Children Of Men Asks Questions

What would happen to our society if a global pandemic of infertility struck women?  What if no child had been born for 20 years?  These are the questions ‘Children of Men’ ask.  It then shows you a picture of a world and asks “Might this be the outcome, is this so unbelievable?”  There are no laser guns, no robots.  Other than transclucent and paper thin television screens, as well as being set in the future, you might forget this is a sci-fi movie.

But what hits the home run in my favoritist of genres (movie, book, TV show, ANYthing) is that ‘Children of Men’ blasts you with curiosity for the first half of the film.  You’re trying to really figure out what happened, not just to the world, but to these characters.  This movie drew me in with such ease and fluidity that I was extremely upset when I had to leave the world of Men and answer the door.  Clive Owen plays his role well, which isn’t surprising, because it seems every movie I’ve seen him in, he is absolutely phenomenal at making his character real and believable.  Everything seemed to work well during this film, sound was great, picture was great and the gore, yes GORE was done right.

Speaking of the violence of this movie, it was needed to tell the story.  In fact, I heartedly condone the portrayal of violence.  Mainly because it wasn’t done unnecessarily.  How can you tell THIS story, a story of a man trying to save the LAST hope of humanity, without showing the measures taken by him, and those who hope to exploit that hope.  Of course, this then asks the question, what would YOU do should the future of the human race be thrust under your wing to protect?  If you don’t think you could maim or kill others to do so, I hope you aren’t ever put in that situation.

Returning to my talk of sci-fi, this was another return to the roots of sci-fi.  Allagories.  That’s really what the science fiction greats (Vern, Wells, Asimov, Clarke) all did with what they wrote.  Unfortunately, this has been forgotten by most and we look at sci-fi as something less than what it should be.  Not this movie, not ‘Children of Men’.  And even though it is wholly sci-fi, it trancends the bounds of that genre by providing a mechanism that plays off every compassionate bone in your body.  Within that mechanism, a wholly too realistic urban warfare scene that makes you cringe (and had even ME nauseated) is  followed immediately by the most sincere human reaction possible by those who had just been causing said warfare.  These few minutes of cease fire remind us what it is we should be fighting for every day of our lives.

My last few words about ‘Children of Men’?  It’s… well, let’s just say that it was under appreciated, probably because it wasn’t “entertaining” enough.  Just as I wish more people appreciated this country, I wish more people appreciated a good movie.  Yet all those who built the genre of science fiction are probably looking down on ‘Children of Men’ and saying “Well done!”