Week 1

1984

        The film 1984 is based on one of the most famous dystopian novels of all time (also called 1984). Throughout this movie, we see the various strategies used by the government/ruling class known as "The Party" to stay in power.  While the most overt strategy is the surveillance of all citizens, it's not the most effective one. The primary method of staying in power is essentially brainwashing their citizens by giving them symbols on which to focus their love or hate, and by promoting doublethink, which is believing in two contradicting facts at the same time.

         Although this movie isn't black and white, it seems to be drained of color. Everything almost looks like it's either a dimmed version of a color or has a grayish tint to it. It's as if the color in the world has been erased along with free will and self expression. The only scene with more color than the rest is the one where Winston and Julia first meet, which is in a place supposedly without big brother. I believe this is used to show that Big Brother is draining the life/color out of the world.

        A very interesting scene is when O'Brien is taunting a bound Winston. He tells Winston that they take people's minds and remake them into whatever they wish. When Winston claims that they will be stopped because of the human spirit, O'Brian says that in that case, Winston is the last human. By saying this, O'Brian is admitting that he himself isn't an individual. He even states that although he's aging and will someday die, he's just a cell in a larger organism (the Party). He claimed that power is the ends, not the means, which isn't true and is therefore doublethink. This is proof that even the higher class members of the party are indoctrinated, since they all want power for it's own sake. Usually in totalitarian states similar to this one, like North Korea, those in power are assumed to be aware of the propaganda being lies. But in 1984, they convince themselves that the lies are true. When everyone believes wholeheartedly in the system, even the ones in charge, it's chances of failure decrease. 

          The scary thing is, we can see similar things being done in today's society. I'll skip the NSA, as 1984 has already been brought up multiple times to critique their actions. One of the other recent examples being applied in America is the War on Terror. After 9/11, the US launched a military campaign in the middle east that was often referred to as the War on Terror. Firstly, this is a form of doublethink. We call it a war, but terror is an idea, not a place or group of people. It's impossible to have a war on an idea. In addition, this was disturbingly similar to the "War is Peace" message of 1984. Secondly, this led to something very similar to 1984's "2 minutes of hate" sequence. In post 9/11 society, Osama bin Laden played a role very similar to Emmanuel Goldstein. For the first decade of the 21st century, Osama was the face of everything that threatened the American way of life, and symbolized everything we should hate and fear. There's no doubt that he was hated throughout our country, and that his death contributed at least a bit to Obama's reelection.

      While I doubt that society will ever end up as bad as 1984, I do believe that the dangers portrayed in that movie are very real threats to democracy today. In a way, 1984 is a parody or exaggeration of some of the worst elements in our society today, or in the case of North Korea, a very slightly exaggerated version of that country's reality.

Soylent Green

      I knew that Soylent Green was people before I knew that it was food. "Soylent Green is People" has been used so much in pop culture that the phrase has become much more famous than the movie. I must have heard it at least a dozen times before I found out the movie even existed. However, after seeing the movie I understand why that sentence is more recognizable than the film. It basically is the film.

       I didn't dislike this movie, but it was definitely too long. While I really liked the whole detective theme, the movie was like a very long episode of the Twilight Zone. In fact, I think that's what it should have been, and I'll explain why. While many of the characters, such as Sol and detective Frank, were pretty interesting, this is still the kind of film where the focal point is the twist at the end. That just feels a bit gimmicky to me. Without the punchline, this movie is just a bad dystopian/crime thriller that drags on longer than it should. 

      Also, I watched the trailer before watching Soylent Green (it's something I like to do before watching a movie) and if I didn't know the ending I definitely would have guessed it. The narrator keeps asking what the secret of soylent green is, everyone that finds out gets killed or kills themselves, it's just incredibly obvious. 

       As an episode of a show like The Twilight Zone, the story would have been more to the point. A lot of scenes would have to get removed, along with many of the characters, but I believe the message would have been the same, and the ending would have been just as powerful, if not more so. I can't help but think that some people who saw this movie in theaters back in 1973 may have felt a bit cheated.

       The message of this movie is nonetheless a very powerful one, and is one that will always be important unless people solve the universal problem of limited resources. What will we do when we have nothing left to eat? Almost every movie that takes place in the future has people dealing with or at least mentioning this problem, whether it's food, electricity, or gasoline, something is always lacking and people are struggling to find alternatives. "Soylent Green is people" summarizes the horrible things people might have to do to deal with depleting resources, and that is why that phrase is so well known. 

      Many dystopian movies have displayed a similar scenario. In the Matrix, dead humans are recycled and converted into nutrition for other humans. In the recent film Snowpiercer, while the protein bars that the poor eat aren't made of people, they are made of roaches; something that the main character chooses to keep a secret from the rest of his followers. In Interstellar, a group of astronauts search for another planet capable of supporting life, and later find out their mission also involved abandoning the rest of humanity on a dying Earth. The story is always the same, however. Resources are lacking, and something controversial is done as an attempted solution, while the viewer is left to decide whether or not it's worth it. 

THX 1138

THX 1138 was the last film I saw out of these 3, and I'm very happy about that. Finally, after 2 depressing endings, was a dystopian movie with an ending that didn't make me want to lay in bed and look at the ceiling all day. Not to say that this movie wasn’t just as bleak as the others (if not more), but I’m glad that there was a little bit of hope at the end of this movie.

           I think that the visuals and sound effects are what make this movie truly unique. Excluding the chase scenes, they were very different from the effects in George Lucas’s Star Wars Trilogy, and a lot more subtle. This works very well for a dystopian film, as it makes everything much more unnerving.

          It’s very hard deciding exactly what imagery in the film was most disturbing. For starters, the machine that masturbates THX in itself. But the actual content of the channels was even worse. There was so little substance, from naked people dancing to a guy being hit repeatedly by a stick – and the fact that THX was so into that channel was just plain weird.

          The robot policemen were just as bad. From the expressionless chrome faces to their strangely relaxed voices, they would be terrifying if it wasn’t for their incompetence. The white rooms seemed like the scariest things I the movie by far, especially the one where THX was getting shocked repeatedly. In my opinion it’s worse than the torture scene in room 101 in 1984 because this white room torture seemed to be happening for no reason, but also because the room was so minimal. That whole scene just seemed a so crazy and claustrophobic, which is why it has such a deep impact on viewers (or at least on me).

          OMM, the machine that the workers confess to, reminded me of a very poorly made big brother of sorts. I found that pretty funny at first during the confession scene, but once you get a glimpse at the inside of what is presumably the OMM machine it gets disturbing again. The gecko inside makes me cringe, and I’m not really sure why. It might be because it proves that OMM is in no way sentient, which makes the fact that so many people pray to it sad. And of course, all of the subtle beeping sounds of buttons being pressed and the buzzing voices of various workers that sounded like they were coming from broken walkie talkies gave the movie a very stressful atmospheric feel.  

          The ending was a bit comical, but also made perfect sense in the context of this movie. This whole society thrives on efficiency. If someone or something can be used, it’ll be used, as long as the benefit exceeds the cost. Who knows, maybe THX 1138 felt a bit insulted that they stopped trying to chase him. This was visually a very good ending as well. The scenery of the giant sunset in the background with the epic music all blended together very well, and I found myself watching all of the credits (which I usually skip).