In this essay I shall be discussing how the director Alfonso Cuaron utilises techniques such as elements of mise-en-scene, narrative structure, cinematography, sound and event occurrences to portray the futuristic Britain of 2027 in a negative way, with it having little hope, desperate selfishness and extreme racism, eighteen years on from the world’s population becoming infertile due to unknown reasons.
Children of Men represents Britain as plummeting dystopia of which there is little, if any, hope for the survival of the human race. This is shown through the mise-en-scene by the clear neglect of public streets and condition of the capital itself. From the first few shots of Theo walking down the street it is obvious that the littered pavements, dirty vehicles and run-down buildings connote the attitude of the population towards the belief of the race’s survival – very little. The old classic red double-decker London bus is looking more black from neglect as opposed to the gleaming red it used to pride perhaps twenty plus years earlier, which is a metaphor for the hope of it’s passengers who still, even twenty years on, ride it daily to their meaningless jobs. It poses the question “what’s the point?” as it appears to have last been cleaned not long after the turn of the century. The fact that people are still using this very outdated, petrol-dependant transportation presents a distinct lack of technological progress, which also supports the claim of lack of hope for the human race. Throughout the film there is a constant bleakness about the setting. Dark shadows, overcast weather and an absence of sunlight depicts equally absent hope. It also gives a general sense of depression about the overall feel of the film. There is a generally cruel, selfish and uncaring nature about the inhabitants of the capital (shown in one instance where despite Theo being publicly abducted in the street, no passing bystander even gifted a glance), who are desperate for direction in a society in which even the government have so little hope as to legally administer euthanasia kits to end peoples’ depression, literally highlighting the little hope for survival. An explosion occurs in a London coffee shop in the opening sequence, from which the resulting trauma strongly connotes shock, fear and pain from, what it seems in the modern society, is inescapable.
Britain is represented as an overly-patriotic police state of which the majority of population strongly oppose other nationalities and individualism. One of the sequences of shots relatively early on in the film presents how Britain has become a very forcibly patriotic society, with propaganda videos showing that the rest of the planet’s primary cities have collapsed under pressure and fear-fuelled rioting, and promoting England as the one remaining country that continues to at least have structure and some organisation despite severe depression, lost hope for the human race and effort to sustain meaningful society. The streets are littered with heavily armed police security to ensure foreigners or illegal immigrants are kept isolated. Low angle shots of some of these military are used to make them seem dominant and threatening, and connote the power they hold over the rest of society. The media are again a strong influence in brainwashing the country, via large propaganda billboards around the city containing patriotic messages and images to convince the public that despite the rest of the world falling into chaos, Britain is okay, as if to convince people that they should continue to live their lives as normal, regardless of the ever-present, blindingly-obvious decay that engulfs the city. Throughout the film, cries of pain and despair from imprisoned foreigners are heard as, at times, a constant droning backdrop to the action, most noticeably in the refugee camp where all captured non-Britons are sent to live in famine and poverty (later bombed by the military as a desperate attempt to deal with situation, showing clear examples of chaos and decay of society). The workplaces of British citizens are covered with patriotic memorabilia. Flags, photo frames and miniature Big Ben models litter their desks, highlighting their desperate need to cling to their roots, and naively believe that everything is/will be okay in their country.
The film represents Britain as a dog-eat-dog, crumbling society where the desperately selfish inhabitants have extremely limited freedom to live how they desire, especially if not of British descent. The city of London is clustered with police, military and dogs guarding fenced-off areas where non-Britons are held captive in cramped, unsanitary conditions until they are transported to the refugee camps in incredibly strict fashion that could be likened to the cattle trucks that were used to transport Jews to the concentration camps during Hitler’s reign of Nazi Germany in the second world war. Tracking shots of the refugees in their despair are taken through the barbed wire fences, at head height as opposed to low/high angle, as if to put the audience on the same level, to try and make us empathise with them to try and understand the pain they are experiencing. In contrast, low angle shots are used of the grey, ugly, dominating tower blocks as soldiers are shown ransacking the minimalist homes of the refugees as their possessions are sent hurtling to the ground out of the tower block windows. This also presents the power and dominance that the military have over society, making the viewer seem small and insignificant in comparison to the building in control of the government. The ‘every man for themselves’ philosophy is depicted frequently in the film, to again name the one example when Theo is being abducted in public view, and people avoid helping and instead go on living their daily lives as if this kind of thing is now normal. There is a huge lack of compassion for other human beings in such desperate times. This lack of compassion is magnified by the fact that at one stage during the film, Theo and Kee’s car is brutally attacked by British citizens with the aim of killing once word is reached that there are refugees in the vehicle. Regardless of the fact that both the citizens and refugees within the car are all of the human race, they are still hunted down like animals as a desperate attempt to eradicate foreigners from their country; lack of care and empathy for others due to the desolate, hapless world situation.
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