A classic dystopian text!

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2007)

I would have to argue that Children of Men is great, if you like good old fashioned dystopian narratives. Children of Men is a typical dystopian film in that it is an exercise in a politically charged form of hybrid textuality. The vast majority of dystopian texts, including Children of Men, often offer detailed and pessimistic presentations of the very worst of social alternatives. The social alternative in Children of Men is the future  a future in which it is no longer possible to have children, reproduce or start a family. In enabling us to experience this alternative, Children of Men examines how certain contemporary issues and planetary governments could facilitate a social order that is relentlessly harsh, destructive, and miserable. A crucial factor of this vision is the films ability to register the impact of an unexamined social system on the everyday lives of everyday people which is, of course, set against the English backdrop of 2027. However, although this film creates a dystopian society of unseen quantities it interestingly depicts speculative forms of history that purport to describe a set of future developments traceable to present conditions. Examples of this lie in the treatment of the prisoners (Abu Ghraib), crooked authority figures and the manner in which illegal immigrants are treated as a whole is also a current issue in today's society. Yet here it is taken further, as so often the future can, to a nightmare world in which all traces of human rights are disregarded. Children of Men manages to execute this vision superbly as it allows us to feel that pain, the woe and dismay of the characters as they embark upon a journey of hope.
Children of Men is ultimately about a journey, a journey of hope a hope of trying to escape a dystopian nightmare with the reward at the end of this journey being a utopian dream. To aid the telling of this story Cuaron utilises some fantastic camera techniques - the pick of the bunch being the scene inside the car. I must admit I am an extreme fan of long takes and Children of Men is by far the best I've witnessed in recent times. The use of such long takes in Children of Men help to facilitate a sense of real time (almost documentary in comparison) which in turn gives an implication of reality. It also aids in increasing the characters appeal whether it be negative or positive as we continuously become witness to many uninterrupted sequences of events. In employing such long takes Children of Men also manages to bring about notions of rolling news coverage that is reminiscent of footage that could only ever be acquired in the Reuters library. It is not just the camera-work that portrays this; the explosions are also brilliant and hark back to the stunts and pyrotechnics used in Saving Private Ryan. The sound is also fantastic, a great example of this being the early morning farmyard scene - a scene in the film in which the characters must try to remain silent. I would thoroughly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys good film-making, pictures from this genre and fine story-telling as they will not be disappointed.