The road and Escape from LA

The Road John Hillcoat, 2009

The road begins with very colorful shots of a man and an unknown woman in a beautiful home with flowers and a horse. However, these images do not last very long, as a scene of something horrible happening in the middle of the night immediately interrupts them. This transition can be confusing and does not explain anything, which was intentional, but still I felt it could have been more useful to show more cause and effect.

This film features a grim world destroyed by fire. A man and a son struggle to live a normal life looking for food and shelter. This nameless family has lost their mother in the middle of the night. The mother is afraid that she will be r aped and the family will eaten by cannibals that they do not kill themselves. She cannot bear to see her child suffer any longer so she leaves in the darkness with intentions of death. She tells her husband that she does not want to simply survive.

The father carries a loaded gun with two bullets, one for him and one for his son. This shows us that the father would rather die by his own will then dying of starvation or cannibalism by other people. Cannibalism has become a last resort food source in this film due to the lack of farming and animals. There are people with guns that travel around looking for victims to capture and eat. In this dystopian world, desperation and hunger have left people no other options.

The man and his son were sleeping in a car when all of a sudden a group of armed bandits arrives. One of the bandits gets a hold of his son and the father has no choice but to kill him. This family now knows the dangers of living in this destroyed and chaotic world. In a life they no longer live happy and comfortably but only to survive. Constantly on the move sleeping and filth and eating whatever scraps they can find laying around. You rarely see them eating anything and they seem weak and unhealthy.

As the father and his son travel along the road, they find a house that seems like it may be in good shape. After breaking in the house, they go in the basement and find people locked up starving and naked. The cannibals suddenly arrive and the father almost kills his son out of desperation and fear of being captured by the cannibals or eaten.

This father and son family have little to no hope of living a normal or happy life ever again. The planet seems dead and hopeless, without sunlight, vegetation and living animals. In this world, you survive by eating anything you can find including people. This family is fearful of all people as they are all threats.

The road can seem like a very depressing film as you watch the characters struggle just to live each day. Human contact with others is often in conflict and by gunpoint. The lack of food has left everyone in desperation and without hope. The father looks out for his child and their survival. However, the boy takes pity on other people and wants to help them in any way he can. There is a struggle between surviving and being kind to others as if the two cannot coexist.

In the end, the father dies from a fatal arrow attack. A new family finds the boy but we do not know if they will eat him. This is less for interpretation and judgment of this desperate humanity. The boy is kind and has a gentle heart, something rare left and a horrible world.

Escape from LA

Escape from LA is one of the cheesiest, stupidly funny movies you will find from the 1990s. In this film, America is compared to prisons. The rise of crime and LA has led to the formation of the police force. The president announces that an earthquake will wash away all of the sinful people of LA. When the earthquake hits a huge tsunami hits LA. Pres. Lynchburg is now the president indefinitely. Having a permanent president means that laws and government will be under the power of one man’s ideals and beliefs. I believe if this were to r happen in America, there would be a rebellion against the government.

LA is no longer a part of the United States and is now the deportation point for all undesirable people to live in the new moral America. The police force guards the shoreline of LA to make escape impossible. That is idea alone could have been taking more seriously if it was not for the comedic, goofy tone of the film.

This film features cheesy special effects and a ridiculous storyline that glorifies an antihero Snake Plissken., Kurt Russell plays snake wearing an eye patch. As he is escorted to deportation, he is told that prostitutes, atheists, and runaways are all trash being thrown out? Snake is scratched on his hand on the way to his cell. He is shown a hologram tape of the president’s daughter stealing a top-secret prototype. They tell him that she hijacks Air Force 3. In this scene snake is surrounded by the hologram as if he was there. The president’s daughter name is Utopia, which is ironic as she is seen as a threat to the country. Snake refuses the offer only until they tell him that he has been exposed to a deadly virus. If Snake does not complete his mission, he will die by a genetically engineered virus.

Snake puts on his new gear dressed like a New Age outlaw from the Wild West. Although this film is quite corny, the scenes have decent composition and lighting. Snake travels in the sea by submarine on his way to LA to retrieve the data device.

This film has a western dystopia style to it. Snake travels around LA solving all his problems with his guns. Every negotiation and standoff is through the barrel of a gun. In this scene, a comic book style villain called the Surgeon General captures Snake. The henchmen are wearing costumes and makeup so they look deformed. Many wacky aspects to this film take away from the films potential. This movie could have been more serious with its use of a dystopian theme if John Carpenter wanted to.

                                Future Almost Lost by Redmond

Technophilia and violence, how do they co exist in dystopian films?In minority report there is a society driven by technology. The police men fly around to stop criminals. In Thx1138 technology observes everyone through monitors and the policemen are robots that beat people violently. Why is technology a key key role in a majority of dystopian films.The idea that technology will save the human race actually is used in reverse to suppress,conquer and attack the very people it was suppose to save.In actuality technology is the key to holding the upper hand in wars and keeping the peace by brute force and fear that the authority will use might and overpowering technological superiority.