# Children of Men



## GothicPaladin (Jan 11, 2007)

As of late I have been having nightmares, we'll call them, about somethings I'd rather not get into. You could easily call this my own paranoia, or imagination run a muck, but these things I have nightmares about do indeed exist... It's just the likelihood of it happening to myself are slim to nil... but I know these things, sick and twisted as you would not believe, exist because my mate is... I wouldn't say survivor, more of a partial casualty (he hurt to this day from it).

So I had this...feeling of rage, guilt, shame and overall "I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that wouldn't fuck to save its species. I wanted to open the dump valves on oil tankers and smother all the French beaches I'd never see. I wanted to breathe smoke." (Fight Clubs words, my feelings)...

So, being lonely, slightly down and overall ready to just do my weight in damage, I went to my parents house because dorm rooms are lonely places when there's no one there with you... 

Me and my friends went out to see a movie... "Children of Men". It put a perspective on my feelings. It picked me up and I swear to God this movie is the best in a good ten years... I like it better than Donnie Fucking Darko, formally my favorite film. 

Go and see this film. It's moving without being preachy, it has a message and a moral value without ending a million fucking times. It didn't beat you over the head with some stupid fucking message of what was right or wrong or who was the real enemy... it simply was...open to YOUR interruptions. 

On top of it all, it is one of the most moving films in the sense of cinematic quality.... pure direction and flow... It's a masterpiece. It gives you a sense of the character and the gritty feel of battle, of helplessness of war.

See this film, please, see this film. Take someone you love, take them to the theater... please, I swear to you, you won't be disappointed.


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## Sarketch (Jan 11, 2007)

.... I like donnie darko too ^.^


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## GothicPaladin (Jan 11, 2007)

see this film, guy. trust me as one donnie darko fan to another.


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## Sarketch (Jan 11, 2007)

GothicPaladin said:
			
		

> see this film, guy. trust me as one donnie darko fan to another.



Okay. I'll definately chuck it on my to see list. Heck might even go out to rent it or something!


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## GothicPaladin (Jan 11, 2007)

right now its in theaters... it's worth every penny of the 9.75 I paid


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## Sarketch (Jan 11, 2007)

GothicPaladin said:
			
		

> right now its in theaters... it's worth every penny of the 9.75 I paid




It may not be out here in Australia yet =( I remember seeing an advertisment but long ago. Australia is so out of time, zzz.


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## Stillman (Jan 11, 2007)

Actually, it was released everywhere internationally BEFORE the US got it.  So, it may have come and gone, rather than you not getting it yet.

That said, there's not a theater within a few hundred miles of me that's carrying it, so I've gotta wait for it to come out on DVD.


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## diarmaidhuthence (Jan 11, 2007)

The U.K only got a barebones DVD release of the film. I hear rumours of a special edition somewhere down the line.


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## GothicPaladin (Jan 11, 2007)

yeah, i've been hearing that...still great movie


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## TORA (Jan 11, 2007)

I saw it at a free screening. Very well done.


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## Frost Wolf (Jan 11, 2007)

Wassit about?


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## GothicPaladin (Jan 11, 2007)

see it guy. Trust me, it freaking great.


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## Larathen (Jan 12, 2007)

This is one of THE best movies I have seen in my ENTIRE life.



Extreeeeemely excellent. Everoyne must go see it. Worth every penny.


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## quark (Jan 12, 2007)

Oh man, you have no idea how badly I want to see this movie. A guy that I worked with had been singing it's praises, and that day I saw the ad for it on TV and it looked AMAZING.  The second it comes to the theatres here, I'm dragging my boyfriend along.


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## goat (Jan 13, 2007)

eh it was alright


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## Melo (Jan 13, 2007)

It was good, but not the best movie I've seen in 10 years.

It would've been a lot better if they had improved on the ending.


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## tigermist (Jan 15, 2007)

Damn if it beat the Darko I have to see this movie.


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## SpirTheCatAyeaye (Jan 20, 2007)

Oops, I thought I posted in this thread.

Anyway, my dad made me watch it the other night, and I'm glad he did. It was certainly a strange story, but it was interesting.


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## Captain Oz (Jan 20, 2007)

*WARNING SPOILERS


DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE*


I'm sorry, the movie was not any good.Â Â The cinematography was some of the best I've seen, and overall it had a powerful feel to it.Â Â But it went no where.Â Â It said nothing.Â Â The movie was about a problem that doesn't even exist and it doesn't even discuss the possible causes of this problem nor how one girl with a baby will change everything.

It paints a very tragic and highly believable view of a world in peril, except for the blaring British patriotism by the director ("Only Britain Remains Strong!").Â Â Why did every other country fall to pieces?Â Â I'm no American patriot, but the idea of the United States crumbling from some freak panic about no more babies is absurd.Â Â If anything the USA would be the least likely to go berserk from it due to our society's over exposer to the next great plague constantly pumped into our homes by news stations and the general media.Â Â But beyond that, such peace driven countries as France and Canada falling?Â Â I think not.Â Â The movie makes no effort whatsoever to explain what was special about Britain to make it the last stable country on the planet.

But even though "Britain Remains Strong" it becomes a near Nazi state, establishing concentration camps, deporting and killing immigrants, requiring travel papers to go out of the cities, and so forth.Â Â In the modern world, and especially the post modern, near future that the movie inhabits, a developed country like Britain that fought so hard against Hitler would NEVER establish concentration camps.Â Â The public backlash would be political suicide to whatever politician brought the idea up.

Then comes the idea of humans not being capable of giving birth anymore.Â Â A certain level of absurdity is to be expected from any movie, but even the worst of the worst B movies TRIES to explain why the change happened.Â Â Alfonso CuarÃ³n has a handful of throwaway dialogue in his movie to touch upon the subject, and it sums up to "F*Â¢k if I know!"Â Â But as I said, a certain level of absurdity is to be expected, so I don't hold this against the movie, but it certainly doesn't help the film either.

But her having the child and being sent off with the Human Project is the last straw.Â Â What does this mean for the world?Â Â NOTHING.Â Â One person having a baby is not going to explain the cause without anything short of a dissection of mother and baby.Â Â Especially since the father is missing.Â Â However, assuming that some scientists on a boat helping escaping emigrants from Britain can derive the cause of this world wide pandemic and develop a cure before everyone is too old to have children anymore (youngest person on the planet being 18 ).Â Â Assuming that, how would they deliver the cure to the world?Â Â And would it even be worth it after EVERY other country has been thrown into post-apocalyptic levels of chaos and disaster except for one country which has become a Nazi state?Â Â Now maybe these questions are the source of the movies greatness and power.

However they hold no relevance to modern strife.Â Â Our problem is not one of too few babies.Â Â The world today has religious, political, capitalistic, and nationalist problems.Â Â Children of Men barely touches upon one of those, nationalism, and that is not even the major problem in today's world.Â Â The movie says nothing of any relevance for today's society.


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## crabby_the_frog (Apr 11, 2007)

Just wanna get this thread back, since it's now on DVD.

In all honesty, I liked it. Sure it wasn't perfect, and U haven't read the book, but I think it's definately worth checking out.

Aside from the flaws pointed out above (which would be nice if someone changed the text to white to remove spoilers), it had some of the best cinematogrophy I've seen in years, a very realistic way of gun damage (concrete chipping away behind him, for example-it looked amazingly real), and maybe it does point out that we have a population problem.

Maybe, just maybe, we need to experiece the problem of no more births just to understand of how much of a horro it would be. No kids would result in humans only being around for another hundred years or so... nt a pleasent thought.

DISCUSS.


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## Fenrus (Apr 11, 2007)

I personally found this movie to be in my top 10 of all time.  The point of view the director and script writers put on the world puts the idea of the Human Condition, that we are all fundamentally flawed in some way or another into an extremely revealing light.  How would the human race react if the world lost all reasons for hope?  How do I better describe this?  

Consider the following: I think most people have come to a point in their lives at least once where they question their value in the world.  Can I make a difference?  Does my life actually mean something to the world as a whole?  It's just something we do, questioning ourselves.  This movie and concept of hopelessness just takes it a whole level higher.  It raises the stakes.  What if, instead of you questioning your own value, the entire human race begins to question it?  To answer a question with a question, if the whole reason for your existence was, at one point, to perpetuate the human race into an increasingly safer and more dynamic world, what happens when that world no longer matters.  Hope is lost.  People see no reason to move onward with their lives.  It's like massive, ongoing, suicide.  Brutal isn't it?

To me, that is why I consider this movie to be so moving.  It boils down a world hopelessness to its effects on only a few powerful individuals; individuals who have the power to change the nature of the entire world with only a few actions.  That's something not many film makers can pull off, and pull off well.  

Sure, the movie has its flaws.  It's ending is abrupt, sometimes the script can feel a little stale, but overall it feels like a montage of the human condition.  Of powerlessness.  Of hopelessness.  In my honest opinion and in response to an opinion above by Midnight Panics, the abrupt ending of the movie only makes it more powerful.  All throughout the film, sudden events changed the course of the plot and the course of human history.  I think the last scene is a final opinion on how quickly the world can change.  How many filmmakers have the balls to do that?  Not too many.

In conclusion, the film really examines our fragile human existence and our inability to cope with worlds that struggle to conform to our sense of reality.  If you haven't seen this film, you owe it to yourself to view it simply for its artistic value and superb directing.  Again, it isn't flawless, but it is one of the better movies in recent years.

9/10


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## Leahtaur (Apr 11, 2007)

Why on _earth_ wouldn't you have put this in the perfectly good movie section?


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## crabby_the_frog (Apr 11, 2007)

Leahtaur said:
			
		

> Why on _earth_ wouldn't you have put this in the perfectly good movie section?



A good question... but I believe it is.


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## Grimfang (Apr 13, 2007)

***Not really spoilers but ... beh, if you're picky about spoilers or 'tips', then skip..

I loved the movie. The cinematography is amazing. The story doesn't exactly make a clear point, so you'll be disappointed if you like movies where you see the typical happy ending/roll credits.

What I loved about the movie was the setting. The grim prospects of the future of mankind. To me, a broken world has some sort of beauty. The collapse of civilization. Tis why I love zombie movies.

I loved the old hippie dude... he was the coolest.


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## AnarchicQ (Apr 13, 2007)

I adore this movie. DEFINITELY the best movie of 2006, even though it wasn't even nominated.

The setting and cinematography was wonderful. And I happened to like the ending. I think there was a sense of hope without tucking everything neatly in a little package.

Unfortunately, my brother, nephew and I talked it up so much that my sister found it lacking. Ah well.

I'm currently reading the book, which is a bit different.


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## ComposerFox (May 22, 2007)

Definately one of the best films I've ever seen. Shame it didn't make much money, I hope they still are bold enough to make more films like it in the future.


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## Yok (Jun 8, 2007)

fucking brilliant film.... enough said


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## robomilk (Jun 9, 2007)

It's what the UK would look like if people keeps being racist bastards and parties like the BNP take over.


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## ramsay_baggins (Sep 20, 2007)

I didn't see the film, but I heard it was amazing.
I read the book and personally didn't find it very exciting, although the painted faces scared the sleep right out of me, I stayed up the whole night after reading that bit.
Note to self: watch movie ^^


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## Stockton (Sep 20, 2007)

I loved the movie, although I did think the premise was a bit absurd.


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## Lobar (Sep 20, 2007)

Midnight Panics said:
			
		

> It was good, but not the best movie I've seen in 10 years.
> 
> It would've been a lot better if they had improved on the ending.



I'd have to disagree.  I absolutely hate endings that drag on far past the point on conflict resolution to explain the aftermath in unnecessary detail.  The last few minutes of most movies I usually spend mentally pleading the director to get on with it and roll the credits.

Children of Men, on the other hand, ended right where it needed to.  It wasn't completely open-ended, it told you that everything was right again in the end, but it was concise and it avoided explaining exactly _how_, and I think would have taken away from the story had it ended in a massive exposition detailing how the Human Project fixed everything.  The only blanks left open were those that didn't need to be filled.


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## Silva-Dragon (Sep 20, 2007)

since when does hot sweaty man sex yield babies?
I thought it gave them   sore bums....
any way, haven't seen the movie, looks good though.


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## JamestheDoc (Jul 19, 2008)

I really enjoyed this film, one of the best I've seen in years.  Great concept (taken from the novel by that guy ... can't remember it at all), and greatly delivered onto the screen, it was excellent in every manor....


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## PKBitchGirl (Jul 19, 2008)

Captain Oz said:


> Our problem is not one of too few babies.



Yeah, our problem is the opposite, too many babies. Overpopulation.


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## TÃ¦farÃ³s (Jul 19, 2008)

JamestheDoc said:


> I really enjoyed this film, one of the best I've seen in years.  Great concept (taken from the novel by that guy ... can't remember it at all), and greatly delivered onto the screen, it was excellent in every manor....



The author's a lady actually. I have the book sitting on my windowshelf and the film in my glass case. I found the movie far better, and we all know how often that happens.


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