Well, actually, it's a Warning-About-the-Culture-of-Death Movie.
If you haven't watched it yet, go out and rent The Island, which stars Ewen McGregor and Charlotte Johansson. Hubby wasn't sure at first, but figured two hours and sixteen minutes of Charlotte Johansson couldn't be too bad. When we were done, he said, "That was the best movie you've picked out in a while!"
Quick synopsis:
We meet people who have been rescued from a catastrophic event that rendered the entire world pretty much uninhabitable. They are brought to this place where they cannot go outside because of the contamination, and they all work and live in a very controlled environment. But there is a place, called The Island, where people can live uncontaminated. It's a safe haven, and lotteries are held regularly to see who can go and live there, working to repopulate the world again. The lucky winners are chosen and interviewed just before they leave. Such a great honor!
Turns out, though, that there is no Island, and being chosen is not the great honor that people think it is. If you want more, I'll issue a spoiler alert, and you can scroll to the bottom of this post for a little bit more about the movie.
Culture of Death Watch:
The lines used by those who run this center are earily like the things that scientists say today. See above spoiler alert and scroll down for more.
Go check out the Rotten Tomatoes reviews (it only has a 40% rating) for some of the views critics took with it. I didn't think it would resonate well with the liberals who are pro-cloning and pro-abortion. Oh, and I havne't seen Coma. I wasn't allowed to watch scary movies when I was a kid. Maybe I'll rent it now.
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SPOILER ALERT!
Okay, so the people there are clones. They are grown as "product" and "insurance policies" for the very rich. They are grown in adult form, so no one in the project area has ever even seen a baby before. One woman, who is clearly pregnant, gets an automatic ticket to The Island when she goes into labor. What happens after that is absolutely in the skin-jumps-off-my-body-and-crawls-around category. Lincoln (Ewen McGregor's character) discovers the outside world and what really awaits the Lottery winners, and spends the rest of the movie trying to save Johannson's character from her fate just after she is chosen to go next.
And the things that are said about the clones (agnates, they are called) are things that we have been reading in the news lately. Cloning proponents call the clones they wish to create "tools" and promise to "cure child lukemia in two years" (see Mary Meets Dolly for perfect examples). The clones "are not human" or "are not really human" or "are not really people."
BIGGER SPOILER ALERT!
The public in the movie is told that the clones never gain consciousness, and they are kept in a vegetative state. They don't feel a thing when they are killed to provide you with organs so you can live another 60 to 70 years. But they clones are conscious, and while some people balk and change their minds about the idea of using the agnates in this manner, some people want to live at any cost and do not care a whit that they are killing a fully sentient, complete human being. Someone with a life, with feelings, with a desire to live.
I'm telling you, it was downright creepy. But it was also excellent.
Higly recommended, in short.
5 comments:
LOVE that movie. And it's Scarlett. :)
My family enjoyed this movie too.
This movie and Gattaca are so prophetic, I can't take it. I believe they are both must see movies.
Gattaca, too. I thought both were excellent, though very disturbing, movies. Both could be Law and Order episodes the way they are "ripped from the headlines."
I wonder how many people watched them and got it? And I wondered if the low ratings from critics (fans at Rotten Tomatoes rated it higher) were because they were just too danged uncomfortable while watching it to give it a good review.
Only God knows, and He ain't talkin'.
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