While watching “Children of Men” I was horrified at the cruelty that human beings demonstrated to each other. But what worried me even more was how apathetic some people were about this violence. For example, when Theo gets “kidnapped” while he’s walking in a random street, there are people that see him get pushed into the van however; those people that see him disappear only continue to walk as if nothing had happened, without any sense of alarm. That’s when I really began to worry, violence between people is scary, but being indifferent about it is what is even more disturbing.
One of the questions that this movie raises is a very haunting one. After seeing this movie I couldn’t help but mull over the question, if a world crisis were to happen, would people try to help each other through it, or would they selfishly close themselves up (like Britain did) and only look after themselves? I hope it’s not the latter. I’m someone who believes that in all occurrences, the kindness of human beings will always shine. Yet this movie made me question my idea. Is there ever a point where kindness stops and the human instinct to survive takes over? And if the human instinct to survive takes over, does kindness cease, or would we all still watch over each other? These are some questions that have been popping into my head since Wednesday.
One problem I did have with this movie is that some of the logic behind it seemed flawed. Or maybe I missed some point in the movie or something. The idea that the world would go into chaos because there are no more children being born doesn’t make sense. How can the world just break down because of this? I guess the idea of civilization ceasing to exist is crazy, but would it really cause a global breakdown? The only thing I could think of is that maybe with the absence of children, men would forget what innocence is. For example, in the scene where the soldiers are firing, they immediately lower their guns at the sight of the baby. Maybe they were reminded of how innocent and fragile a new human being can be. Maybe that’s what led to that global chaos, the failure to recall the definition of innocence.
Anyway, I hope these thoughts made some sense.
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Regarding your comment about a global breakdown, I think that everyone is freaking out because since nobody is being born, the human race will eventually die out. I think they were so startled upon seeing the baby because they had not seen any in such a long time- it said in the beginning of the movie that the youngest person in the world was around seventeen or eighteen years old if I remember correctly. Also, this means that maybe there is hope for the continuance human civilization after all!
"That’s when I really began to worry, violence between people is scary, but being indifferent about it is what is even more disturbing."
On a day-to-day basis we are very indifferent about a lot of things. So reflecting that lack of attention to violence on screen makes me wonder how indifferent we are to 'silent' crises going on around us: poverty, AIDS etc. So is there a hope for human civilization after all? Yes, I think there is hope for some "civilizations," if not all.
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