THE POSTMAN
Around the fall 0f 2009, a movie was released in theaters. This movie involves science fiction and a global disaster and was titled The Road starring Vigo Mortensen. The movie is based on a book written in 2006. I will take the time to examine past movies that have a similar genre.
Since I brought up the movie Waterworld, I will also bring up the other movie that Kevin Costner also starred and directed in. The movie was The Postman and was released in theaters on December 1997.
In a way, this movie is science fiction because it takes place in what was left of the U.S. in the distant future in the year 2013 AD. This was the only reason that I watched this movie to begin with.
In this movie, civilization in the U.S. has collapsed and the people that had survived have reverted back into something like a cross between the stone-age and the old west. There was no working government, no electricity, no internet, no operational cars and aircraft. It was as primitive as you could imagine. The only mode of transportation was on horseback.
What troubled me the most about this movie was that it never really explained how the future came into being. Perhaps the most unusual paradox that caught my attention was that this movie was made in 1997 and based on a novel that was published well before 1991. I say this because the Cold War no longer existed by 1997 and the story and plot would have been moot and very out of place. It would actually have made far more sense of this movie was made in the 1980s, when the Cold War still sparked imagination. These movies are clearly model examples of how far Hollywood can go in terms of its imagination and creative and dramatic license. As usual and in typical Hollywood cliché, the movie has a happy ending.
Given how out of place this movie appeared it was little wonder why it did not do well at the box-office and possibly why Kevin Costner may have been the butt of jokes and ridicule and mockery as both an actor and director. Be that as it may, Costner still remains grounded and never lets fame and success get to his head. Still the movie had the imagination of what would happen if society actually did break down and how would people survive without the very things we take for granted -like the computers and the internet.
Movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl9_GXvNktI
