“you wot?”

Imdb link
Dir: Alfonso Cuarón
Date: 2006
Length: 109 min

*MILD SPOILER ALERT* *ITS GOOD JUST GO AND SEE IT*

In one scene the camera pans past a field of mouldy burnt cows, a polluted ditch and a smog belching town in the background. This is supposed to be the Britain of 2027 but in looks more like 1998 to me. Throughout Children of Men Britain is depicted as a facist state thats falling apart. Scenes continually reference modern troubles brought home to a future Blighty. Chinooks sweep across empty fields, reminding me of Gleneagles 2005. The explosive finale takes place in a Bexhill refugee camp with machine gun totting crusties battling tanks. The actions scenes are so full on it makes you think what it would be like to be in Lebanon recently or Gaza a lot of the time (or playing Battlefield 2 on maximum settings).
The central premise of the film is based on PD James’ book of the same name. The idea being that humanity is now infertile and dieing out, however a frazzled character Theodore Faron (Clive Owen) finds himself having to protect the first pregnant woman in 18 years. This ‘humanity in peril’ is used by Alfonso Cuar√≥n to take the viewer on a tour of Britain totally fucked. Where Palestine and Iraq have become the worlds future. As a result the film has an underlying bleak tension that at points becomes almost unbearable.
For me this film ticked nearly all the boxes, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic (although really its plain apocalyptic), thriller, in Britain. Its everything I wanted from V for Vendetta but didn’t get. It reminds me of earlier dystopian films like The Handmaids Tale – while ostensibley Sci-Fi are more about the present than anything else. There is also a tiny little Mad Max in there, any film set in future Britain will have 1984 overtones . At times felt like an updated version of Threads, its certainly had its ultra-bleak moments. I was pleased to see Michael Caine as a weed puffing political cartoonist listening to roots manuva, and the evil dude from Serenity (Chiwetal Ejiofor) being extremley cool too. Readers of the book may have a problem with it though. I just love the way the makers of the film went to town on the concept of ‘fucked up Britain in 2027′. Readers of Shiptonblog may realise its somthing I’m totally obsessed with from my posts on the future of Britain and particulary the demise of business parks.

9/10