What I'm Watching: Children of Men
This is easily one of the best, most powerful and meaningful scenes of any movie I've seen in a long time.
Here's the setup: In the near future, everyone has become infertile. Nobody's had a baby in 20 years. And the government has become authoritarian, and is shipping out of England anybody not of English descent. But one woman, a refugee, bears a child.
The scene takes place in a war zone; the refugees have rebelled in the deportation camp and the Army is putting down the rebellion. But watch what happens:
(thanks to Orangebug at Youtube for posting the scene.)
A crying baby - the hope of the world - cut through the violence and the hate, the desperation and the ruthlessness, the racism and the fear, just by being alive. Everyone stops, everyone looks, everyone lets them pass in peace. For a few seconds, there is peace. And then, when they have passed, the war continues.
The rest of the movie's kind of a mess, and probably isn't one I'll watch again. But this one scene - if they built the entire movie so that they could film this one scene, then I understand. If there was an Oscar for "Best Scene," this would get my vote. (If I had a vote.)
Here's the setup: In the near future, everyone has become infertile. Nobody's had a baby in 20 years. And the government has become authoritarian, and is shipping out of England anybody not of English descent. But one woman, a refugee, bears a child.
The scene takes place in a war zone; the refugees have rebelled in the deportation camp and the Army is putting down the rebellion. But watch what happens:
Click to view(thanks to Orangebug at Youtube for posting the scene.)
A crying baby - the hope of the world - cut through the violence and the hate, the desperation and the ruthlessness, the racism and the fear, just by being alive. Everyone stops, everyone looks, everyone lets them pass in peace. For a few seconds, there is peace. And then, when they have passed, the war continues.
The rest of the movie's kind of a mess, and probably isn't one I'll watch again. But this one scene - if they built the entire movie so that they could film this one scene, then I understand. If there was an Oscar for "Best Scene," this would get my vote. (If I had a vote.)