Future Almost Lost

Just like the other readings we have done, Booker once again nails his point. He discusses how technology that is symbolic in dystopian films, is now becoming a reality in the real world. One example is the constant growth of over budgeted military spending towards the advancement of technology. In regular everyday, technology has already taken over peoples lives by making things more convenient.  The essay ask the question of are these films simply showing the future or giving us possibilities into preventing them. Humankind has always risen to the occasion when it comes time to evolve however, humankind has also made numerous mistakes before that time as well. Only logical response is that only time will tell if and when the dystopian future is in front of us and it's time for us to decide what we are going to do.

The Road

After watching The Road, I was very satisfied with the film. I found it to be somewhat of a suspenseful and dramatic film. As I was watching The Road, I couldn't help but realize that out of all of the films we have watched, this film in particular would be the most realistic possibility of what our future may become. Every film we have watched has had similar themes and alternative possibilities but I believe that The Road is the closest one to actually happening. I first began to believe it's possibility when Viggo Mortensen had flashbacks that implied a great explosion or nuclear weapon going off leaving humanity steadily declining to extinction. Although I've never been a big cannibal film themed fan, I found premise of this is one of the only ways to live a realistic possibility. We have seen in history that in a time of desperate measures, we are willing to do anything for survival. In this film, many humans have become cannibals in order to survive (unlike films like the wrong turn films where the premise is actually stupid). As I was watching this, I felt like I was watching a feature film of the Walking Dead just without zombies and The Road is a lot more sad. We've seen different types of dystopian film this summer and although it hasn't been my favorite film, The Road has been more realistic and possible than any film we have discussed because the world today, there are literally thousands of nuclear weapons and all it will take is one to be set off and all of humanity will fall to chaos and anarchy. In all of the other dystopian films, there is a theme of a corrupt or overreaching governing force. However, this film was the definition if anarchy mixed in with evolutions natural selection because the extinction of mankind had become inevitable. And in so doing, it became simply the fight to be the last human to be alive. As I have pointed out numerous times this summer, humans are the only threat to their extinction and The Road made me wonder if the apocalypse is going to happen, how much of nature are we going to take with us or will we do the earth a favor and just take ourselves.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games was much better than it was anticipated to be. I remember I went and saw it with my friends and we were absolutely amazed at how well the film was done. First off, the combination of both Jennifer Lawrence and Donald Sutherland makes for a great pair. Second, the dystopian theme of the rich reveling in having the most advanced technology and wealth whereas the districts surrounding Panem are all in poverty and the poor struggle to survive. This dystopian film gives off the theme that all though the society is advanced in the future in the sense of technology, the traditions, values and morals are still stuck in gladiator times. There was a love story in the film that I didn’t care for because I felt that it somewhat distracted the viewers from the Hunger Games themselves. Although Katniss and Peeta's connection was because of the Hunger Games, the love story was too much of a cliché. I noticed a paralleled theme of the Hunger Games and The Truman show in the sense that humans are watching other humans as a source of entertainment. Granted, in The Truman Show, Jim Carrey is never in any real danger but there is still a very real danger to human beings getting enjoyment out of watching fellow human beings whether they are struggling with real life or they are just struggling to stay alive. I think these films are taking direct shots at reality shows (not the primary intention but still taking shots) because for some reason we enjoy watching shows like Survivor and The Real World. We get drama, comedy and excitement for some reason watching these people. I think it says a lot about human philosophy that actually haven't come that far from our ancestry roots. In the timeline of the world, it wasn't that long ago Roman Gladiators were fighting for their lives in the Roman Coliseum against fellow gladiators or even animals including lions. I think that it’s really sad that as a species and product of nature, we get enjoyment out of the struggle of others, especially when it is a matter of life and death. The Roman Coliseum theme is the primary theme of the film considering the fact that the upper class are the ones who are getting the enjoyment out of watching the poor struggle. It is an age old cliché where the rich get to look down upon those who are less fortunate and enjoy watching them have to struggle while they sit high in their ivory towers. The film portrayed the oldest philosophy of evolution in only the strong will survive. Of course the rich are the strongest but of the poor, only one will live to see another morning and somewhat going against the process of natural selection because it’s not really natural so much as it is a set up for entertainment, something nature would not deem natural.  

A World At Risk

Monica Martins essay A World at Risk, writes about how there are multiple ways in which an Apocalypse could happen. Because of these apocalypse, the world will end in a dystopian future of mass differences from the world in which we know today. I like how Martin explained films such as V for Vendetta are great examples of political and media manipulation. I really enjoy the example because V for Vendetta is another realistic possibility for a future. granted it may not be in London but is very possible. Martins take on dystopian films is that films like Children of Men, 1984 and V for Vendetta are realistic visuals that we should watch and interpret intently.

Gattaca

 I wasn't honestly excited to watch Gattaca mainly because Ethan Hawke was the one of the main stars. Perhaps if it was Training Day, I might have had a little bit more enthusiasm. Gattaca was actually interesting from a hybrid dystopian film where the problem isn’t man vs cyborgs but a realistic problem with the advancement of human anatomy. However, the film itself still lacked an interesting catch and because of no punch or catch, the film was on the more boring side for me. Where Gattaca was very interesting was somewhat similarities to the Handmaids Tale in the sense of discrimination based on who you are biologically and the culture or dystopia that the protagonist find themselves in. Vincent is basically cast aside and discriminated against because of the fact he isn't a super human or had any genetic alterations. This film sheds light on how the last few decades we have tried to clone ourselves and change our genomics which in a way is like playing God. We see this almost once a week with NBC World News with Brian Williams that scientific research centers have made another breakthrough in human genomics. As interesting as these reports maybe, people need to ask themselves if perfecting human genetics is must, where should we stop? The reason for that question is very simple in how much alteration to genetics is enough to satisfy our desires to change ourselves. Although I support genomic research, Gattaca shows great symbolism in how through human genetic change, it shows the process of cloning and tampering with natural human DNA is actual an unnatural process that we as humans are actually trying to go above our natural evolutionary principles and evolving at high speed and dangerous rate. However, in the film, the one thing that Vincent has in the other super humans is that he is highly intellectual whereas the super humans are only physically more superior making it that our level of intellect cannot actual be manipulated and is in true hereditary genetics. When it comes to this film being a dystopian film, for some reason I felt that out of all the films we have watched, this actually seems like the most realistic possibility for our future. (If we covered the Terminator, it would have been second) The reason why this film is so crucial to us is that this process of human genetic modifying is happening right now as we speak and is only going to move in this direction. I’ve always felt that since the invention of television, the human race has tried and succeeded in going above its evolutionary traits in always trying to go farther and farther along without seeing the implications of what we create and how it affects us.  As much as I enjoy seeing progression in this world from a scientific point, we should learn to take advice from our senior citizens and “stop to smell the roses”. Because if we don’t learn to slow it down, we will no longer be humans and cause our own extinction.

The Truman Show

The Truman show is truly one of Jim Carreys greatest performances, none greater than Lloyd Christmas, but the film itself was a masterpiece. This film seemed to be more of a less disastrous dystopia than the other films we have watched. Maybe I'm the only one but I couldn't help but make numerous connections to the Truman show to the Matrix. First, the obvious connection is that the primary characters are living in a false reality that has been set up for them. Obviously the difference between Neo and Truman is that Neo has always been skeptical of his existence and the world he lives in where Truman doesn't begin to question the world until a film light falls from the sky and is claimed to be an antenna that fell off a plane. Both resonate with Plato's the Allegory of the Cave because just like in a few of the films we have watched including THX 1138, there is a strong consistency with his philosophy and it seems numerous dystopian themed films have used the theory of the world you live in is not what you believe it to be. I really love this theory that Plato wrote about because it is so very applicable to everything in the world. This theory always makes people (including myself) skeptical of the world we live in and curious as to whether it’s a governing body or particular culture, how true or real they are i.e. say one thing and act another way. One question that Truman show brings up is ignorance bliss? I feel that people have a hard time deciding whether they would live in a fake paradise or the a real hell. Realistically would viewers of this film should ask themselves if they would live in a world that is perfect but the relationships you have and life you lead is fake but a perfect design. Me personally I found that it is better to know the truth rather than pretend that a lie is better. The sad truth of the Truman show is that Jim Carreys character is actually alone because everything and everyone he has ever known is actually not real and that since birth he has only ever know people that have pretended to love him. The even sadder part is that even though it’s a movie, if this were to actually happen then that would mean that we as humans have officially become bored with animals at the zoo and would rather see our own species in live action. It’s in this truth that allows someone to prefer the real world (no matter how miserable or depressing it is) because at least in the real world, everything is real including the relationships that you have are real. By living Truman living in this reality show, it makes Truman as person fake even though he thinks that he is himself when actually he is a character that's been created but when you think about it, the creator actually represents a symbolic metaphor of God and that should really make someone question their existential beliefs. The one silver lining at the end of the film is that when Truman finally steps off set into the real world, his first actual choice that he made as a free man. I really like the ending because it backs my own personal belief that we have free will. 

Unmasking the Real

In Peter Fittings essay about "Unmasking the Real", he puts a strong emphasis on how all dystopias are not critical dystopias. He explains the basically the reason that it is a critical dystopia is because of its obvious oppression and gender inequality of woman. Its extremely important to Fitting that the reason for critical dystopias is that he worries that in critical dystopias, that they are very real and probable futuristic society's that we as humans are setting ourselves up for. The next ( and most critical to me) is the comparisons he makes to The Terminators. The reason we all fell in love with Arnold Schwarzenegger is because he was so awesome as a Terminator but many people are constantly undermine the critical metaphor that the very thing we created is what will eventually destroy us. Although now a days a Terminator is very real and possible while when it first came out seemed light years away, Fitting tries emphasize the point that  the Terminators are actually metaphors for the idea that our obsession as humans to constantly innovate and update technology is a slippery slope we are on to nuclear bombed destruction that has become planet Earth. I really enjoyed Fittings piece because while many people are only worried about their tweet on twitter or buying cloths to impress someone else, they are very unaware (and uncaring) about how their own future could be in jeopardy based off of Fittings take on how dystopian films have given us realistic visions into the future.