Film Discussion Entry and Film Analysis Entry 5

The Truman Show

              I felt that this film could be described as both an utopia and dystopia scenario. It displays the positive aspect of its bliss and ignorance, while displaying its obsession with reality television. With the rise of global internet access and electronics for all people, there has also been a rise in reality television. These shows are cheap to produce, and can be filmed year round and many companies do not have an issue gambling on them as a result. The main character Truman was the first unwanted pregnancy to be adopted by a corporation, and is completely unaware that from his birth every moment of his daily life has been broadcast continuously for the world to see.

                Reality television is by many people, deemed a guilty pleasure. It is usually a train wreck that they are unable to look away from and even said to help "dumb down" society. It allows us to temporarily ignore our own issues, and delve into the reality of others and help to temporarily distracting ourselves in other people’s lives. Feeling and thinking to ourselves that the dirty dishes in the sink are not that bad when watching an episode of the Hoarders. It allows us to escape our own reality, and traps us into the bubble of mass media. We are watching an illusion; a perceived live and drama of the shows we watch on television. The largest issue is that, the more people watch reality television, the more they are inclined to.

         

          On the other hand, this film has allowed us to peak into every second of Truman’s life, deeming itself to be one of the grandest utopias yet. He lives completely within a Hollywood set, with the only truth he’s ever known being within this “dome” that he resides.

                                                Ignorance is bliss.

          In the scariest, but purest reality, Truman did live in an utopian world. Every day of his life beginning at birth was a “picture perfect” day, with all of the loving relationships he shared. It would allow for only pseudo-relationships to form, as they would all be one sided. Truman would have genuine feelings for many of these roles while they were only acting for their television performances.

Gattaca

I feel that so far, this film has been my favorite among all of the ones we have seen. This dystopia uses

one of my favorite areas of biology and interestingly displays its fears the extensiveness and abilities of its genetic engineering technologies. Those involving reproduction  specifically being more prevalent in this film.

This film begins with the shift of natural pregnancies by having sex, to being a more precise and error free way of reproducing. Naturally in the world, these “errors” occur because it is not a perfect process. But by having the ability to not only pick the gender of your child, but reduce any minor genetic effects (enhanced lenses, baldness, prevalence to addiction), and other major effects including hair and eye color, reduction of all diseases, and even intelligence. It allows for every human to be altered and perfected to be the best version of you from birth.

A positive aspect to this society is that people are longer discriminated against characteristics that they possess. People no longer are judged by their sexual preference, gender, race, or color of their skin. To most, this seems to be a utopian society, where everybody is seen as an equal. We no longer have any boundaries that would separate us all as equal human beings. But instead, there is a gap between everyone in this society, where they are judged whether they were born “naturally” or the more superior way by being genetically engineered.  Although of course, if all children were only genetically engineered, eventually this world would become an utopian society with superior genetically engineered humans.

Instead, discrimination has now evolved to “genoism” as an argument against individual genetic information. It is the extreme of genetic engineering, and allows for individuals to only possess jobs based upon their genetic information. It removes the human ability and desire to find our places in the world, and instead places a pre-determined destiny based upon how the parents picked the genes.

This dystopia could also result in the collapse of the human population. By allowing parents to pick all defining features of their children, they are able to disproportionately select the gender of their children instead of leaving it to the natural process by having sex. By allowing this, it is demonstrated from this scene that a large number of the workers are indeed men instead of women. This could result in the female population aging and the population taking a deep reduction in numbers.

A World At Risk By Martin

With Children of Men, it is interesting how it is described as being downgraded to TV news with only the level of being a spectacle, and presented with nationalism to control the people. The Chancellor rules the nation as an omnipresent Big Brother holding on faith and nationalism to constantly have their support. They are always fabricating news stories according to their needs, and dependent upon their political opponents that allow them to continue controlling their nation. Television is something that all of the population is dependent on for their only source of information and entertainment.

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Film Discussion Entry and Film Analysis Entry 4

Children of Men

Interestingly, Children of Men, like The Handmaid's Tail, both focus on the inherent changes to human reproduction causing reduced fertility. In our society, pressures are placed on women to be mothers, and some can not or may choose not to, but are deemed incapable by society. This places further pressures to procreate, and with this reduced ability, it begins to put a value on children as they become a commodity in this dystopia.

The desire for children and motherhood are prevalent with the use of kittens, playgrounds, and dolls throughout the film. The possibilities of youth and new life are prevalent throughout the movie, but not one child is seen. Children of Men portrays a fear of nature controlling man particularly with the scene of the deer as it runs in front of Theo.  Nature has reduced fertility of all women, meanwhile allowing other organisms to flourish. This is what caused this society to collapse, it was the human inability to cure infertility. With advanced medicine, we currently have been able to extend the possibility of motherhood further than ever before. This now gives women the ability to truly have a baby when they choose and gives them further flexibility in their lives. We have even been able to extend the lives of people, prolonging life in the form of quantity, not quality and as average age rises, so will the possibility of overpopulation.

Children of Men is extremely well put, and mirrors our current issues in the world including overpopulation. It has become a real problem, and many are encouraged to have no more than two children to stabilize populations and not induce growth. It would be effective except that Western countries would be unlikely to emphasize these points.  Interestingly after some research, there is evidence that in the last fifty years, male sperm count has decreased, and male disorders cancers have increased. It is even hypothesized that this male infertility is a result of the extreme exponential human growth.

Could this one day be our future? With the advancements and technology in our world, it is possible that we are able to change our world in many ways. This dystopia would be a bleak future with the no ability to further the linage of the species.

A Scanner Darkly

In this world, drugs rule the future. An extremely addictive and destructive drug called Substance D, has penetrated the population. About twenty percent of the total population is an addict, and presents a grim future. This totalitarian government establishes its indirect power by enabling constant surveillance and secret agents to penetrate one of their lead supply chains of this drug. Normally, constant surveillance would be unconstitutional, but during times of imminent threat to the population, we give up certain liberties for the benefit of the whole. Truly, does this fix the problem?

We follow Agent Arctor, as he attempts to intercept into one supply chain. We follow him as he plays a double life, including taking substance D in order to maintain his profile. He is seen taking many medical tests, which only confirmed his addiction and brain deterioration. His two personalities begin to merge as his neurons continue to misfire and he can no only remember who he truly is. That is extremely frightening that a highly addictive drug like that could get to so many people. It only emphasizes our fears of drugs as well. With new synthetic substances on the market, it has only continued to deteriorate the lives of many young people. It is important to continue to inform members of the population on the dangers of substances as well as help those whom already are addicted to quit. By completely destroying the demand, the supply will no longer be necessary. As well it is important to take immediate action, and attempt to fine, and jail those whom are growing, distributing, manufacturing, and selling the drugs. When jailing those whom are found guilty, it is important to rehabilitate them to ensure that they do not return to a life of crime. By ensuring all of these measures it will allow society to improve. If not our future may become a Scanner Darkly.

Unfortunately, due to the high amount of addicts in this world it has allowed the government to become a totalitarian entity. This also plays upon the possibility as a dystopian future of governmental control. Due to the prevalence of drugs, it has fostered a law of constant surveillance and reduced all of the people’s freedoms down to nothing. It is not wise to allow a government to have that much power over individuals,  it will make the population docile and easy for the government to take absolute control.

When Science Fiction Writers Used Fictional Drugs

Many are unaware of the fact that drugs have been used to enhance the performance of soldiers. It would almost play a role as an Utopian component due to its positive effects.

Though, not all drugs can be seen as glamorous, and have very grim negative effects when taken in any quantity. Due to their potent abilities, drugs have been used to coerce populations since the beginning of time. It is astounding to see how the government has been able to manipulate various situations around the ability to manipulate the population by providing them access to drugs.

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Film Discussion Entry and Film Analysis Entry 3

The Handmaid's Tail

The Handmaid’s Tail was a dystopian film set on the issue of women rights and can easily be identified as a feminist movie.This film is portrayed as an extreme version of an paternal society with its mistreatment of women. These women are each identified only by the color of their clothing, each possessing a different role dependent upon which color their 'class' represents. In this dystopia, women are extremely infertile. Due to the pollution and and disease, only 1 in 100 women are fertile and healthy enough to have children. As a result, these fertile women are extremely important, since they are the ony hope for humanity to continue surviving. 
This important fact is enough reason to fear a possible dystopia. If this few of women are fertile enough to even bear children, those few in money and power will want them in order to have children, if they themselves are infertile. This will only allow for a greater societal gap, as those who are pregnant and have children are praised, while infertile and older poorer women are ignored and deemed useless.
Unfortunately, once it is discovered that a women is fertile, they are forced to comply with those who are of higher religion power. These women are brainwashed and medicated into believing that it is natural for them to be raped by the husbands of their maid in order to give her a son. This society oppresses these women into believing only a unified thought. That their role is only to serve those above them by providing them with children.
Most importantly, religion has been stressed throughout the film, as it plays a large role in shaping this society. It is evident that they used the Old Testament to rectify their actions. They had reffered to many times where hand maidens also played the same role. This dystopia twists its religion teachings to degrade these women, and reduce them down to mere objects. They enforce religious values with an emphasis placed on the importance of fertility and procreating. By doing so, rape is blamed on the victim, fornication without the intent to procreate is extremely forbidden, and magazines are burned so women do not get distracted by their purpose. 

The only people that are truly free are those that have been able to escape by crossing the border of the Republic of Gilead. As long as you are a woman in this society you are captured and reduced to having no rights and only the illusion of freedom.

 Fight Club

One of the biggest defining traits of this film was the implication and importance of consumerism to maintain our currently society. The American economy purely runs on consumer purchases and wishes to maintain their status by keeping up with the Jones. These people feel that in order to be truly happy, that they must spend money that they don't have, to impress the people around them by having the bigger yard, the nicer car, or the cooler clothes. It is this unnecessary ideology that by working extremely hard to buy expensive things, that we will receive the satisfaction we need to be truly happy. Instead this forces humans to only become distant, and reduce themselves down to artificial interactions since they only feel that their possessions are important. This is what had evolved into the chaos that Tyler Durden wanted to cause with the help of Project Mayhem. By destroying the credit card agency buildings everyone's credit would reset and allow financial freedom for everybody. Understandably, it would both cause chaos as well as a utopia. By providing financial freedom to many people, it allows them to recreate themselves and reset their financial lives.

They would be able to have the freedom to live a life that won’t be ruled by the possessions that they own. They can choose to move to a different location, and even learn from their previous financial mistakes. This way, they have properly learned from them and will allow this population to have a second chance at a new life.

Interestingly, this film depicts this contemporary society as the dystopia, not anywhere else but the here and now. It demonstrates that the current world that we live in is the dystopia and necessary to understand the destructiveness of our competitiveness for objects, and reducing our human interactions to only that.

This dehumanizes us, and will continuously change how we act with each other, and our things.

Totalitarian Technologies 

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, it was shown that with that nation’s stability, it provided mixed feelings for the population Some people were welcoming their governance  while others were often not sufficiently troubled enough to rebel. As a result, there are few unsatisfied remaining rebels in these societies while the majority of this society seems to be at least satisfied, and with the use of scientific training, has the ability to make governments voluntarily dissolve.This is due to the generations of education, and development that has allowed human nature to improve. It provides science with the ability to recreate people and provides social harmony as it allows for cooperation and efficiency.

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Film Discussion Entry and Film Analysis Entry 2

THX 1138

 

THX 1138 begins in a future scientific dystopia, where seemingly everyone appears the same. Bald, white clothing, no facial hair, both males and females. It opens with the announcement of an accident in the red sector, that there was no danger of radiation leakage, and that they currently had the fewest deaths. Their reaction to hearing that 63 of their co-workers had recently died did not seem to disturb any of the people working in this factory. It was almost as though they all ignored this notion, or worse yet, happened so often in this field that it was deemed “normal”. To all react in this way, conformity is necessary as individuals are given letters and numbers as names, reducing who they are as people and human beings. These people are only important as parts of this society to keep it running.

What is seemingly more distraught in this film is how everyone is deemed equal even in power roles, so that no person could not be a cop. Instead, robots are built to be the police and enforce their own societal codes. It only continues to enforce the notion that individuality is unheard of and unnecessary even if it did not happen to be the best thing. Even emotions are deemed to be made controllable, as everyone is heavily sedated so that they all feel the same exact emotions. It seemed that for everyone to be conformed, to be deemed equal to another, superficial alikeness and loyalty were not important. What was important was the ability to take the humanity out of the person, so they have no choice but to conform to the only “humanity” they know.

Without emotions, nothing would inspire us to be creative, to have thought, to question the world, to even laugh or cry. This is what THX 1138 was like, until LUH 9998 switched one of her medications with THX 1138’s. After the switch, he was able to feel emotion and love for LUH. Though they were sought after for the “drug evasion” charge, truly they are being chased due to their incompliancy to remain equal to their fellow people by being drugged and controlled. Ironically enough, one of the phrases repeated over and over in their work places are to “Work hard, increase production, reduce accidents and be happy.”

Be happy was the part I thought most interesting because people are so sedated they don’t know what happy is, just whatever they are feeling must be what happy is. The society does not only depend on the medication, but also depends upon watching its citizens to ask “what’s wrong?” and adjust medication dosages even overhear their conversations and see into their lives through their medicine cabinets and  cameras. It is a dystopia where not knowledge but rather emotion is used to control their society.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

 

A lot of the themes that I previously viewed in THX 1138, was also present in Nineteen Eighty-Four. It begins with a message displayed reading “Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past” -INGSOC. It begins with a large screen with many people, all dressed in gray and watching a video about Oceania, their homeland. It speaks of a 20 year war with two other Superstates and how the people are to strive higher to serve Oceania. They begin to chant big over and over, resembling actions of a large scale cult.

This discussion of Big Brother and this form of government closely resembles Nazism. It is clearly seen in Nineteen-Eighty-four and even THX 1138, the dangers that dictatorships play when power is only given to a select few. It limits the ability of its people to check their government’s power, instead becoming silenced voices, and become conditioned to “groupthink”. “Groupthink” is just as dangerous and powerful as silence, because it conditions its citizens to think the same and have no discrepancy with thought. It equally reflects the danger and power of “groupthink” in Nazi Germany, when the implications of preaching groupthink became the social normal and gave rise to Nazism. The lack of free thought allowed this society to be a self-checking system, as they were encouraged to expose anyone who was in any violation of these groupthoughts. This is because of the rise of individual compliance with groupthink and lack of individual thoughts became reflections of this society and Nazism.

 Censorship is also a key role in this dystopia. Our protagonist, Winston Smith is seen working in the Records Department, where he is an editor revising newspapers and records to make the past news, reflect the current government’s standing dependent upon if they were at war with Eurasia, or Eustasia. It is clear that censorship is prevalent in order to keep society functioning and flourishing. and they announced increases of production in all areas even food and chocolate rations. It also boldly displays posters of the Party and its leader Big Brother, usually written with “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”. It is a clear reminder of the governmental deceptions in place to keep its citizens in groupthought, using secret surveillance on citizens with cameras so that they are constantly watched, and even manipulations of the past, to better reflect its goals to the public by altering records all to encompass the necessities of an authoritarian country. Nationalism was a large part of keeping the population entertained and satisfied long enough to not ask questions as well. Citizens are constantly bombarded with news of war with Eurasia or Eustasia depending upon which alliance was most convenient. They usually end by stating that the war seems as though it is nearing its end on almost every broadcast, when truly this war has lasted 20 years.

In order to keep this population under control, it was necessary to maintain the nationalism, so that they would not blink at the thought of a 20 year war, and instead want to continue it for the good of Oceania. When really, no war was occurring, but only used to boost the production of all their outputs.

 

 Science Politics and Utopia in Orwell's 1984 by Tony Burns

                Essay shows what a utopia of science, the notion where science is the solution to all of mankind’s problems. This is a utopia where ruling should be up to a small group of scientists. Though interestingly enough, Davis’ essay addresses the notion that a utopia is static and unchanging, while science is a dynamic phenomenon. Thus there would never be an end to history as they are both incompatible with one another. I found this thought provoking, as it provided the possibility of a science utopia never been reachable, and if it was only demonstrate that the truths of science are timeless and universal for everyone at any time, which would be an everlasting phenomenon.

 

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Film Discussion Entry and Essay Analysis Entry

Soylent Green

 

Richard Fleischer’s Soylent Green is a dystopian film set on the scene of New York City in 2022, with an overpopulation of 40 million people. Current populations are estimated to be around 8 million people according to the United States Census Bureau. That’s a difference of 32 million people. Considering how people dense New York City already is, having that many more people only begins to paint a dark picture of what this New York City looks like. The film begins with the screeching halting noise of sirens, addressing to the populations that street curfew will begin soon. There are advertisements to obtain Soylent Yellow, and Soylent Red high energy food supplements with a new Soylent Green, made from plankton concentrations that always seems to be in high demand with low supply. The surrounding areas in the City are polluted, the streets are filled with thousands of people wearing masks covering their eyes and noses from the green tinted smog in the city. Dozens are scattered throughout, sleeping on the streets, on staircases, anywhere where they are able to seek shelter.

This film only continues to address growing concern of overpopulation, which has been an issue since the settlement of the West in the United States. This issue of overpopulation goes hand in hand with the fear of humanity losing itself, as survival instincts begin to flourish when society begins to collapse. Though briefly mentioned, Sol had stated how humans have caused all of this on themselves, reducing our climate to just hot year round, destroying the water ways and destroying our food supply. It is an extremely disturbing dystopia, because not only did humans aid the formation of this new reality, but did not seem to do anything to prevent it. Currently, this fear of human overgrowth is a reality, as stated by World Hunger Education Service, “1/8 of the human population has suffered from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012.” Though we are able to create enough food to feed the current world population, lack of fine-tuned distribution, war and various other causes continues to leave too many of the world’s population in a food desert. This relates directly to the advertised “Soylent Green Tuesdays”, which reduce the population’s access to this “energy supplement” since everything in the society is a considered to be a luxury.

There is a large gap between the rich and the poor in this film which demonstrates the differences in quality of life. Most disturbing was how many of us watching this film resonate with the ‘rich” as we have real fruits and vegetables, we have meats, we have air conditioning. This film is less about a future dystopia, but a current one that we are living in that will only continue to become worse in the future. It can be seen that like many of us, the rich take much of what they have for granted. Though we may not consider ourselves rich in the sense of someone without running water does since we see those things as never ending, and considered to be provided for everyone, when the reality is, most people don’t enjoy these commodities.

Though a growing concern that is similar to one we face now was mentioned in this film. Fears against our carbon emissions and how badly we actually damaging our planet. Though it is no longer a question that our global temperatures are increasing, it has been begging the question:

            How do we feed the masses?

Currently, we have been genetically engineered crops, altering them to grow large, to extend shelf life, even to reduce bruising. We use pesticides, and mono crop plantations for our food. All things that may have negative effects in the future, and disturb our ecosystem.

In this film, they are reduced to creating nutritional supplements, since their irreversible damage of global warming has deemed vegetables, fruits and meats a luxury, something only those very few are able to afford. It was mentioned a jar of strawberry jam was $150. Compared to the price of a jar today, if our food prices are ever that high, we will be living in a much darker world.

So again begs the question, if we aren’t feeding them food, what are we feeding them?

 

Easy! People! In a world where life as we know it ended, ecosystems collapsed, most life forms extinct, not even able to have basic necessities, it makes everything a luxury including human remains. In this collapsed society, the population still continues to increase, as demonstrated by the “rations” of soylent green, deeming even human remains to be a luxury. It only shows the disturbing realization of this film, that they all may not have a choice in the matter. The film ends with Detective Thorn wishing to spread the word that soylent green is made out of people, but what use is there in doing so? Everything else is this dystopia is gone, with humans being the only possibility of food to even keep the poor alive. Even if everyone knew, it would not change the fact that fields are not farmable, that fruits and vegetables are scarce, and it wouldn’t revive the wildlife.

It is a disturbing dystopia, considering most of us consider ourselves “civilized” with the thought of eating anothers human being remaining appalling, and at the same time beginning to comprehend that is your only choice.

 

 

Fahrenheit 451

 

 

Francois Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 is an empowering film that exposes humanity’s current reality of reliance on objects, technology, and mass thinking. It also negates the importance and necessity of human interaction, free thinking, and free doing. These firemen, using flamethrowers instead of fire hoses, search suspected homes of any books, which are then compiled together to be burned down along with the houses that contained them.

Books are burned for they are considered to be seductive, illusive, and dangerous as they may provoke citizens to think and question themselves. Therefore books are a threat to this dystopia’s enforced conformity, and must be destroyed.

As seen in Booker’s “Compare and Contrast” essay On Dystopia, the ability to use mass media to influence people’s thoughts is a reality. Currently, a strong industry which billions of dollars are poured into to influence the things we buy, the things we like, and the things we eat. By using media to be an aspect of this dystopia, it forces a dehumanizing effect on consumer capitalism. In this film, media is controlled by few outlets, while books have the potential to be written by numerous writers, in the same way so many different people are able to express their opinions on blogs. By having only a few outlets of media as shown in this film, it easily manipulates the information that is broadcasted and not only removes the different perspectives, but lies to manipulate the feelings and thoughts of those watching it.

This was best seen when Montag had escaped the city. In order to continue this regime of total control, television sets had to broadcast his capture, regardless of this being the truth. It is seen as entertainment, and important to provide “justice” to the black sheep of this society.

Though by removing books, it removes another outlet that can provide information and have an effect on society’s opinions and thoughts. By burning these books, it discourages independence and becomes favorable to social tranquility.

Compare/Contrast in Fahrenheit 451 by Booker exemplifies that this future dystopia does not require firemen. The majority of the population prefers media as it is more entertaining than books and thus stopped reading books to their own accord. In turn, these book burnings are more symbolic than literal, since the books are already deemed ineffectual by the general population. Although to the minority of the population whom are hiding these books there is still a benefit to acquiring their knowledge through text which in turn provides these members of society with power by having free thought and swimming against the current.

            The success of this film is brought on due to the realistic possibilities of such a dystopia occurring, and even enough to make the audience want to prevent this from occurring. Similarly, book burnings occurred in Nazi Germany which demonstrated the negative effects mass media plays, as well as force those who were captured to be dehumanized and lack any outlets of expression.

 

Overpopulation and Social Breakdown in Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!

 

            This essay illustrates what an overpopulated world with 344 million people in the United States looks like. Overpopulation and ecology are dystopian nightmares, due to the long standing fears of a world worse than our old one, and the present danger that we are altering our world. One of the most prominent points that were addressed was Rachel Carson’s 1962 Silent Spring. A possible dystopia where she writes of the long term detrimental effects of pesticides on birds, fish, insects, and plants. This idea of dystopias and their realistic possibilities due to their nature has allowed for actual responses. At the time Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published, National attention was focused on the effects of Strontium 90 in baby milk. There was fear that it could have detrimental effects. This made Silent Spring more receptive, and popular as a realistic solution to a real dystopia. This sparked the outlaw of DDT, an extremely harmful pesticide that though can kill flies with malaria, they  interfere with the plasma membranes of all organisms which can cause death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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