“Children of Men” — Read Along
Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian future, today.
Well, we’re only three years away now from PD James’ dystopian view of a future of depopulation, immigrants held in barbaric internment camps, fear pumped into our eyeballs every day from a media only too happy to oblige, the formation of anti-Government groups demanding the barest semblance of the human rights given to them by a higher universal power and
“Every time one of our politicians are in trouble, a bomb explodes”.
Three years away you say?
It was ever thus and will continue to be so for the rest of your lives and those of the children of men (and women) we bring into this upside down world of left being right, right being wrong, up being down and down is the new normal of up. 2+2 will continue to be 5 as the One World Party continue to insist you reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It is after all, their most essential command.
To cheer you up, here’s an astonishing version of “Life in a Glasshouse” by Radiohead which features prominently in the film:
"Life in a Glasshouse" by Radiohead - Live in 2001.
Being the Radiohead obsessive that I am (further evidenced in my Youtube and Rumble videos linked below of your humble narrator singing this song whilst wearing a Radiohead t-shirt — sad, but equally true) I can confirm to you dear reader that the band from Oxford, England have a happy knack of ending their albums with incredible songs and “Life in a Glasshouse” is very firmly in that category. A lyrical tale is woven of the “Surveillance State” and “Someone’s listening in” and of the pomposity and redundancy of politicians and royalty and “Don’t talk politics and don’t throw stones. Your royal highnesses”.
But where this song is brilliantly linked and included within this equally brilliant film directed by Alfonso Cuarón is as per the image that headlines this article: A bewildered man caught in a dystopian storm and “in trouble with my only friend” who’s “papering the windowpanes” and “living in a glasshouse”. It’s a remarkable scene in a remarkable film and despite its odious dystopian overtones, THE perfect use of a perfect song.
Here’s a snippet from the beginning of my spoiler free review of the film originally penned and published over a decade ago:
“Every time one of our politicians are in trouble, a bomb explodes”
“Children of Men” was my first in depth exposure to the films of Alfonso Cuarón and became a firm favourite of mine immediately on release in 2006. As I write this ten years later the film’s overriding themes of alienation in a post apocalyptic world, of failing social structural norms, oppressively high tensions surrounding immigration and nationhood still resonate deeply whilst shining a light on some of today’s eerily similar worldwide issues. Set in the year 2027, the film is anything but futuristic with a dirty grey colour palette dominating, and with society failing in all directions there are no discernible signatures of a futuristic world to come, of flying cars, enhanced transportation, logistics or media.
In it’s place is a disintegrating world at war with itself, a disillusioned populace and it’s immigrant inhabitants enclosed in horrific holding pens and internment camps with only the UK and London seemingly free of the riots spreading throughout the globe. The film is ostensibly rooted in London which as a rolling train billboard proclaims “Only Britain Soldiers On” and on the surface at least this appears to be the case. London is still working and sporting life, recreation and life at large still in evidence but lurking around every corner are terrorist threats, Government oppression and horrifying immigrant exclusion zones that resemble war torn ghettos.
The world as a whole is dying with liberty, freedom and progression seemingly on permanent hold after 18 years of zero recorded new births that has spawned a societal depression across great swathes of the entire planet. Following the death of “Baby Diego”, the World’s previous youngest member, his torch has been passed to the next youngest person alive and she now carries the weight of the world’s expectation and every possible hope on her shoulders. However, unbeknownst to the world at large and more crucially the authorities, a young girl loosely associated with the anti Government “Fishes” organisation is, against all possible odds, pregnant, and needing safe passage to the “Human Project”. Enter our accident prone and reluctantly accidental hero “Theo Faron” (Clive Owen).
Here follows my original spoiler free review of Children of Men, my opus article on the entire cinematic career of Alfonso Cuarón, as well as both my Youtube and Rumble channel recordings of me reading my own review!
So now dear reader you have a choice: You can either
(a) Read my entire review of this film via the first link below
(b) Then read my opus blog article on the films of Alfonso Cuarón
(c) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos of my reading of my own review of Children of Men, hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (d) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (e) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix.
Oh, and (f) There’s a link to Volume 1 of my exhaustive 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon and where you’ll find my review of Children of Men. All free to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Bless you for reading.
"Children of Men" - Original Review
"Alfonso Cuaron - Filmmaker Extraordinaire"
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Vol.1
"Children of Men" - My Youtube Channel reading
"Children of Men" - My Rumble Channel reading
Thanks for reading. Here are three recent additions to my “Read Along” series of articles:
"The Man Who Wasn't There" - Read Along