I have been shamelessly lax in posting anything of late, been focused on tons of teaching, co-running a post-grad forum and resisting the urge to implode due to my PhD.
In the last couple of weeks, I have completely convinced my housemate of the merits of dystopian movies. We started out with
Soylent Green. Housemate was deeply impressed with Heston's alpha male take on things but had to pause 10 minutes before the end to take a break as it was getting a little intense. I was rather pleased with that, as it demonstrates the art of movie-making that doesn't have to be jam-packed with special effects or insane filming techniques to be exciting. It's such a taut ending, full of emotion and plays on ideas of a commanding faceless government that makes choices that seem to benefit the public but actually exploit and harm them.
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| "How to be an alpha male - brought to you by Charlton Heston" aka "Soylent Green" |
Logan's Run went down slightly less well with both housemates. While one of my favourite golden oldie scifi flicks, it does require an acceptance of 70s-inspired fashions and hair. Plus, the occasional pure insanity can be offputting for some. The housemates kept trying to break down the plot inconsistencies, rather than just go along with the crazy....
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| Sample A - Insanity of Logan's Run: pointless shiny robot surrounded by frozen penguins and furs. |
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| Sample B - Insanity of Logan's Run: over 10 minutes of the movie are given over to following the ramblings of this hairy man, culminating in 100s of scantily clad men and women stroking the hairs on his chinny-chin-chin. |
We returned to Heston with
The Omega Man. Definitely not as good as Soylent Green, but interesting. Overall, not something I'd go back and rewatch (it is barking mad), but I was glad to see it. (For those of you who haven't seen it, it's one of the earlier film versions of Richard Matheson's I am Legend).
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| Not so cool bits... These guys wreck my head and could have been done a hell of a lot better. |
Fahrenheit 451 (based on a Ray Bradbury story) went down well. I liked the simplicity of its approach, it wasn't trying to do too much. Anyone who is a literary (or Julie Christie) fan will love it. One of the first things to notice is the lack of subtitles in the opening - there is no text for the majority of the movie - and it is a strange thing to witness.
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| Fahrenheit 451: not suitable for those who cannot bear to watch books (or crazy ladies) burn |
For a more light-hearted modern dystopia, we watched 2006's
Idiocracy, starring Luke Wilson. This is just a great satirical movie that makes fun of itself and the USA, in a very open and silly way.
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| Idiocracy |
While I'm not a fan of Michael Bay, I decided to give
The Island a chance. Like all his movies, there are plenty of pouty pretty people to look at (Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor. Please note that their acting in this film may make you want to bang your head against a brick wall.). It's very shiny and well-polished and, as a result, completely soulless, which is ironic considering the implication that carbon copy clones are supposedly equal in human status to their originals. I plan on checking out an earlier version of this story in
The Clonus Horror.
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| The Island: pouty, shiny blond people & bad acting (also features Sean Bean as a corrupt grumpy git) |
Anyway, also found this splendid page via reddit.
http://www.larissahammond.com/2011/11/my-thought-crimes-dystopian-literature.html
The article even has charts!
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