Children of Men (2006)

Director:

Alfonso Cuarón

Writers (WGA):

Alfonso Cuarón (screenplay) &
Timothy J. Sexton (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 January 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

No children. No future. No hope.

Plot:

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.

Plot Keywords:

Future | Violence | Birth | England | Chaos

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 20 wins & 24 nominations

Cast

Juan Gabriel Yacuzzi	...	Baby Diego (as Juan Yacuzzi)
Mishal Husain	...	Newsreader
Rob Curling	...	Newsreader
Jon Chevalier	...	Café Customer
Rita Davies	...	Café Customer
Kim Fenton	...	Café Customer
Chris Gilbert	...	Café Customer
Phoebe Hawthorne	...	Café Customer
Rebecca Howard	...	Café Customer
Atalanta White	...	Café Customer (as Atlanta White)
Laurence Woodbridge	...	Café Customer
Clive Owen	...	Theo Faron
Maria McErlane	...	Shirley
Michael Haughey	...	Mr. Griffiths
Paul Sharma	...	Ian

Also Known As:

Les fils de l'homme (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Niños del hombre (Argentina) (Mexico) [es]
Az ember gyermeke (Hungary) [hu]
Children of Men (Germany) [de]
Hijos de los hombres (Spain) [es]
I figli degli uomini (Italy) [it]
Ihmisen pojat (Finland) [fi]
Os Filhos do Homem (Portugal) [pt]
Potomci (Serbia) [sr]
Potomci lidí (Czech Republic) [cs]
Potomkovia ludí (Slovakia) [sk]
Son umut (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Ta paidia ton anthropon (Greece) [el]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, language, some drug use and brief nudity.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

Japan | UK | USA

Language:

English | German | Italian | Romanian | Spanish | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:15A | UK:15 | Netherlands:16 | France:U | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-15 | Germany:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | USA:R (certificate #42838) | New Zealand:R16 | Hungary:16 | Norway:15 | South Korea:15 | Malaysia:18PL (DVD) | Brazil:16 | Sweden:15 | India:A | Spain:13 | South Africa:16LV

Filming Locations:

Admiralty Arch, The Mall, St. James's, London, England, UK

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

In the movie it is women who have become infertile, while in the book it was men.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Theo overhears Luke's plans to kill him, he wears socks. In the following scenes where he escapes the safe house and pushes the car, he wears shoes.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Newsreader: Day 1,000 of the Siege of Seattle.
Newsreader: The Muslim community demands an end to the Army's occupation of mosques.
Newsreader: The Homeland Security bill is ratified. After eight years, British borders will remain closed. The deportation of illegal immigrants will continue. Good morning. Our lead story.

Movie Connections:

References Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Soundtrack:

Indian Stomp

Enthralling, haunting addition to the apocalypse genre

Worthy addition to a very British literary, televisual and cinematic tradition of dystopian and apocalyptic narratives. H.G Wells, John Wyndham, SURVIVORS, 28 DAYS LATER.

These texts are revealing of the times in which they were made. Rather than looking forwards,they re often, at heart, deeply conservative. They frequently express a desire for a world where the centralised, industrial society has broken down entirely, replaced by an agrarian based model comprising small, rural communities. These narratives coincided with the rise in 'alternative ' lifestyles, interest in self sufficiency, organic farming, low technology and a different relationship with the Earth. Nostalgia for a pre Industrial past is more prominent than hope and anticipation of a glorious new future when civilisations been destroyed for a new, better world to emerge.

The grand narratives which we once imagined were going to change and improve the world no longer seem credible. Following the collapse of communism, there's a distrust of ideologies, especially those of the left. Arguably, the left has collapsed in the Western World. Thats the context this film arrives in, one where there seems no meaningfully effective counterbalance to the continued dominance of global capitalism, media saturation and environmental meltdown.

Arguably this film offers some hope but my overall impression is of something a lot bleaker than other apocalypse narratives. Without children there is, literally, no future left. Although emerging from a different context, this film shares with its predecessors a thoroughly revealing indication of the concerns preoccupying the time in which it was made.

Two scenes haunted me. The man in Battersea, isolated with his art collection and the set pieces of the illegal immigrants, rounded up and caged.

The Battersea scene uses its location and choice of Picasso's Gernika painting in the background to make a searing comment on a civilisation which, despite its pretensions to Art and Culture, has managed to engineer its own extinction. A civilisation whose intellectual and cultural elites, instead of challenging the prevailing discourse, isolate themselves, collusive in a form of collective denial.

The illegals scene is composed in such a way as to recreate images from the War on Terror, images which are now iconic. Both scenes link together through use of the painting which is an inspired device. This is definitely a movie to watch and work at. I was also intrigued by the recurring animals, and reminded of Tarkovsky, whose work is consistently loaded with symbolism. The scene at the empty, abandoned school was very reminiscent of the Russian director. Also praiseworthy is the astonishing use of sound, particularly in one of the key scenes when dogs can be heard barking in the distance.

Another haunting image is that of the flowers and wreaths laid very early on, after the youngest person on earth has died. Reminiscent of the mawkishness, sentimentality and mass hysteria of those laying floral tributes to murder victims they never knew, the so called 'Diana effect'. Again, a clear reference to todays world.

This is an outstanding piece of film making, I agree totally with previous reviewers comments, especially regarding the battle scenes, which have an immediacy, bringing to mind COME AND SEE or APOCALYPSE NOW. I ll give the last word to Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian newspapers film critic who called this 'a thinking persons action movie.'