'Children of Men' reflects a post-apocalyptic Earth where a deadly flu virus has made almost all women on Earth unable to be fertile. By this standard, there has not been a child born in 18 years, and therefore, the youngest person on the world is 18 years of age. The movie reflects the leader of a resistance group as he carries the first pregnant woman in 18 years to a safety group known as the 'Human Project.'
The movie is famous for its unrealistically long shots, having the longest single recorded take in movie production history. However, behind the unusually high production value, there's a very heavy sense of metaphorical motif and understanding that lets the movie mean a whole lot more than a story about mass infertility.
One of the most core metaphors of the film is its tie to religion. There are a lot of movies who try to make their character symbolic allegories to the greater deities and religious beings, but 'Children of Men' does a very good job at maintaining a deep symbolism but not ramming the identity down the throat of the viewer. As a result, the movie is fair and intricately detailed.
The story revolves around the main character, Theo. After losing his child to the deadly flu virus, he was a member of a resistance group and was estrange with his terrorist-leader wife, Julian. When things went south, he decided to call it, not wanting to be a part of the system of terrorism anymore. That changes when his estranged wife calls upon him to deliver the first pregnant girl, Kee, to the 'Human Project,' who is trying to protect fertile infants from imposition of government and resistance.
In terms of religious doctrine, Theo represents the epic character of self-awareness and discovery. Unaware of what he truly wants in the beginning of the story, it takes a journey of 'epic' proportions to truly discover his individual identity. The structure of his character is very similar to that of Aeneas in Virgil's 'Aeneid' and Dante Alighieri's 'Dante' in the 'Divine Comedy.' While the religious symbolism behind both stories is much more heavily impacted in terms of plot structure and reference, the same system of the ability to develop a character's identity through the challenge of arduous journey and self-exploration is very present.
The main Christian symbolism in the movie is the birth of Dylan, the daughter of Kee. Theo and Kee, while not 100% obvious, are mirrors of the story of John and Mary, who deliver the birth of the savior, Jesus Christ. In the traditional Christmas story, the birth of Jesus through the virgin Mary (although Kee, self-admittedly, is not a virgin) reflects the symbolism of salvation and safety for the followers of the Abrahamic God, and represents the idea of being protected by the son of the greatest divinity.
Because Dylan represents the first child born in 18 years, it reflects the same mannerism of hope and salvation present among commoners in a world gone south. Because of Kee's fertility, it shows the idea that there are possibly other women who are able to give birth. as a result, there's 'hope' for the human race in the same way that baby Jesus provided hope for the many followers of the Christian God, both reflecting the idea of human salvation.
Theo and John were the two who escorted their respective women, Kee and Mary, to a place where the child would be born. Both children were born in non-ideal conditions, a dark room on a mattress and a stable, and produced a symbol of light when they were birthed that represented the symbolism of hope and possible positive outcome. The similarities between each story are irrevocably concrete.
Overall, whether it wants to be or not, 'Children of Men' is a post-apocalyptic re-imagining of the traditional Christmas story. While there are a lot more bullets, a lot more deaths, and a lot more blood than the story in the Bible, there is a heavy similarity between the ideals of hope and salvation, both of which reflect saving humanity in a time of desperation and necessity.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Monday, April 13, 2015
Is 'Life as We Knew It' Feasible?
The prospect of an end to life as we know it could be played out in a myriad of separate events. There's everything from global disasters to political insurgency to a legitimate religious end of days. Regardless of the spectrum of the apocalypse, there's little doubt that the entirety of the human race will be able to survive all of time, and there's a chance in the future, hopefully not near, that everything we know could eventually come to an end.
In the book 'Life as We Knew It,' the apocalypse comes through the concept of collision between a very large meteor and the moon. While the size of the meteor being smacked against the moon is never given, it's assumed to be large, and knocks the moon off of its once clear orbit. As a result, chaos ensues back on Earth, with weather patterns fluctuating, tides turning into tsunamis, days getting longer, and other natural disasters that pits main character Miranda against nature.
So how feasible is this scenario?
A large amount of interstellar objects actually collide with the moon quite frequently. When smaller objects come in contact with the moon, there's really no backlash to what happens. It's more of just a small asteroid or tiny space rock hitting against the side of the moon and really not doing the level of damage present in the novel.
Metaphorically, imagine it like throwing a golf ball against a concrete wall. There may be a little bit of dirt or dust that bounces off of the wall, but there's really no damage at all being done to the wall itself. Because of this, the moon is not smooth but rather is covered in craters and tiny little pockets that were caused as a result of the tiny different rocks that end up hitting the moon.
So what puts us in danger?
According to the Atlantic newspaper, if there was an asteroid that was the size of the moon that managed to ram into the moon, the moon would finally shatter into pieces. Because of the magnitude of both pieces of space rock, when one comes in contact with the other, it provides enough magnitude to not only knock the Earth off of its course but even come close to destroying it. What does this mean for the rest of us?
The moon is what regulates the tides of the ocean. Because of this, there's a common pattern regulation to how the ocean waves interact with the Earth's atmosphere and therefore have some sort of dictation to weather patterns and global interaction. If this system were to be thrown off because the controller of the tides was broken, all of a sudden the weather patterns and interactions become both uncontrolled and unpredictable. Even still, the pieces of the moon that were shattered as a result of the major collision between the moon and the moon-sized asteroid would be able to fly towards the Earth, because their size and mass would be too high for the atmosphere to burn up and destroy.
So the verdict? It would take a large asteroid, larger than mankind has seen before, to be able to recreate the things present in 'Life as We Knew It.' However, this doesn't make it impossible. It's scary to think about, but if the idea of destroying the moon and taking away one of the fundamental controllers of the laws of Earthly physics, both the physical and environmental results could be, for the human race, fatal.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/11/what-if-a-large-asteroid-were-to-hit-the-moon/248129/
In the book 'Life as We Knew It,' the apocalypse comes through the concept of collision between a very large meteor and the moon. While the size of the meteor being smacked against the moon is never given, it's assumed to be large, and knocks the moon off of its once clear orbit. As a result, chaos ensues back on Earth, with weather patterns fluctuating, tides turning into tsunamis, days getting longer, and other natural disasters that pits main character Miranda against nature.
So how feasible is this scenario?
A large amount of interstellar objects actually collide with the moon quite frequently. When smaller objects come in contact with the moon, there's really no backlash to what happens. It's more of just a small asteroid or tiny space rock hitting against the side of the moon and really not doing the level of damage present in the novel.
Metaphorically, imagine it like throwing a golf ball against a concrete wall. There may be a little bit of dirt or dust that bounces off of the wall, but there's really no damage at all being done to the wall itself. Because of this, the moon is not smooth but rather is covered in craters and tiny little pockets that were caused as a result of the tiny different rocks that end up hitting the moon.
So what puts us in danger?
According to the Atlantic newspaper, if there was an asteroid that was the size of the moon that managed to ram into the moon, the moon would finally shatter into pieces. Because of the magnitude of both pieces of space rock, when one comes in contact with the other, it provides enough magnitude to not only knock the Earth off of its course but even come close to destroying it. What does this mean for the rest of us?
The moon is what regulates the tides of the ocean. Because of this, there's a common pattern regulation to how the ocean waves interact with the Earth's atmosphere and therefore have some sort of dictation to weather patterns and global interaction. If this system were to be thrown off because the controller of the tides was broken, all of a sudden the weather patterns and interactions become both uncontrolled and unpredictable. Even still, the pieces of the moon that were shattered as a result of the major collision between the moon and the moon-sized asteroid would be able to fly towards the Earth, because their size and mass would be too high for the atmosphere to burn up and destroy.
So the verdict? It would take a large asteroid, larger than mankind has seen before, to be able to recreate the things present in 'Life as We Knew It.' However, this doesn't make it impossible. It's scary to think about, but if the idea of destroying the moon and taking away one of the fundamental controllers of the laws of Earthly physics, both the physical and environmental results could be, for the human race, fatal.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/11/what-if-a-large-asteroid-were-to-hit-the-moon/248129/
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