Contagion!
Tonight I finally got to see the movie Contagion at a second-run theatre in Burlington. My previous attempts were dogged by a) lack of childcare b) movie time mix-ups and c) lack of anyone to go with me -- although that normally wouldn't stop me. This time my sister agreed to go (provided that I pay). She was okay, if rather unscientific, company.
Basically, I heard it was a very realistic movie and having lived and worked through the SARS epidemic of 2003, I wanted to see just how realistic it was. And, man! It was good.
I remember the SARS days quite clearly. Working in a hospital at that time was quite scary. And I was 2-3 months pregnant at the time. Sometimes a little medical knowledge is a bad thing. I wasn't overly panicky, but having sat through many hours of microbiology and medical history lectures in med school, I had a unique perspective of how badly things could have gone. Perhaps the general population wasn't too aware of the situation (my sister only recalls that they took the holy water out of the church), but basically this movie Contagion spells out the kind of scenario that could well have happened if SARS had not been contained as well as it was and if it were a more bad-ass virus. By bad-ass I mean a virus to which no one has immunity, has a high mortality rate (and in the movie the mortality rate is only 20%, but still kills over 27 million people worldwide) and is very communicable.
I could not find anything to pick apart in this movie. Even prominent scientists gave it the thumbs up. If you're not worried about spoilers, this review by Dr. Paul Offit is pretty accurate (although I think he's a little hard on homeopathy and uses some ad hominem arguments). As a drama, I think the movie also works very well. I've read reviews that have said that a) it has no plot and b) it does not have enough character development. I disagree on both counts. The plot is realistic (so what if there's no gore and explosions). With an ensemble cast, it would be hard to have any in-depth character development, but I think the movie still gives good explanations of the character's motives.
I was impressed with a couple of scenes that may not impress the general public. There's a scene where, after the outbreak, the virus is put into cold storage in Level 4 containment (the highest level of biological containment possible) in the CDC lab in Atlanta. I get choked up when I think about the human achievement involved in that kind of work. I mean, for the first time in human history, we are able to battle pandemic viruses. This is a monument to civilization greater than the Giza pyramids, the Great Wall of China and the Internet all rolled into one.
Another scene showed how the virus "created itself" by incorporating bits of bird, bat, pig and human DNA. How cool is that! It's a sobering thought that these types of viruses (influenza in particular) are products of civilization. They exist wherever pigs and birds (particularly ducks) are kept together. The bottom line is; it's going to happen, people. Over 50 million people (mostly young, healthy people) died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. And that was in the days before jet travel. The global population then was 1.8 billion. Today it is 7 billion. It's not a matter of if a similar global pandemic and mass die-off happens. It's a matter of when. And there's very little that we will able to do to stop the apocalyptic fallout.
Basically, I heard it was a very realistic movie and having lived and worked through the SARS epidemic of 2003, I wanted to see just how realistic it was. And, man! It was good.
I remember the SARS days quite clearly. Working in a hospital at that time was quite scary. And I was 2-3 months pregnant at the time. Sometimes a little medical knowledge is a bad thing. I wasn't overly panicky, but having sat through many hours of microbiology and medical history lectures in med school, I had a unique perspective of how badly things could have gone. Perhaps the general population wasn't too aware of the situation (my sister only recalls that they took the holy water out of the church), but basically this movie Contagion spells out the kind of scenario that could well have happened if SARS had not been contained as well as it was and if it were a more bad-ass virus. By bad-ass I mean a virus to which no one has immunity, has a high mortality rate (and in the movie the mortality rate is only 20%, but still kills over 27 million people worldwide) and is very communicable.
I could not find anything to pick apart in this movie. Even prominent scientists gave it the thumbs up. If you're not worried about spoilers, this review by Dr. Paul Offit is pretty accurate (although I think he's a little hard on homeopathy and uses some ad hominem arguments). As a drama, I think the movie also works very well. I've read reviews that have said that a) it has no plot and b) it does not have enough character development. I disagree on both counts. The plot is realistic (so what if there's no gore and explosions). With an ensemble cast, it would be hard to have any in-depth character development, but I think the movie still gives good explanations of the character's motives.
I was impressed with a couple of scenes that may not impress the general public. There's a scene where, after the outbreak, the virus is put into cold storage in Level 4 containment (the highest level of biological containment possible) in the CDC lab in Atlanta. I get choked up when I think about the human achievement involved in that kind of work. I mean, for the first time in human history, we are able to battle pandemic viruses. This is a monument to civilization greater than the Giza pyramids, the Great Wall of China and the Internet all rolled into one.
Another scene showed how the virus "created itself" by incorporating bits of bird, bat, pig and human DNA. How cool is that! It's a sobering thought that these types of viruses (influenza in particular) are products of civilization. They exist wherever pigs and birds (particularly ducks) are kept together. The bottom line is; it's going to happen, people. Over 50 million people (mostly young, healthy people) died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. And that was in the days before jet travel. The global population then was 1.8 billion. Today it is 7 billion. It's not a matter of if a similar global pandemic and mass die-off happens. It's a matter of when. And there's very little that we will able to do to stop the apocalyptic fallout.