Children of Men

Back in January, my inspiration for this exercise in self-indulgence (who writes a blog others actually read) posted an entry on the movie Idiocracy. It inspired me to rent the movie--an act I regretted ten minutes into it and that my wife and daughters are likely to ensure I regret through the ages. Nonetheless, it popped to mind tonight.

Children of Men is nothing like Idiocracy. It doesn't bother to poke fun at what we're likely to do to ourselves as we press obliviously forward. I found the movie an interesting diversion, bleak, and not too thought provoking, and certainly not capable of sustaining any really deep analysis. The special features (that is, the extra stuff on the DVD; not the FX) though, are a different story. In fact, I recommend renting the DVD, skipping the movie (which you know you won't do) and going straight to the featurette titled, "The Possibility of Hope" (or something like that). Lots of futurists with lots to say. Some a bit of a stretch, but all far more thought provoking than the movie itself. And all very relevant to Thomas L. Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree (a riff on globalization interesting enough in its own right), which I finally finished this very afternoon.

But most particularly, for you fans of Idiocracy, if you watch that vignette to the end, you'll be rewarded with a closing line that, had it come first, might well have served as the kernel that germinated into the more farcical film on mankind's ultimate fate. Same messages, more or less--open to debate about which is better suited for the audience that might be able to effect change. If you really want to give your brain a cramp, see them both and then ponder that question for a while.