To what extent do you agree that films offer insight into society (past or present)?
Respond to this question with close reference to a film (or films) you have studied.
If there was no future, how would we behave? A question to which the film Children
Of Men by Alfanso Cuaron sets to answer. The film set in year 2027, offers a glimpse
into modern day London, where an unexplained infertility is on rise. Through the use
of simple directional techniques, Cuaron gives an insight into society by exploring the
ideas of hope, Discrimination against refuges and violence.
Hope is something that all humans need in order to survive. In Children Of Men the
hope of survival and a bright future looks bleak “since women stopped being able to
have babies, what’s left to hope for?”. In the opening scene we see through a TV
broadcast, that the youngest person on earth, baby Deigo who was 18 years old , has
died. The death of baby Deigo shocked the world as he was the youngest person
alive and possibly the only source of hope. After hearing the death news of baby
Deigo the whole world goes into mourning, people placing flowers and wreaths on
steps, and the broadcast in the background, of 18 years of infertility continues which
reinforces the idea of despair. Later in the barn scene, which also happens to be the
turning point of the movie, as where Kee an illegal immigrant reveals to Theo the
central protagonist, that she is pregnant. To which Theo replies “Jesus Christ”, as
she is the first woman in 18 years to get pregnant and her baby might be just the
answer to survival of humanity. Cuaron makes a cultural reference here to offer
insight into Joseph and Marry to whom which most of the audience are familiar with
and to which they can relate to. Theo may not be the biological father of kee’s baby
but is Joseph to kee’s (Marry) . From our interpretation based on Joseph and Mary we
assume that Theo will be saviour of kee and protect the only source of hope left on the
planet.
I think your tone for this essay is great. You know the film really well and show a mature
understanding of the ideas presented by the director. Is 2027 modern day or futuristic
London? - I think it would be more accurate to say futuristic.
In your second paragraph, make sure you keep the focus on the topic sentence. Your have
extended your ideas out into a lot of plot detail. To make the point clearer keep your focus
on the idea you are exploring and how the director uses film to explore it. Also, there is a lot
of room for you to link these ideas back to our society.
To what extent do you agree that films offer insight into society (past or present)?
Respond to this question with close reference to a film (or films) you have studied.
If there was no future, how would we behave? A question to which the film Children
Of Men by Alfanso Cuaron sets to answer. The film set in year 2027, offers a glimpse
into futuristic London, where an unexplained infertility is on rise. Through the use of
simple directional techniques, Cuaron gives an insight into society by exploring the
ideas of hope, Discrimination against refuges and violence.
Hope is something that all humans need in order to survive. In Children Of Men the
hope of survival and a bright future looks bleak “since women stopped being able to
have babies, what’s left to hope for?”. The death of baby Deigo in the start of the
movie shocked the world as he was the youngest person alive and possibly the only
source of hope. After hearing the death news of baby Deigo the whole world goes
into mourning, people placing flowers and wreaths on steps, and the broadcast in
the background, of 18 years of infertility continues which reinforces the idea of
despair. Later in the barn scene, which also happens to be the turning point of the
movie, as where Kee an illegal immigrant reveals to Theo the central protagonist,
that she is pregnant. To which Theo replies “Jesus Christ”, as she is the first woman
in 18 years to get pregnant and her baby might be just the answer to survival of
humanity. Cuaron makes a cultural reference here to offer insight into Joseph and
Marry to whom which most of the audience are familiar with and to which they can
relate to. Theo may not be the biological father of kee’s baby but is Joseph to kee’s
(Marry) . From our interpretation based on Joseph and Mary we assume that Theo will
be saviour of kee and protect the only source of hope left on the planet.
Secondly, Cuaron gives us audience the idea of violence and destruction, by using
simple camera techniques, which adds to the reality of the scene. As hope for the
future dries up, and nothing left to do but wait and die, mankind will choose to focus
on war, fear and other of its favourite pastimes instead of going out peacefully. At
the start of the movie, snapshots of terrorists attacks are shown and which cities
have suffered the most, and also in the scene where Kee and Theo are on their way
to Bexhill, where people chanting “Allah ho Akbar” (hail to god) and firing machine
guns into the air. Cuaron has used hand held camera here to make the scene
believable, and also with its stunning verisimilitude within its mi- sen –scene, it
alludes to the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks in Pakistan and also gives an
insight to the catastrophic destruction of the September 11, 2001 attacks.