's superb dystopian thriller, but rewatching it now, the film feels a triumph of preparation rather than prescience.
Based on Pd James' novel, the film takes place in the year 2027, in the midst of a global epidemic of infertility. Britain has closed its doors to immigrants and refuses to acknowledge the status of 'fugees' as human beings. The day after the...
Alfonso Cuaron's Children Of Men is a film from a decade ago that very much stands the test of time...
“Last one to die, please turn out the light.”
The tenth anniversary of Children Of Men came at the end of a tumultuous year in politics. You don't have to look far on the web for thinkpieces about how the results of the Brexit referendum or the election of Donald Trump as Us President have brought us closer to the grim forecast of Alfonso Cuarón's superb dystopian thriller, but rewatching it now, the film feels a triumph of preparation rather than prescience.
Based on Pd James' novel, the film takes place in the year 2027, in the midst of a global epidemic of infertility. Britain has closed its doors to immigrants and refuses to acknowledge the status of 'fugees' as human beings. The day after the...
- 2/25/2017
- Den of Geek
Children of Men
Director Alfonso Cuaron has two remarkable films on the Children of Men DVD -- the dystopian feature and a startling half-hour documentary that explores the macro-global issues raised by the movie.
The Possibility of Hope docu doesn't have much hope in it. Cuaron rounds up a half-dozen philosophers and futurists who see overpopulation, economic repression and global warming sending the planet into a new dark age. These guys make Al Gore look like a shiny-eyed optimist.
"It's not a matter of people surviving," scientist and philosopher James Lovelock says. "It's a matter of civilization surviving. ... It can easily degenerate into a dark age again. It's quite possible that will happen."
Writer-activist Naomi Klein says of global warming: "I wouldn't say human extinction. But a genocidal (outcome)."
The short is an unusual made-for-DVD extra because it doesn't exist to promote the film or exploit its thinkers' big-headline conclusions. This is grad school territory, where the first reference is to Hegel's metaphysics. The topic is no less than the fate of the human race.
The downtrodden future always seems to elude filmmakers, but many have tried, including the mighty Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange). Few of the films feel plausible, probably because the filmmakers overamped their visions. Children of Men succeeds by Cuaron's insistence that all scenes from his year 2027 "show me the reference in real life." The movie -- about a world where women have mysteriously become infertile -- was one of the best of last year, overlooked at the Oscars. Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine star.
Children of Men looks suitably grim on Universal's single-disc release, with the grit, grain and grays of the film all intact. The 1.85 widescreen images are enhanced for 16x9 monitors. (There also is a full-screen version.) The front-centered audio is Dolby 5.1 only.
Other extras include an analysis of the film by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who calls it, curiously, a remake of Cuaron's Y tu mama tambien; a trio of deleted scenes, including one in which Owen and Danny Huston wander nonchalantly among the great artworks of the lost civilization; a discussion of Cuaron's technique of long, "incredibly choreographed takes"; and a special-effects study of the film's miracle baby.
The Possibility of Hope docu doesn't have much hope in it. Cuaron rounds up a half-dozen philosophers and futurists who see overpopulation, economic repression and global warming sending the planet into a new dark age. These guys make Al Gore look like a shiny-eyed optimist.
"It's not a matter of people surviving," scientist and philosopher James Lovelock says. "It's a matter of civilization surviving. ... It can easily degenerate into a dark age again. It's quite possible that will happen."
Writer-activist Naomi Klein says of global warming: "I wouldn't say human extinction. But a genocidal (outcome)."
The short is an unusual made-for-DVD extra because it doesn't exist to promote the film or exploit its thinkers' big-headline conclusions. This is grad school territory, where the first reference is to Hegel's metaphysics. The topic is no less than the fate of the human race.
The downtrodden future always seems to elude filmmakers, but many have tried, including the mighty Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange). Few of the films feel plausible, probably because the filmmakers overamped their visions. Children of Men succeeds by Cuaron's insistence that all scenes from his year 2027 "show me the reference in real life." The movie -- about a world where women have mysteriously become infertile -- was one of the best of last year, overlooked at the Oscars. Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine star.
Children of Men looks suitably grim on Universal's single-disc release, with the grit, grain and grays of the film all intact. The 1.85 widescreen images are enhanced for 16x9 monitors. (There also is a full-screen version.) The front-centered audio is Dolby 5.1 only.
Other extras include an analysis of the film by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who calls it, curiously, a remake of Cuaron's Y tu mama tambien; a trio of deleted scenes, including one in which Owen and Danny Huston wander nonchalantly among the great artworks of the lost civilization; a discussion of Cuaron's technique of long, "incredibly choreographed takes"; and a special-effects study of the film's miracle baby.
- 3/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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