'Children of Men', the new Alfonso Cuaron sci-fi flick

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (1498 of them)

It could be argued that actually re-creating images of Abu Gharib is just as much a "TELL" as a character saying "Abu Gharib, yo."

Yeah, by someone WHO IS BATSHIT CRAZY.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link

i liked the newspaper that went something like "Russia detonates Nuclear Bomb. Kazakstan annihilated!"

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Dystopian science fiction is inherently political, no? Come on, dude.

― elmo argonaut (allocryptic), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Theo's "London 2012" sweatshirt was a nice touch.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

The political message seems to bve look at how good people are at doing terrible things to eachother even in the face of salvation.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, this is barely a sci-fi film, right?

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

But... it's in the future.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

what about star wars?

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Romantic comedy.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I love scifi films that take place mainly in the countryside, there aren't many.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe it's a war movie. It has battles and guns like Black Hawk Down.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, this is barely a sci-fi film, right?

Sure it is! Speculative fiction, anyway. It's much more sci-fi then, say, Alien, which is just a horror movie in space.

― Charlie Brown (kenan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link

waht?

dune and star wars and logan's run are all totally pastoral you senile doosh

― TOMB07 (TOMBOT), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link

also deep space completely counts as the countryside wtf

― TOMB07 (TOMBOT), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link

"Sleeper" takes place almost entirely in the countryside.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link

xxpost I said barely.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:30 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I said upthread that the Abu Ghraib image was one of two or three details that point a big finger outside of the film in a somewhat jarring way, but that one totally works for me, because of what happens if you follow out the thought: you think "Abu Ghraib image," but thinking it through reminds you that that's a control and interrogation method used by our military, and probably others, and so maybe it's not really jarring to imagine they're using this extant control method in the world of the film, and ... suddenly you've been led to this gut-punch horrifying reminder that what you've filed away as "Abu Ghraib image" is not a specific event, and is somewhat commonplace, not necessarily any more out-of-place in this future than the bomb detectors at government buildings.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Silent Runnings!

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Srsly having the characters move after a few minutes to better frame THE PIG FROM A PINK FLOYD COVER think about that

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:33 (seventeen years ago) link

it's all a continuum. "science fiction" and "weepy romance" are the extremes whereas stuff like "romantic comedy", "war film", "retarded action film", "SNL comedy," "tony scott film", etc are in the middle somwehere.

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:34 (seventeen years ago) link

"retarded action" and "tony scott" is kinda redundant.

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, but nobody says "oh cool, Pink Floyd!" It's just there. I mean, they also framed a shot to include "Guernica", should they have cropped that out?

TOMBOT, the desert is not the countryside.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I am actually psyched that my music nerdiness has waned to the point where even after it was explained, I still don't know what the fuck you guys are talking about re: the Pink Floyd thing.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:37 (seventeen years ago) link

(I was thinking more of eXistenZ)*

*the exact moment everyone stops listening to what I have to say about movies

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link

it works better if you just think of it in traditional "when pigs fly" terms.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.batterseapowerstation.org.uk/floyd/animals1.jpg

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I didn't notice the PF thing, cos I don't like PF.

I get the idea I'm just gibbering in the corner while you lot talk seinsibly.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, the coolest thing about that bit -- thematically, visually, generally -- was that the guy sits and eats lunch with Guernica hanging over the table.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

it was all I could do not to sing along to King Crimson during that bit.

― TOMB07 (TOMBOT), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha I thought the Pink Floyd reference was too heavy-handed.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Though the broken David's prosthetic-style support was neat, too.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

No, I know there was a shot in the movie that looked like the cover to Animals thanks to the magic that is this thread, but I couldn't actually tell you which shot in the movie that was and it certainly didn't register while I was watching the movie.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link

i thought the pink floyd pig was absolute genius: dude saving as much of western art from the chaos as he can OF COURSE is into canon-rock!

― geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought the pig was a reference to some BritArt installation I'd never heard of.

i dunno i just got a "omg NY was nuked, no more babies, isnt that terrible!" --- it doesn't go beyond the cliches in that department really.

Is it a stretch to argue that those aren't the meat of the story, and thus their relative superficiality is irrelevant?

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

The film follows a linear narrative structure, and, as in any film that follows a linear narrative structure, there are only a certain number of combinations of tropes and patterns that it can employ without the underlying story architecture falling apart completely. Any movie that is attempting to be linear and has an ignorance of certain basic tenants of storytelling will just be a mess, or at the very least deeply unsatisfying. The path to avoiding cliche is through texture, detail and character. The underlying structure of a film can be millenia old (indeed, the underlying structure of most films IS millenia old), and still feel brand new to an audience if the smaller aspects are handled with thoughtfulness and invested with originality. A writer's not concealing anything from the audience when they do this, they're making the profoundly familiar resonate in new ways.

I have been reading McKee.

― chap (chap), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I read the Pink Floyd pig @ Battersea (i.e. "Ark of the Arts") as the bureaucrats of teh future holding up Pink Flody as revered, canonical British artists whose work must be preserved alonside Picasso et al. -- which I found wryly amusing and kind of apt in its banality.

― elmo argonaut (allocryptic), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

BritArt = YBA

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I just thought of it as a visual pun, exposing both the desperation of the collector and the depravity of the uber-wealthy. I know nothing about Animals. I just hate PF.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I just got scared that, when they actually moved to another position to better frame the pig between the characters, we had a musical segue coming or something.

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link

wait wait i don't think the shot was trying to mimic a record cover, i think his cousin actually did save the actual old pink floyd pig, is the implication. it's a characterization, not a visual pun.

xpost yes elmo otm

― geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Okay so apparently I didn't even know what the Pink Floyd thing was about even with the magic that is this thread, that's how ~~stupid~~ non-nerdy I am.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Also J Animals is fucking awesome, don't hate.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Though I was more annoyed by the TELL involving Pink Floyd.

I thought it made complete sense that the annoying Ballard/Moorcock/prog-loving guy you knew in college would grow up to be a self-styled Last Man On Earth who barricaded himself in Battersea with whatever art he could pillage. The only way that scene could have been improved was if he was blasting King Crimson all over London and not just inside his lair.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link

David->Guernica->Hipgnosis' Animals is a bit of diminishing cultural returns. I wouldn't take it to heart Dan.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Next time I watch the film (this weekend) I'll look out for it, but I imagine I'll agree with Fluffy bear hearts rainbow.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link

wait wait i don't think the shot was trying to mimic a record cover, i think his cousin actually did save the actual old pink floyd pig, is the implication. it's a characterization, not a visual pun.

Yeah, but it still is actually mimicing the cover.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link

What elmo said.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh it made sense, I just got scared when it wouldn't go away.

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't really fathom wanting to see this movie twice.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Or maybe I'm just sad that I'm the only one who thought "Hipgnosis!" before "Pink Floyd!", I guess I'm more Art Fag than Pop-prog Loser.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 1398 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.