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.