Topic: Children of Men

I never know what to say in the first post.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Children of Men

DEEP THOUGHTS by Teague Chrystie smile

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Re: Children of Men

Before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you're a mile away, and you've got their shoes.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Children of Men

Not a lot to say that you guys didn't cover already in the commentary. Awesome flick. I remember when it came out and everyone made a huge deal about the car scene, not only because it was such an awesome shot, but because no one could figure out how they did it and no one on the film would talk about it in interviews or anything. It actually worked in their favor and created a sense of mystery as to how the hell they managed to pull off all these crazy complex long shots.

"If I were in a war, I wouldn't throw grenades. I'd throw bananas. Then while they're confused, I'd throw grenades."

Last edited by Squiggly_P (2011-05-16 20:48:49)

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Re: Children of Men

Three cheers for pointing out the Pink Floyd floating pig smile I took my sister to the recent Roger Waters tour of The Wall and the pig floated right over us. Great show.

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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Re: Children of Men

really enjoyed this commentary. completely agree about it being a film thats really well made but not one you rush back to watch again.

Extended Edition - 146 - The Rise Of Skywalker
VFX Reel | Twitter | IMDB | Blog

Re: Children of Men

Thanks for another great commentary. I was pleased with Brian's Star Trek reference.

Maybe one day we will convince Trey that not all Star Trek since Kirk was as bad TNG Season 1.

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Re: Children of Men

One of my all-time favourites.

For those outside the UK (being a Brit just makes this film even awesomer - now we have our Bladerunner) everyone has stick shifts. They are not just common, they are by a very wide margin the default. I was even wondering it the DiF gang/US audiences would even be familiar with bump-starting like most of us are...

And of course dNeg rule. But we knew that smile

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Re: Children of Men

Agreed, it was definely a cool year for dystopian Britian... all that was missing was the Con/Lib coalition. Ho ho!

Extended Edition - 146 - The Rise Of Skywalker
VFX Reel | Twitter | IMDB | Blog

Re: Children of Men

Wait...how have i been listening this long and not realized that Teague has never watched the Simpsons?  Did i block it out? Was there a giant cover up and it just leaked on this commentary? 

How's this happen?  i thought we had rules about stuff...Simpsons being required viewing for all. 
i'm not that old..I mean,  I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's "it" seems weird and scary to me.

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Re: Children of Men

It's not that it wasn't around as I was growing up, I'm a couple years older than the show itself. I just never found it particularly funny, even it its lauded "heyday." Not my kind of thing. Even going back to old, "heyday" episodes I'm not that into it.

*shrug*

Different strokes.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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12

Re: Children of Men

I remember reading an interview with Alfonso Cuarón where he talked about making Children of Men. Basically he liked the premise, but didn't particularly care for the book. I think he didn't even read it, but had other people read it so they could fill in blanks for him. So he took the 'magic bean' and the themes and the characters (sort of) and made his own thing. He was also not interested in the Human Project at all, which is why the movie doesn't even go there.

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Re: Children of Men

To my understanding that's how he approached PRISONER OF AZKABAN, as well.

I'd call bullshit except, well, it seems to work for him.

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Re: Children of Men

Dorkman wrote:

To my understanding that's how he approached PRISONER OF AZKABAN, as well.

I'd call bullshit except, well, it seems to work for him.

For Children of men I belive him.

I however refuse to belive that the giant Warners/Rowling machine would ever allow him that freedom on Askaban. Especially as he wasn't the Alfonso 'Children of Men' Cuarón at that point smile

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Re: Children of Men

Just caught up with this and didn't care for it. Yes, it looks great and is effective on a (manipulative) emotional level, but otherwise it's dreadful. Aside from the bleakness of the setting, which just doesn't interest me, especially because it doesn't interest the protagonist (it's literally just a series of obstacles), it's the fact that the protagonist is utterly passive and uninteresting.

He gets involved because only a complete bastard wouldn't care about the only pregnancy in 19 years. He's executing some half-assed hand-me-down plan cobbled together for him by two different people that takes him right thru the heart of a civil war zone.

And he's delivering the girl to—as far as I can tell—elves who will take her to a magical land of plenty, where she and her baby absolutely will not be subjected to a torturous array of medical tests, the way the British government would. Good luck with that.

Also, I hate Guernica. THAT IS NOT WHAT PEOPLE LOOK LIKE, PICASSO.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Children of Men

I don't think he's passive. I think he starts out that way, but his arc is that he grows to take action and care about things.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Children of Men

Yeah, he's hardly passive when he steals the girl away and escapes from the farm.

But interesting point about the Tomorrow people, although my interpretation is that they aren't perfect and she will be subjected to tests and such, it's just a lesser of two evils.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: Children of Men

Oh, come on. I think a group devoted to trying to save the human race might have a little sense of the value of a human being and treat her and the most important baby on Earth with some compassion and, you know, humanity.

Yeah, they're going to have to draw blood and run tests, but they're not going to turn her into a faceless lab rat screaming futilely in a white room. Science/tests != evil.

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Re: Children of Men

True, though I didn't mean evil that literally. But it's interesting, I don't get the sense that the government would have subjected her to the sort of white room treatment you describe.  This isn't the British fascist regime from V for Vendetta, and most of what we know about the government and what they would do to her is told from  the unbiased perspective of terrorists who have their own agenda.

When all characters and factions are portrayed as grey, it just seems out of place to have another organisation, which is talked about in almost mythical tones, be genuinely white. We know very little about them, and what we see turns out to be a manky old boat. I don't get that 'and everyone lived happily ever after' vibe from the end.

There was a great Outer Limits episode where a woman gives birth to a child in a sterile world, I think she was also black as well, and whilst she was treated fine at first, slowly the gloves came off as people started to be people.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: Children of Men

Either way, Kee's life is going to involve a lot of medical poking and prodding. If they'd gone public, she could have lived a half-way normal life as a celebrity like Baby Diego. But Theo delivers her into the hands of a secretive organization with a hazy agenda whose best method of getting the most important person alive out of the UK was "walk her thru a civil war and put her in a row boat. Don't be late. We're not waiting."

However, my biggest problem is still with Theo. Redxavier credits him with acting to escape the farm, but he does so ONLY because he finds they're going to kill him and use the girl for political purposes. The only things he does that aren't driven by money or survival are staying with Kee after the reveal in the barn and going after Kee when the bad guys snatch her in the refugee camp. In both cases, there is zero internal conflict—he has a miserable life and would have to be heartless to say no.

Worse, Theo is surrounded by a civil war and NEVER EVEN PICKS UP A WEAPON. He fails to get a bulletproof vest for Kee because he panics and flees instead of stripping Syd's body. He even fails to get SHOES even tho he has a car, money, and plenty of time before AND after going to Jasper's. He is a TERRIBLE HERO.

Last edited by Zarban (2011-09-06 14:18:17)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: Children of Men

Of course he is. Because he's a person, not a Movie Hero, and people in crazy situations can act stupid and panicky and aren't going to always make smart choices in the moment. He's doing his best without having any idea what to do because he's never had to be a hero before and didn't even intend to start now. Which ultimately is what, IMO, makes him heroic. Not that he's good at it, but he never abandons trying when he realizes no one else is going to do it.

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Re: Children of Men

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/p … don-240192

and women become infertile in 3... 2... 1...

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