Film Analysis #2 - 1984 and THX1138

     The films chosen for this week's analysis have strong threads that run between them, from start to finish. Each depicts a world where technology of the time is used to dumb the public down, and keep them completely captive. Both films also feature a man who lusts over a woman, and this directly results in their capture by the powers at be. How those issues are resolved, is where they differ, however. 

     In 1984, Winston Smith is quite fatalistic, right from the get-go. In a world where thoughts can be severely punishable crimes, Winston has thoughts of these nature very early on in the film, fully knowing the extent of their consequences. For his story, even though subject to dictatorship the likes of which a prison would be envious, it seems the events that transpire were caused under his own volition. In a world more visually similar, and rather technologically comparable to ours, most of the warfare in this film takes place in the mind. The ruling government, under the control of the elusive Big Brother, seeks to have absolute control of the thoughts in the mind's of the citizens. Instead of banning books completely, like in Fahrenheit 451, they just alter the books to say what they'd like. Winston himself works for the Ministry of Propaganda, where he modifies history books to the liking of his superior. Although his problems begin with his problematic thoughts against Big Brother's regime, things take a turn for the worse when he begins an illegal affair with his love interest, Julia. They rent a space from a man at which to conduct their secret rendezvous, who turns out to be working for Big Brother the whole time. After their imminent capture, things take a peculiar turn. Both films being analysed this week contain violence against the main character after their abduction, like with most films that contain a similar type of situation, however 1984 takes a more sinister route here. Pain and violence are certainly effective tools in getting what you want from somebody on their own, even looking at real life situations like Guantanamo Bay way people are reported to be water-boarded and tortured. But instead of physical pain and punishment alone, Winston's greatest fear is uprooted and used against him. He has a ghastly fear of rats, and is put in a cage in which rats will be able to chew through his face. This provides a much more mental kind of torture, which eventually does break Winston, even bringing him to cry for his punishment to be given to his love Julia instead of himself. Obviously an effective method. Stripped of everything, leaving nothing but a shell of what had once been Winston Smith, he finally seems to accept his grim fate, and even saying "I Love You" to the ever-present image of Big Brother. 

     The main character in THX1138, whose name is that of the films' title, doesn't have as much control over his own fate. The world that he inhabits has become a lot less human. Technology has gone in a direction that completely enslaves the public, and computers control virtually everything. As opposed to 1984, the character in this film isn't granted the blessing of choosing to rebel against the ruling class on his own. Instead, his mathematically assigned roommate LUH decides for him. She begins to lessen THX's doses of medication, unbeknownst to him. He is obviously very confused when his mood and behavior start to radically shift because as far as he knows, nothing has changed. This is a very interesting dynamic between this film and 1984, because this spark to the powder-keg is completely out of the hands of the main character. It happens outside of his control, and in this case, he doesn't even know that it happened (at first). Instead of having thoughts outside of the desires of the government being the crime, here it's taking a dosage of medication any lesser than prescribed by the government. For this crime, and the consequent love affair it caused between THX and LUH, the two are more closely monitored for their crimes. This part stood out to me as rather strange. It seemed by this point in the film and THX and LUH were completely akin to the level at which the ruling class was monitoring the public, and their abilities to do so. At one point LUH expresses concerns that she believes they're being watched, and THX assures her that they're not. They were, however, being observed. The one doing the observing also happened to be LUH's superior, SEN. After transferring LUH, THX grows restless and is eventually captured by the government and charged with his crimes. It is at this point that a fork splits between 1984 and THX1138. THX is able to actually escape his torturous punishment, and instead of being driven to curse her name, actually tries to find the woman he's in love with. His search ends up with some grim results, though. The other difference here is the ending of each film, as they are complete polar opposites. Whereas Winston in 1984 was left with nothing, admitting defeat and awaiting death, THX is able to escape the underground settlement, and the last shots we see of him are his first triumphant steps into the outside world.  

Article Analysis #2 - Science, Politics. and Utopia

This article goes deeper into what is most certainly an obvious connection, that between science and the idea of a Utopian society. After all, Utopian/Dystopian films and books so often find their home right in the center of the science-fiction genre. But in this discussion, it is very important to note the difference between science itself, and technology, as they are related but absolutely not the same thing. Science, essentially, is merely a method used for obtaining information. You make a prediction about something observable or testable in the natural world, perform numerous tests to collect data, and either conform or deny your original hypothesis. Modern times has even brought in the practice of data being compiled into journals that undergo the peer-review process. Science seems to also have no foreseeable end-point, as more questions that are answered by the scientific method just seem to create more and more questions. An exchange that can be seen in such a way that the more we learn, the more we realize how much we don't know. Technology, on the other hand, is definitely born out of science, and scientific research and development, but as explained it is a distinct separate entity from science itself. This creates and interesting point of duality, in which science does not hold the lever between Utopia and Dystopia, it's actually the scientist that can push it either way, determined by the technology they've created. In both 1984 and THX1138 technology is used to enslave people, and dumb them down to a state of numbness, ripe for being taken control of. There exists a disconnect between science, and the worlds created in these films. The same science conducted could've been done "the opposite direction", if you will, and created a beautiful Utopian culture. Instead, however, in both films the technology that arises out of the scientists in their respective woulds creates a severely Dystopian society in every sense of the term.

Film Analysis #1 - Fahrenheit 451 / Soylent Green

     As pointed out in the article "On Dystopia", the idea of a dystopian future is not only a proven theme for literature and film, but can also be created as a response to evil in the real world, or as a warning of a dark future to come. These various variables involved allow what it is that actually makes a dystopian future differ greatly. This notion is very much present in the films "Fahrenheit 451" and "Soylent Green". The former creates a future in which ideas and free will are held captive, and much of the imprisonment enforced on the public exists within the mind. The latter, however, shows a future in which earthly conditions such as overpopulation and a runaway greenhouse effect have left people with extremely meager living conditions. Each film successfully captures the essence of a dystopian future, but each does so in a very unique way.

     "Fahrenheit 451" tells the tale of a future with ideas very foreign to those of modern society. Instead of encouraging children to read, and acknowledging the intellectual benefits of reading like is commonly done today, books are actually highly illegal. The idea of a "fireman" is quite different as well, as instead of putting fires out, their job is to start them. Books are seen as being so dangerous to the public that they must actually be destroyed. (This is where the film gets it's name, as 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature required to burn a book.) The idea of total control is a common theme that stretches throughout the entire dystopian genre, and is achieved here through controlling the spread of information. Books allow the ideas of an individual to be brought to the forefront, and to be shared among groups of people. As this would allow conflicting ideas to be heard, books themselves cannot be allowed. Instead of just banning books, or disposing of them behind closed doors, this film chooses to make a powerful spectacle out of the torching of books. Burning the books to ashes in front of a crowd shows the seriousness of their intentions, and strikes fear among the public until the point of compliance. Books, however, seemed to only be the first things to go. It's easy to see how the banning and burning of books has also taken something else away from the people in this film. People seem to lack any sort of depth in their exchanges with one another. The appreciation of things like the beauty of nature seems all but lost. The ban on books has taken much more  from society than merely the ability to read words off of a page. The main character of the film, Montag, becomes numb to the reality of his position as a fireman. He does his duties as requested until he meets a girl named Clarisse.  Her delightful innocence intrigues Montag, and it seems as if her poignant questioning and playful demeanor was the push that he needed to finally take a step back and look at the book burning situation from a new angle. Once this fire is lit within Montag, it's impossible to extinguish, and he even begins to stash books that he secretly takes from burnings. It is at this point you see Montag's satisfaction of his own life start to fade away before his very eyes, surely with assistance from his wife, who besides almost committing suicide with sleeping pills, has become a completely mind-numb puppet of the television. Whilst continuing on this downward spiral, Montag and the firemen respond to an alarm for an old woman with a house full of books. At this point, a very powerful moment takes place. After collecting all of the books, throwing them into a pile in the center of the room, and dousing everything with a flammable liquid, the woman refuses to leave. She claims that she would like to die as she's lived, and she'd lived with the books, claiming the books were "alive" and that they "spoke" to her. The firemen then give her a final countdown of 10 seconds to exit the area, thus saving her own life. While counting down they ready the flamethrower and aim it at the lady. At the last moment, something unexpected happens. She lights a match from a box in her hand, and smiling, drops it to the ground beside her, igniting the entire area. This moment represents the point made in "On Dystopia", that a dystopian future is not merely just a grim outlook, but it exists only is a society of extreme oppression. On this idea, Booker claims "the bleak dystopian world should encourage the reader or viewer to think critically about it, then transfer this critical thinking to his or her own world." This makes me wonder how an oppressive regime such as the one in Fahrenheit 451 would have to operate in a world such as ours, where information is spread freely and instantly, in order to maintain that type of control. 

     Aside from a group of people directly creating the conditions for a dystopian future to exist, there are also outside factors that can set the stage quite nicely by themselves. In the world of Soylent Green, overpopulation has taken a huge toll on society, causing massive shortages of food, and a rise in the amount of people homeless and unemployed. To compound these existing difficulties, climate change due to the Greenhouse Effect has caused 90 degree days to wreak havoc on the 40 million citizens stuffed into New York City. These conditions are an open invitation for the oppressive elite to take a direct stranglehold on society. At this point, there lies much power in controlling the food. This type of dystopian future hits very close to home for many parts of the world, and will only become more and more prevalent as time moves forward. In the article "The Wretched Refuse of Your Teemed Shore", it speaks of humanity's fear of it's own self-destruction. "The nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II ushered in a new age of anxiety about humanity’s capacity to destroy itself and its environment." Even without weapons, or war, or anything of the sort, could overpopulation alone be enough to cause such a dystopian future? Soylent Green sure makes a valid case, and it's portrayed in only one American city, and also uses an older standard of living. In the modern world, food is not the only issue, and the average family requires more and more resources to maintain their desired lifestyle as time goes on. Up until this point, space has never truly been the issue, as almost everybody on earth could fit into an area the size of California, but other things that seem to cause problems first. As the standard of living increases, and the resources required to sustain it increase proportionally, it is not only likely to cause resources to run out faster, but also make for far more of a radical and jarring change when it must be taken away. 

Article Analysis #1 - On Dystopia

A dystopian society, at it's core, is the opposite of a utopia. How this imagined and undesirable future is configured, or what had caused it's frightening conditions, is completely up to the creative control of writer. The article, "On Dystopia", points out that these hypothetical futures are born out of multiple different scenarios. Of course there is the ever-present desire to imitate success, and with movies displaying a dystopian future seeming to thrive at the box office, the public has most certainly taken an interest in it. The argument here is that building a movie around a dystopian future not only creates many interesting avenues to explore on film, but that these types of ideas are created as a response to real life situations and events. In modern society, there are countless portions of every day life from which to pull inspiration, from the recent NSA scandal, to failing economies, or deadly conflicts worldwide. The idea of painting a dystopian future is far from new, however. The article states how the great thinkers of the past, like Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, also used this method to provide a warning of a dark future, each in their own unique way. Whether spawned from crisis, created as a warning, or a way to make a great film, the dystopian future is an undoubtedly powerful tool.