maandag 9 maart 2009

I Am Legend (2007)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/





The movie is the third, albeit loose, screen adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel from 1954 bearing the same name. A decent synopsis can be read here.


"You have actually cured cancer?..." Scientist: "Yes, yes we have."

0:02:00
From Good Intentions to Misadventure

A scientist publicly announces that she represents some unknown group of scientists who allegedly managed to develop a be-all-end-all cure for cancer. Unfortunately it quickly becomes apparent that the "cure" actually is a wolf in sheeps' clothes and the first batch of people treated with it precipitate an infectious epidemic of extreme and unprecedentedly fatal proportions. Consequently, most of the population of the earth is decimated; a small portion of humanity survives but not escaping a horrible transformation into extremely aggressive animal-like humanoids. Only a very few humans prove to be naturally immune and survive the onslaught unscathed and unmutated.



Although it ultimately wreaked havoc in the most extreme way, the motives for developing the "cure" were considered to be most noble and worthy (curing cancer). Thus the reader is nudged into thinking that, in case a real plague should take place, its underlying cause must have been, at least, morally acceptable and that in all likelihood 'something must have gotten terribly wrong along the way.' It must be a tragic misfortune by misadventure, no conspiracy theories needed, you see. Our leaders would never do such an evil thing intentionally. Yadaa, Yadaa...

This subtle brainwashing tactic helps provide a cover for possible perpetrators orchestrating any future plagues to hide behind; plagues that, in contradistinction to the one referred to in the movie, in reality are not accidentally and unintentionally brought about by misadventure but rather are administered by malevolent and premeditated willful acts. Indeed, what a wonderful world we're living in...


0:14:00
Martial Law Scenery

According to well-established contemporary cinematographic tradition (or perhaps 'doctrine' would be a better word), the military is seen to have totally assumed (read: usurped) the role of the police as a means of crowd control and law enforcement during times of crises; the Posse Comitatus Act has again been swept under the rug completely. Examples of other modern movies featuring a similar police state theme are The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) and Transformers (2007).

In addition to the military gone crowd control, civilians are subjected to mandatory eye scanning tests; the purpose of which is to help identify infected people. The general effect on the viewer is to make the public get used to not only being identified immediately and on immediate demand from military law enforcers but it is also to help the public get used to being herded like cattle at the discretion and say-so of your local military overlord. It thus follows naturally that this kind of scenery portrays yet one more martial law type of setting in which human rights have been wiped off of the map on the contingency event of a national/international disaster coming into actuality.


0:35:00
Vaccine As Remedy
A degenerate female humanoid has been captured and now serves as 'human' guinea-pig to Dr. Robert Neville - the protagonist of the movie. With the ultimate aim of discovering an effective vaccine to cure the infected, he administers an experimental vaccine to his newfound guinea pig.

If successful the viewer is invited to put stock into the notion that vaccines are your weapon of choice to wage war against, and to ultimately defeat, any infectious viral/bacterial diseases that is wreaking havoc.
Of course, never in the movie is the 'vaccine as remedy' assumption questioned.


Neville: "Behavioral note - an infected male exposed himself to sunlight today. Now it's possible decreased brain function or growing scarcity of food is causing them to... ignore their basic survival instincts. Social de-evolution appears complete. Typical human behavior is now entirely absent."
0:39:00
Typical Human Behavior is now entirely absent

Dr. Neville, who by the fact that he is a medical doctor as well as solitary automatically radiates a natural sense of authority in his role as judge and observer, decides that the infected have been totally dehumanized and it is therefore entirely justified to, if need be, deal with them in a ruthless manner (no normal moral restraints apply which are courtesy of a healthy and humanely functioning conscience).


Neville: (talking to Anna about Bob Marley) He had this idea. It was kind of a virologist idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate... literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people's lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why - He said, "The people, who were trying to make this world worse... are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness."
1:16:00
Bob Marley's Musical Vaccine for a Spiritually Ailing Humanity

Although the analogy with the words of Bob Marley (who I, by the way, regard as a great artist as well as human being and I commend him for making the above suggestion) at first glance is meritorious, by association with the wise words of Marley, it also imbues into the viewer a good dose of unwarranted faith into the idea that vaccines are unconditionally peachy and beneficial to humanity.


1:27:00
The infected won't stand to reason

The unrelenting hostility and absolute lack of willingness of the infected to stand to reason urges the protagonist to seek a desperate solution in dealing with a desperately threatening situation. The underlying theme iterated once again is that it is allowed for uninfected to ruthlessly deal with those who are infected as they have been utterly dehumanized. It's a recurring mantra that is seen in basically all akin viral horror movies (of the last few years). See for instance my analysis of "28 Weeks Later (2007)" or "The Invasion (2007)."


"The cure is in her blood..."

And so it is announced that the effective remedy for the genocidal infectious epidemic is stored inside the blood contained in a test-tube, from which effective remedial vaccines are to be derived and administered to the infected.

However, since one would be dealing with most reluctant recipients, the movie shows, the vaccines would have to be administered in a brutish and dictatorial manner. This implied theme of involuntary vaccine administration of course fits very well into the police state mentality already given plenty of airtime earlier in the movie.


Anna: "In 2009, a deadly virus burned through our civilization, pushing humankind to the edge of extinction. Dr. Robert Neville dedicated his life to the discovery of a cure and the restoration of humanity. On September 9th, 2012, at approximately 8:49 P.M., he discovered that cure. And at 8:52, he gave his life to defend it. We are his legacy. This is his legend. Light up the darkness."
1:30:00
The Cure is a Vaccine

The movie closes with the handing over of the vial containing a blood sample of a cured infected. Thus it is suggested that the automatic answer to any future infectious disease epidemic lies with the concept of the vaccine. Therefore, if an infectious disease comes hither home hitting hard, people may be reminded of this movie's last scene and helped into accepting remedial/preventative vaccinations, no questions asked.

Nowhere in this propaganda piece, is it addressed even once that vaccines have long been suspected of being harbingers of death and disease rather than bringers of life and remedy. Indeed, it can be argued, for instance, that the whole AIDS epidemic is iatrogenic rather than zoonotic in origin, meaning that its cause is more likely man-made than some kind of rare and spontaneous inter-species pathogenic cross-over. In addition to the article referred to in-place, see reference 1. Quite similarly can it be argued that the recent appalling upsurge in cases of autism is also induced by eugenically inspired power mongers, see reference 2.

Note: the longer quotes used here, were drawn from this source.

References:

  1. Vaccine Nation - Director's Cut (Gary Null)

  2. Mercury, Autism and the Global Vaccine Agenda

zondag 15 februari 2009

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970416/

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Check out the corresponding Wikipedia page to read a decent synopsis.

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(0:08:00)
While being busy minding her own business and while also having no criminal past or affiliation the door rings at the house of Dr Helen Benson. She answers and is greeted by an authoritative authority figure, who without blush lets her know, "Dr Benson you must come with us. You're in federal custody..." Get used to the new now folks, a time where it is apparently perfectly acceptable for the authorities to go around and apprehend and detain whoever and wherever they like without showing arrest warrants at all and/or reading Miranda rights.

The magic words that serve to rationalize such obtrusive government interference into your private lives are, "it's a matter of national security." Ergo, "no questions please ma'am/sir, just do as we tell you thank you very much."

And even if you manage to fire away a question here or there, the law-enforcement officer 'assisting' you is likely to have no answers as he is just following orders or just doing his job. Quite unsurprisingly this also turned out to be the case with the nosy and moderately obstinate Dr Benson.

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(0:10:00)
To reflect the gravity of the National Security matter a scene is shown in which a whole highway has been shut down and reserved for the Police escort delivering Dr Benson to some undisclosed military facility seemingly engaged in monitoring airspace.

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(0:11:30)
To meet the sudden threat from outer space, rather than assembling a group of top politicians, the movie-script opts for the mobilization and employment of a team of top scientists. Nonetheless, the scientists are and, for the entire duration of the movie, will be assisted and coerced, if necessary, by ever present military personnel.

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By the way, you will see the active presence of the military throughout the movie. Also you will see plenty of bodyguards walking about, security guards in galore, and a host of cameras all keeping an eye on everybody's moves. Combined with the fact that there is no such thing as civil rights in this movie, the movie very much depicts a de facto police state environment. But of course, all this authoritative saber rattling is merely there to keep you all safe and secure. We all know that. Whether the treat comes from fictitious terrorist desert gangsters or from fictitious space aliens, in the sheer context of homeland security, it is not really important as long as the threat is perceived to be real.

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(0:28:00)
The viewer is readied to anticipate full scale civil evacuations if and when so-called national emergencies come wreaking havoc upon and all around us, such as the alien invasion portrayed in the movie.

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(1:00:00)
A revealing and very important dialogue transpires between Klaatu and Dr Benson:

Klaatu: "This planet is dying. The human race is killing it."
Dr Benson: "So you've come here to help us?"
Klaatu: "No, I didn't."
Dr Benson: "You said you came to save us."
Klaatu: "I came to save the Earth."
Dr Benson:"You came to save the earth, from us."
Klaatu: "We cannot risk the survival of this planet for the sake of one species. If the earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. There are only a handful of planets in the cosmos that are capable of supporting complex life. This one cannot be allowed to perish."
Dr Benson: "We can change. We can still turn things around..."
Klaatu: "We've watched. We've awaited and hoped that you would change. It has reached a tipping point where we have to act. We'll undo the damage you done and give the Earth a chance to begin again."
Dr Benson: "Don't do that... Please. We can change."
Klaatu: "The decision has been made. The process has begun."

The movie makes no bones about the notion that the typical viewer is to blame for the phenomenon of the world going to hell in a hand basket. The degenerating environment, ballooning pollution, over-population global warming, it's all the fault of the average joe. Humans like a virus eating away the planet. What a horrible realization, the viewer is nudged into thinking... Consequently, he or she is left teetering on the brink of a guilt trip. Fortunately, the movie quickly offers a way out of this unbearable psychological predicament. All we have to do is... change! Easy, no?

But wait, where did we hear that slogan before? That's right, here we did:

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How convenient it is that this want for change just so happened to coincide with one of Obama's favorite campaign mantras. We leave out for the moment the most obvious of questions: what kind of change are we talking about here? Call me a nitpicker but change can be for better, but it sadly can also be for the worse.

Obama though is not the only one shouting "change" from the rooftops, it seems to be somewhat of a fad nowadays as change.org does the same thing. This site suggest all kinds of cute and puny news items dressed up as changes triggering all kinds of emotional responses. But are all these charming suggestions for change really enough to save the planet? Or is it merely something to keep the public busy, drops on a hot stove, exercises of futility, similar to e.g. the fraud called "elections"?

Lest going off on tangents, for all clarity, the imposition of a guilt-trip on the viewer and the need for (Obama-esque kind of) change are the predictive programming elements of significance in this most important of scenes.

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(1:10:30)
Quite similar to the original, Klaatu proceeds to demonstrate his hands down intellectual superiority by kindly helping out with ease the planet's most intelligent physics scholar, Prof. Barnhardt. In addition, also similar to the original a standing Klaatu authoritatively looking down on a humble and seated Dr. Benson and Prof. Barnhardt, helps persuade the viewer to also accept Klaatu's parental moral superiority.

A most interesting discussion follows between Prof. Barnhardt and Klaatu:

Professor: "There must be alternatives. You must have some technology that can solve our problem."
Klaatu: "The problem is not technology. The problem is you. You lack the will to change."
Professor: Then help us change..."

Klaatu: "I cannot change your nature. You treat the world as you treat eachother."
Professor: "But every civilization reaches a crisis point eventually. [...] Only when your world was threatened with destruction that you became what you are now."
Klaatu: "Yes."
Professor: "Well, that's where we are. You say we're on the brink of destruction, and you are right. But it's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve.

This is our moment, don't take it from us. We are close to an answer."

Again all the woes and ills of the world are pinned on the typical viewer. Never are the guiding financial, economic and religious powers given even as much as a casual and superficial critical review. And that's a shame really, since it is not the hordes of simpleton Joe Sixpack's and Jane Soap-opera's who are too blame but rather a relatively small group of psychopathic megalomaniacs; the bigger than life banksters, the mesmerizing religious hierarchies - most notably that of the Catholic Church, the military industrial complex, etc., who are ruining it for the rest of world.

But oh no, movies like this tempt us into believing that not only are we guilty, we need to be driven on the brink of annihilation in order to greet a better world. What a great premonition that is, huh?

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On the side, Klaatu demonstrates his superhuman magical powers by downing two obnoxious helicopters but then contrasts this act of aggression by showcasing a high moral standing through rescuing the son of Dr Benson from falling to sure death. Thus his authority over life and death is laid bear.

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(1:26:00)
Ironically, after witnessing from close up the most basic and ubiquitous types of bonding belonging to humans, Klaatu has a change of heart and confesses to Dr. Benson: "There's another side to you. I feel it now." The obvious question being, couldn't he have realized that a bit sooner? Wouldn't it have been better for him to first study humans from close up rather than doing that after setting in motion the hellish wrath from outer space? After all, didn't he and his space alien buddies scrutinize this planet for quite a while already before coming to earth?

Anyway, be that as it may. The rudimentary type of bonding between mother and child is offered as the key to our Problem apparently and proceeds to save the day. It is literally and figuratively left out of the picture that the loving and forgiving relationship as seen between mother and child is unfortunately usually not as pronounced in other relationships as the movie seems to imply. The movie does not care, and they all, minus a few soldiers, intelligence personnel and a truck driver, live happily ever after.

In addition, never mind those big bad boy banksters hiding and snickering in the shadows who no doubt greatly enjoy this remarkable piece of tear-jerking distraction. A craftily made and entertaining work of misdirection aimed at obfuscating the faces of the real guilty; the bunch of megalomaniacal degenerates really responsible for sending this world to hell, and then some.

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