Of the movies we had to watch for class, the only one I had never seen before was Apocalypto. I found it to be the least entertaining, due to, I think, a combination of subtitles (whose tone sometimes seemed mismatched with the dialogue) and a fairly traditional, predictable plot with unexplained and unaddressed supernatural elements made the film seem slightly ridiculous at times. Indeed, while the scene of the young girl prophesizing is well done, evoking feelings of fear and foreboding, scenes such as Jaguar Paw impossibly surviving a jump off a waterfall or Seven’s child shooting out of her womb discouraged my suspension of disbelief and removed me from the world of the movie. However, as with the scene of the young girl warning the Mayans of the end of their world, many of the scenes of brutal violence were also quite affecting and thought provoking. The scene of the human sacrifice, which hundreds of onlookers cheer on, reminded me of the scenes in Glorious Appearing in which Jesus’ acts of mass destruction were revered and viewed as righteous. Yet here, as Quinby notes, the action is not motivated by righteous judgment, but beliefs that are “clearly wrong from the audience’s perspective” (7).
In addition, the scene where the captors made Jaguar Paw and his friends the object of a deadly game solidified the strict dichotomy – Jaguar Paw and his friends have been dehumanized by their captors, yet at the same time, the movie presents Zero Wolf and his people as demonized “others” as well. This dichotomy is only complicated by the appearance of conquistador ships on the horizon in the final moments of the film, leaving me confused as to the message I was supposed to be getting. Jaguar Paw has escaped his end through the enemy, but in doing so he has propelled himself closer to the prophesied end the young girl delivers.
Things are complicated slightly in 28 days later – zombies are the evil “other”, no doubt about it. But the uninfected are not necessarily any better, in fact, perhaps they are worse. They are acting on their own agency, rather than simply on the irresistible urges of a terrible virus. The idea of human agency in the face of devastation and destruction is extremely appealing to me, and though such agency can certainly accelerate destruction, as Apocalypto and the soldiers in 28 Days Later demonstrate, 28 Days Later also demonstrates the resilient, hopeful aspect of the agency as Jim, Hannah and Selena recreate a new, unconventional family life in which they protect and care for eachother.
Of the three movies we had to watch for today’s class, I found Children of Men the most fascinating, both as the most skillfully executed film but also the most complex. When I first saw Children of Men I admired the cinematography but found the monotonous mood of despair and hopelessness, reflected in the drab gray colors of every scene and in the language of almost every character, too disheartening to enjoy the film. However, a second viewing, perhaps in light of the themes we have been discussing, has somewhat changed my attitude towards it.
Children of Men presents a complicated world in which there is no clear line between the saved and the damned; indeed, the entire world might fall into the later category, given the loss of human fertility. Part of what is so frustrating about this film is the lack of explanation given to this loss. While 28 Days Later at least explained the zombie-creating plague with pseudo-science, the people in Children of Men have various theories, none of which have proven themselves adequate at explaining the loss of fertility, let alone how to reverse it. The inevitability of humanity’s extinction seems solidified until pregnant Kee appears. Theo is the anti-hero, only in on the mission for the money, until that changes, and he becomes willing to martyr himself for Kee, as so many other characters in the film did. In the final moments of the film, as Theo sits dying with Kee and her daughter, Theo’s transformation from disillusioned bureaucrat to hopeful savior is complete. Theo scoffed at myths of The Human Project working to reverse infertility at the beginning of the film, and is incredulous when he learns there is no way to directly contact them. Indeed, even the audience watching has no idea if The Human Project really exists. Yet as Theo and Kee wait for Tomorrow, it is Theo who reassures Kee that the ship is coming. And indeed it does. While it is less certain if the ship’s namesake will appear, the inevitable end is no longer inevitable, and I read the ending as ambiguously hopeful – both in the possibility of a tomorrow, but also in Theo’s transformation. Whitney (who I watched the films with) suggested that I saw hope in this ending because it was what I was looking for. This may be true, but I also think that perhaps hope is what we should be looking for.
In response to whether or not we “should” be looking for hope, I don’t know if that really helps us to imagine what the end would likely feel like. In a more spiritually driven apocalyptic narrative, hope undoubtedly lies at the end for the believer, but the non-believer has nothing to look forward to but fire and brimstone. All three of the films offer an ending that shine slivers of hope onto the screen, but for me, Children of Men especially, is not entirely hopeful. One newborn baby, though a girl she might not be fertile either, is not likely to save the entire world, especially not a world brimming with chaos and violence. I think this hopefulness in hopelessness is characteristic of apocalyptic films. For the sake of the filmmakers success, they generally don’t want to leave the entire audience sitting in the theater depressed and hopeless, because then others probably won’t go see the film. In the world today, people want “happy” endings. I think the problem with this, though, is that viewers are in such great need of relief from such inconceivable destruction and change that they are willing to take away that sliver of hope, and let the other less favorable possibilities fade away. I just think in order to really feel what an apocalypse might be like, we need to look past our expectation for a neatly packaged, highly marketable piece of entertainment so that we might fully immerse ourselves in the end times we see on screen.
I actually thought that Children of Men overall did a really great job of depicting what an apocalypse might be like, despite the fact that it was a “neatly packaged, highly marketable piece of entertainment.” I don’t think it is only the viewers who need relief from the gloom and doom of apocalyptic film, but the people experiencing the apocalypse as well. Part of the authentic apocalyptic experience, I would think, would be striving to find that hope, even if, as a non-believer or in a Godless apocalypse, the future you hope for is not assured. One newborn girl is unlikely to save the world on her own, but her very existence symbolized not a certainty of “tomorrow,” but the possibility.
I’m really sad you didn’t enjoy Apocalypto as much as the other films! I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed it. But, I too was bummed out at the end when the conquistador ships arrived on the shore. You mention that the overall message of the film is unclear/paradoxical. I think Mel Gibson’s post-modern take on the apocalypse is foreshadowed and summarized in the opening quote: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.” We become so involved in Jaguar Paw’s journey to escape his end that by the time he reunites with his family, we are hopeful that they will “seek a new beginning” in the forest. But, from history, we know that Jaguar Paw’s civilization is not going to last much longer.
This ties into Whitney’s frustration with American cinema and our expectations of a positive ending. All three of the films leave the ending somewhat ambiguous but with a mostly positive overtone. Whitney might say its that we are subconsciously looking for a hopeful ending and that may be true. But, it’s definitely clear that the directors choose to have this slightly hopeful atmosphere in all three films. Aparna even mentioned in her post that the original ending of 28 Days Later involving Jim’s demise was cut out. Also, we can’t forget that a crucial component of the perennial/traditional apocalyptic tale is a New Jerusalem. Of course, contemporary filmmakers may forgo portraying an entirely heaven-like ending. But, it’s evident that they created somewhat optimistic (and New Jerusalem-like) individual endings – one of the components of post-modern apocalyptic narratives.