CHILDREN OF MEN
UK, 2006, 118 minutes, Colour.
Clive Owen, Claire- Hope Ashitey, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Pam Ferris, Danny Huston, Chiwitel Ejifor, Charlie Hunnam.
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron.
It was something of a surprise when P.D. James published Children of Men a few years ago. Her fans know her as a writer of stylish and literate crime thrillers, which are also murder mysteries and investigations but have much more depth than average. Children of Men is not a crime thriller. Rather, it is a futuristic story, more in the vein of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World or George Orwell’s 1984.
This time the year is 2027. The setting is London. However, it is a London that is recognisable but in a state of growing decay. The rest of the world has collapsed economically, militarily and even morally. Refugees, especially from Eastern Europe and Africa, are pouring into Britain only to be rounded up by hardened soldiers and police, locked in cages and transported to holding camps (with one in Bexhill). In this way the film has resonances with current British migration issues.
There is a more important factor that makes this story different. The world has become infertile. There are no more children of men and women. At the opening, there is dismay as news reaches London that the youngest person in the world, an 18 year old from Argentina, has been killed in a brawl. There is a huge outpouring of grief. This compounds the despair that when everyone dies, there will be an empty world. Everything will be still there with no one to see it.
On this level, the film works well, omitting large sections of the sub-plot concerning the hero’s political cousin, but keeping the main narrative and P. D. James’ themes. (A warning that the screenplay goes beyond Baroness James’ literate and more refined language and relies a lot on a more frank and four-lettered vocabulary.)
Clive Owen, just as unsmiling as usual but galvanised into action, is Theo, an ordinary citizen in these grim times who lives a more comfortable life because he is born English. When he is abducted by a revolutionary group, The Fish, led by Julianne Moore and Chiwitel Ejiofor, he is asked to get official permission for travel for an African young woman – who is pregnant.
The plot is complicated by the mother-to-be being an alien to be deported by the government, by the rebels wanting to keep the baby as a symbol of their fight against the authorities. It is a reminder that when all is said and done, we all respond well to a baby and can imagine our dismay if there were to be no more.
The bulk of the film consists of the dangerous journey of Theo and the girl to Bexhill to try to escape to The Human Project, an organisation that people have heard of but have never seen. It is a dangerous quest which ends up in the middle of the battles of an uprising.
Will the human race actually survive? Is the pregnancy a sign that humans will be able to reproduce? Just for a few moments, there is a ceasefire, as the young woman walks with her baby through the awestruck troops.
Michael Caine, Julianne Moore and Peter Mullan have solid cameo roles. Direction is by Mexican Alfonso Cuaron who made such a success of the third Harry Potter film. The film screened at the Venice Film Festival, 2006, where it received an award for photography and effects. It certainly does create a credibly squalid London, contrasting with the still beautiful countryside. This and the fierce battle sequences make us thankful for what we still have.
1. A vision of a possible future? Its relationship to the present? The blend of science fiction, political revolution? Message?
2. The work of P.D. James, literate, visionary, political? Insights into 21st century Britain? More universal message?
3. The setting of 2027, a recognisable London, yet squalid, collapsing? Police clashes with immigrants? The British and their attitude towards migrants, jobs, protection? The officers, the role of government? The military? The touches of 1984? The visual impact of familiar sites in the city, the interiors, the woods, the houses in the woods? Bex Hill and its being occupied, battles, camps? The overall sense of place?
4. The situation of reproduction, no children, the human race dying out, the television and the news about the youngest man in South America and his death? The squalid world and his being killed in a fight? People trying to survive? The Quietus packs for death? Government policies?
5. Britain as being the only place in any way prospering? The migrants, the rest of the world collapsing, people from Africa, East Europe, the Middle East? The contemporary allusions to migrant questions? Islam, the people coming from Eastern Europe for jobs, their icons, their thugs? People from Africa?
6. The revolutionary group, the Fish? Julian as leader, their acts of terrorism, their just cause? The talk of the futures project? Luke as lieutenant to Julian? Their military activity, abducting Theo, Julian discussing with Theo, her absence from his life? The past, their child – and Jasper’s story about the child, its growing up, its death? Julian wanting the document for Kee?
7. Theo in himself, his world, ordinary, home, the pleasure of his visits to Jasper, the conversation? Going to visit his cousin in government, to get the document? The cousin, suave personality, his disabled son and his outbursts at the table? Julian and her mission, his being abducted, the confrontation with Luke, Kee and her baby, his decision to get the document, the pursuit, going to take refuge with Jasper, watching Jasper being killed? Luke and his mission, wanting the baby? Miriam, taking her, her care for Kee?
8. The portrayal of the military, the police, ruthlessness?
9. Jasper, in himself, genial person from an old world, academic, his welcoming Theo, enjoying his company, his care for his wife, her catatonic state? Providing a refuge for Theo and Kee against Luke? The military pursuing them, the discovery of the map, Jasper being shot?
10. Kee, her background in Africa, character, not knowing the father of the child? The wonder of her actually being pregnant after all this time? The situation, Julian wanting her saved, Luke wanting her to be assembled for the cause? The mission, Luke killing Julian? Their fleeing, with Jasper, his kindness, on the road, in the car, the pursuit, the military and the police? The contact with Sid? His looking after them? Taking them to the gypsy, the gypsy and her help, Miriam and her being arrested and killed? Her going into labour, Theo and his concealing it, the experience of the birth, the difficulties, their being no models for Kee? Happy with the child? A girl? Tending the child, concealing it, the soldiers? The fighting, moving through the soldiers, their being lost in admiration for someone with a child? Going to the boat? Theo and his protection, the boat looming, Theo dead, her future? Possibilities for the human race?
11. Theo, the effect of this experience, bringing him out of himself, his memories of the loss of his child, the relationship with Julian? With Jasper, the pain of watching him die? His protecting Kee, talking with Miriam? Watching her die, the interactions with Sid, hiding, the gypsy, the squalor, the birth? The growing dangers? The battle, his having to bring Kee through the bombardment? His rowing her out to the boat, the fight with Sid, the fact that he was wounded, his death? An achievement?
12. Miriam, her story, the midwife, her narrative about what had happened, women becoming less fertile, the stopping of the pregnancies, no births? Her wanting to help Kee, with the Fish? Her suddenly being taken, the bag over the head, her execution along with the others?
13. Sid, the genial personality, the jokes, the drug dealing with Jasper? The prison, getting people into the prison? His talking about himself in the third person? The rescue, safety with the gypsy and his reactions to her? The violence and the confrontation with Theo?
14. The gypsy, a migrant, Eastern European? The contact, her help in delivering the baby, her delight in the child?
15. The siege in Becks Hill, the numerous migrants, the camps, the bombardment of the building, the revolution coming? Luke, the Fish, Luke’s death? The people letting the baby pass – peace for a moment?
16. The range of migrants, the places they came from, the cages and camps?
17. Salvation for the human race, out of Africa? The ending, the sadness? The film as drama, conscience, challenge, insight, hope?
