Children of Men

I've wanted to see the movie "Children of Men" for some time now. Lori's actually requested it from the library (Netflix for the cheap -- a really great service of the King County Library system!) for me two other times... the first time I didn't get around to watching it and the second time she forgot to tell me she had it. Well, we got it a third a time and I finally had a chance to see it. To see it just weeks after reading Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" was an amazing piece of happenstance that I think added to the viewing.

In "The Road," the world has been decimated by an unexplained event and the world has collapsed. In "Children of Men," it's a "slow-onset" apocalypse -- the last child was born 18 years ago. The collapse is much slower. As the world begins to collapse on itself, people make their way for more "stable" areas of the world, such as Britain only to find out it's not so stable -- refugees and others who don't have documentation proving their citizenship -- "fugees" -- are reguarly rounded up in cages and deported or sent to refugee camps.

So while "The Road" sees a world almost devoid of humans regressed back to the most basic levels of survival, "Children of Men" is a futuristic vision of a slow decay. Red double-decker buses of London feature full motion video advertising on their sides, but you also see tanks, soldiers and misery.

"Children of Men" was also just amazingly shot. I had to keep the subtitles on to understand everything that was going on (it was loud at times and other times there was enough of an accent to make it difficult), but that didn't detract from the movie. As I watched the last part of the movie, I was trying to ride the exercise bike. But it was so compelling that I kept just finding myself sitting there and I'd realize I wasn't riding anymore.

I'm not sure how many times I could actually watch the movie, but it's at least worth seeing once -- on as large a screen as you can.