Posts tonen met het label police state. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label police state. Alle posts tonen

woensdag 27 augustus 2008

Equilibrium (2003)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/

This movie features some interesting themes and symbology other than the predictive programming kind, so pardon me if I dwell a bit on details and go off on tangents a bit more than I do usually.

Quote
Overview

Following an apocalyptic Third World War, the strict government of the city-state Libria has eliminated war by suppressing all human emotion. In the monochromatic and sedated society, artifacts from the old world (works of art and music that may evoke some emotion) are destroyed and the population is required to take emotion sedatives. Grammaton Cleric Preston (Bale), a man trained to locate and arrest those guilty of feeling emotions, finds himself abandoning the drug and experiencing outlawed feelings. As he struggles to conceal his feelings from his superiors, colleagues, and family, Preston finds himself drawn into a sinister world of double-crossings and lies, and becomes an unwitting pawn in a sophisticated plot which ultimately changes the repressed society forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_(film)

Let me first start off with pinpointing the obvious predictive programming themes:

This movie offers an ominous glance into a rather cold Brave-New-World futuristic type of society, in which Huxley's premonition of a society in which its inhabitants are (voluntarily?) sedated by happiness pills, to combat states of depression, anxiety, sorrow and all the rest of it... has now been replaced by the actualization of a society in which its members are mandated to self-administer a medication that radically suppresses feelings altogether.

It so happens that the leaders of society have decided, no doubt after a profound deliberation (sarcastic joke), that, based on the presumption that unchecked human emotions are the leading cause of all the misery in the world in general, and war in particular, it was simply the best thing to do to altogether eradicate the full scope of human feelings.

Never mind that vital and intrinsically benign and nurturing emotions such as sensations of pain, love and compassion, are also flushed down the drain. And never mind that indeed feelings are of crucial importance in the basic act of decision-making, so that necessarily everyone with one iota of responsibility simply cannot do without feelings and emotions. Therefore, at least those who have leadership obligations have to still be able to feel to avoid persistent states of frustration regarding decision-making. As it turns out, this is indeed the case as the society's leader confesses at the end of the movie that he still is able to feel:



To enforce such an abhorrently dystopian society to function, a Big Brother-like Police State is established, in which human emotions are outlawed and suppressed. Behavior gets to be ruled by reason, exclusively.

Police officers are typically dressed out in black gestapo-like uniforms with long overcoats and wearing motorcycle helmets that serve to not only protect the head but to also obfuscate the officers' identities. Through making the police more anonymous an instant distance is created between them and regular citizens, especially the considered enemies of the state, who are simply: people who are still able to feel: so-called "Sense Offenders." Compare the police of yesteryear with the police of today, especially in the US, to acknowledge the (predictive programming) theme of the militarization of the police already is coming to fruition.


To drastically enforce preventing people from having emotions a drug is created called Prozium, which needs to be administered several times a day by means of automated inoculations. All civilians are mandated to take this essentially zombifying drug. As such, a pale and robotic kind of society emerges out of the ashes of the devastation brought on by a cataclysmic nuclear WWIII. Regarding programming this movie is not the best way to try to peddle any government intentions of mandatory public drug use, but still we are being prepared nonetheless. Also note that the movie allows for the possibility that the leadership does not require to take sense-numbing medication.

Let's now focus on somewhat less apparent predictive programming elements. First off, it is not too hard to detect similarities between the society painted in Equilibrium and former Nazi Germany.

In fact, the reigning flag of Libria for instance features nothing short of a Teutonic Cross:

Examples of genuine Teutonic Crosses:

http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/enigma_of_freemasonry/text.htm

http://www.bradford.ac.uk/webofhiram/?sect...grandingen.html

http://karenswhimsy.com/masonic-symbols.shtm
("Ordo Ab Chao - Deus meumque Jus" means "Order out of Chaos - ~ God's morality is my Right" ; this and the previous picture clearly show a connection between the Teutonic Cross and Freemasonry. One might speculate if there is perhaps a Freemasonic influence behind the production of this movie. After all, a theme of the movie is the emergence of a new society built on the ashes of the old, like the masonic Phoenix Rising from the Ashes.)

A banner-flag featuring the Teutonic Cross suggests rule by the Teutonic Order. So who are the Teutonic Knights?
Quote
The Teutonic Order is a German Roman Catholic religious order. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, since it was a crusading military order during the Middle Ages and much of the modern era.
[...]
In 1143 Pope Celestine II ordered the Knights Hospitaller to take over management of a German Hospital in Jerusalem, which, according to the chronicler Jean d’Ypres, accommodated the countless German pilgrims and crusaders who could neither speak the local tongue (i.e. French) nor Latin (patrie linguam ignorantibus atque Latinam).[1] However, although formally an institution of the Hospitallers, the pope commanded that the prior and the brothers of the domus Teutonicorum (house of the Germans) should always be Germans themselves, so a tradition of a German-led religious institution could develop during the 12th century in Palestine.[2]
[...]
Modern Teutonic Order

The Order continued to exist in Austria, out of Napoleon's reach. Beginning in 1804 it was headed by members of the Habsburg dynasty until the 1923 resignation of the Grand Master, Archduke Eugen of Austria.

In 1929 the Teutonic Knights were converted to a purely spiritual Roman Catholic religious order and were renamed Deutscher Orden ("German Order"). After Austria's annexation by Nazi Germany, the Teutonic Order was suppressed throughout the Großdeutsches Reich from 1938-1945, although the Nazis used imagery of the medieval Teutonic Knights for propaganda purposes. The Order survived in Italy, however, and was reconstituted in Germany and Austria in 1945.

By the end of the 1990s, the Order had developed into a charitable organization and incorporated numerous clinics. It sponsors excavation and tourism projects in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In 2000 the German chapter of the Teutonic Order declared insolvency, and its upper management was dismissed. A 2002-03 investigation by a special committee of the Bavarian parliament was inconclusive.
[...]
Influence on German nationalism

German nationalism often invoked the imagery of the Teutonic Knights, especially in the context of territorial conquest from eastern neighbours of Germany and conflict with nations of Slavic origins, who were considered by German nationalists to be of lower development and of inferior culture. The German historian Heinrich von Treitschke used imagery of the Teutonic Knights to promote pro-German and anti-Polish rhetoric. Such imagery and symbols were adopted by many middle-class Germans who supported German nationalism. During the Weimar Republic, associations and organisations of this nature contributed to laying the groundwork for the formation of Nazi Germany.[21] Emperor William II of Germany posed for a photo in 1902 in the garb of a monk from the Teutonic Order, climbing up the stairs in the reconstructed Marienburg Castle as a symbol of the German Empire's policy.[21] During World War II, Nazi propaganda and ideology made frequent use of the Teutonic Knights' imagery, as the Nazis sought to depict the Knights' actions as a forerunner of the Nazi conquests for Lebensraum. Heinrich Himmler tried to idealize the SS as a 20th century incarnation of the medieval knights.[22]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_Knights

Hence, as the Nazis and the Teutonic Knights went hand in hand, it can be safely assumed that Libria essentially is ruled by Nazism. As good hospital-operating Teutonic Knights do, Libria's leadership approaches the problems of society as a medical problem, which, according to good allopathic (German) tradition enthuses over treatment with pharmaceuticals, applied in the characteristic brute force fashion. The rationale being that since no success has been obtained in controlling unchecked human emotion (considered the root of all the world's problems) using non-invasive means, it is decided best to simply chemically anesthetize feelings altogether; indeed a very radically intolerant and invasive approach that is most compatible with Nazi ethics.

Of course the movie never even remotely addresses the idea that the prevalence of war basically has more to do with sinister shadow politics engaged between filthy rich and megalomaniacal men than it has to do with the emotional incontinence of the ordinary masses. The viewing crowd is lured into believing that the phenomenon of war is basically the fault of Joe Six-pack and Jane Soap-opera.

Anyway, there are even more profound parallels to be found between Libria and the Catholic Church, no less. The fact that the Teutonic Knights formed/form a Roman Catholic Order, ultimately serving the Pope in Rome, is the first piece of evidence.

The civil servants tasked with hunting down "sense offenders" (note the phonetic similarity with "sex offenders", BTW) are referred to as clerics, or members of the clergy: the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. Actually the full title is Tetragrammaton Cleric, where the Greek word Tetragrammaton (TG) signifies the "four letters" of the name of the God of Israel: YHWH. For an elaborate account, showing also the connection between the TG and the Nazi Swastika, see:

http://rexcurry.net/tetragrammaton.htmlThus another, though more implicit, link between the TG clergy and Nazism is laid to bare.

In addition, the head of state is referred to as Father so as to signify the clerical head. In the Roman Catholic Church the Pope is also referred to as the Holy Father. So those are pretty clear additional hints.

Later in the movie a scene is shown in which a "Sense Offender" is burned alive in a furnace much like the heretics of old were burned alive at the stake in the vain hope of "purifying the soul with flames". This was an all too common happening during the times of the Spanish Inquisition which, by the way, was administered by the Roman Catholic Dominican Order as well as the Jesuit Order. In addition, the scene is also reminiscent of the existence of disposal furnaces present in Nazi Germany, which functioned to get rid of corpses of persecuted political dissidents and so deemed racial adversaries. As an aside, the word Holocaust derives from Greek and means Sacrificial Burnt Offering.

Now take a look at the type of clothing the clerics are dressed in:

and compare this to the standard Jesuit cassock:

http://www.matthewfsheehan.net/index.cfm?e...&ProductID=1649

To make it really obvious, in one particular scene there is even a civil servant dressed up remarkably similar to a genuine Roman Catholic cleric (notice the characteristic clerical collar):


Only a blind person could now possibly still deny the parallels between the leadership showcased in the movie and the Roman Catholic clergy. This revelation comes as little surprise since it has been quite clearly demonstrated, by a number of noteworthy alternative historians such as Eric Jon Phelps and Thomas Richards, that indeed the conception of Nazism as well as its operation was greatly facilitated by the Roman Catholic Church itself. Internet references abound to prove the cooperation between the two.

First one may learn of the setting up of a Reichskonkordat between the Vatican and Nazi Germany. NB: A concordat is a legally binding mutually beneficial agreement between some governing body and the Papacy.
A modest grasp detailing this remarkably paradoxical unholy alliance can be obtained here: [1],[2], [3], [4], [5], [6]
To further disclose the connection between Nazism and the Vatican there is the still ongoing class-action lawsuit with the plaintiffs being the survivors of a WWII era Croatian genocide suing the Vatican Bank (IOR). It is remarkable, to say the least, that the Vatican admitted wrongdoing but it claimed it was justified under international law. Google.

It is therefore hardly a stretch to call Nazism a Catholic invention, or at least a profoundly backed enterprise, and many of its leaders were, in fact, of Catholic nomination, including Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Von Papen, Bormann etc.
[7]
It was Hitler for instance, who called Himmler his Ignatius of Loyola and confessed that he "had learned much from the Jesuits", while the SS was even patterned after the Jesuit Order. [8], [9], [10]

So to recap, here we have a movie that drew its inspiration heavily from Roman Catholic Nazi Germany and modeled its leadership themes consistent with specific Catholic Orders (Jesuits and Teutonic Knights), much as it happened in real life history also.

It is remarkable however to realize that the hypocritical leadership in the movie is overtly anti-Nazi, if only by mere principle of condemning war in general:

It nonetheless is just as Nazi-like in character and practice as the original was, except for the externally directed war-seeking part though. Thus, in essence, nothing has changed: Nazism still rules the world (but the herds are sadly too sedated and too disengaged to notice, also much like the real life situation today).

I hesitate to call this programming as it seems also a bit of an act of whistleblowing to me too. If it can be rightfully called programming, then I believe it is to inform the public that nothing will change in the future, we will still be governed by Nazism, no matter what.

The parallels between Libria's government and 1) Nazism and 2) Roman Catholicism, are so overwhelming and blatant that it puzzles me, quite frankly. After all, would the Roman Church really welcome the release of movies that expand on the historically documented fact that Nazism and the Vatican were happily wedded together at some stage in history? It almost seems that this is indeed the intent of the movie; to instill, perhaps on a subconscious level, a deep fear, hatred and/or disgust for the Catholic Church. After all, wasn't it Machiavelli who said that to rule through fear is much better than to rule through love?

Perhaps more programming can be gleaned from the nature of the conclusion of the movie. To save society from the horrible clutches of absolute and soul-numbing tyranny, the main cleric fortunately comes to his senses (thank golly) and decides to switch sides and join the network of Sense Offenders so as to ultimately succeed in killing the Nazi clerical leader (Father). The suggested programming seems that it doesn't really matter if Nazism still rules today, some day, sooner rather than later, a saviour will emerge, deliver us from evil and we all live happily ever after. So the viewer may just as well happily sit back, relax, do nothing and just enjoy the show!

Notice that this "messianic" theme was also present in the Matrix series, and even showed the saviour (Neo) dressed up in a similar Jesuit-like outfit:


With movies like these, are we to be persuaded into believing that (renegade members of) the Jesuit Order ultimately will save us from absolute and abject tyranny? Indeed, perhaps the programming lies in the movie giving hope to the viewer that, when crises similar to the one shown in Equilibrium, there will always be valiant turncoat formerly inimical hero-types capable of saving the day. That this may very well be a vain and false hope in practice would, no doubt, be something Hollywood is reluctant to acknowledge through their movies.

dinsdag 26 augustus 2008

Code 46 (2003)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345061/


Definition:

Quote
Code 46

Article 1

Any human being who shares the same nuclear gene set as another human being is deemed to be genetically identical. The relations of one are the relations of all.

Due to IVF, ID embryo splitting and cloning techniques it is necessary to prevent any accidental or deliberate genetically incestuous reproduction.

Therefore:

I. All prospective parents should be genetically screened before conception. If they have 100%, 50% or 25% genetic identity they are not permitted to conceive

II. If the pregnancy is unplanned, the foetus must be screened. Any pregnancy resulting from 100%, 50% or 25% genetically related parents must be terminated immediately

III. If the parents were ignorant of their genetic relationship then medical intervention is authorized to prevent any further breach of Code 46

IV. If the parents knew they were genetically related prior to conception it is a criminal breach of Code 46.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_46

Next are two reviews that pretty much reveal the themes embodied in the movie. I have high-lighted, through boldfacing, the parts I considered relevant to a predictive programming oriented discussion. At the end of each high-lighted segment is attached a footnote number referring to an expansion written below the two following reviews.

Quote
Code 46 is a love story set in a Brave New World-type near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints.(1) People cannot travel unless they have "papelles," a special travel permit issued by the totalitarianistic government, the "Sphinx".(1) Outside these cities, the desert has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens - people without papelles forced to live primitive lives.(1) William is a family man who works as a government investigator. When he is sent to Shanghai to solve a case of fake papelles, he meets a woman named Maria. Although he realizes she is behind the forgeries, he cannot help but fall completely in love with her. He hides her crime and they have a wild, passionate affair that can only last as long as his papelles: 24 hours. Back home, William is obessed with the memory of Maria. When the original investigation is inevitably re-opened a week later and William is sent back to finish the work he started, he tracks her down, only to discover she has been accused of a Code 46 violation(2) and any further relationship is impossible. Written by Anonymous

In a near future, in a world ruled by a totalitarian government, checking of the genetic code is mandatory for any type of possible relationship between man and woman. (2)The investigator from Seattle William (Tim Robbins) travels to Shanghai to investigate the faking and stealing of special Visas called "papelles". The main suspect is Maria Gonzales (Samantha Morton), who works in the company Sphinx, but William falls in love for her and protects her. They have a passionate one night stand, and sooner they find that they are genetically incompatible to each other and they have violated the Code 46. (2)Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345061/plotsummary

Quote
It is the not-too-distant future, in a world which appears to suffer from overpopulation and large scale environmental degradation.(1) The population is divided between those who live "inside", in high density cities physically separated from "outside", where a poor underclasses lives. Access into and travel between the cities is highly restricted, and regulated through the use of health cover documents, known as "papelles" (1)in the global pidgin language of the day. This comprises elements of English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Urdu and Mandarin.(3)

Residents of the cities venture outside at night and remain indoors during the day, as direct sunlight has become hazardous to their health, perhaps through ozone depletion.(4) The form of government appears to be somewhat authoritarian in nature, and society is regulated by various "codes". The eponymous code of the movie title prohibits "genetically incestuous reproduction", which may occur as a result of the various medical technologies which have become commonplace, such as cloning.
(2)
The main character is William Geld (Tim Robbins), an insurance fraud investigator based in Seattle who is sent to Shanghai to interview employees at a company known as "The Sphinx", which manufacturers insurance cover documents. William's assignment is to identify employees who are suspected of forging and smuggling covers. After interviewing numerous Sphinx employees, he identifies a young worker named Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton) as the cover forger. He is able to do this by means of a genetically engineered "empathy virus" which allows him to obtain unstated information from people if they voluntarily reveal something about themselves.(5) Maria tells William that she has the same dream each birthday: she is traveling the subway to meet someone she cannot identify. Each birthday she is one station closer to her destination, where she expects to meet the person she is looking for. William is captivated by her, and instead of turning her over to security, identifies another employee as the forger.

William then follows Maria and they meet and begin an affair. They have dinner, then go to a nightclub. Putting complete trust in a man who could have had her arrested, Maria reveals how she was able to smuggle papelles out of her workplace. In the club they meet Damian (David Fahm), a naturalist who longs to travel to Delhi to study bats. He has applied for cover for eight consecutive years but has been refused each time. Maria supplies Damian with a papelle. William is upset by this and indicates that he should turn Maria over to the authorities, but Maria somehow knows that William would not do this. William explains that there are legitimate reasons why Damian is unable to obtain the proper clearances legally. However, Maria believes that some risks are worth taking to fulfill one's dreams and that no one has any right to interfere if those she helps are willing to take that risk.

William and Maria then leave for her apartment where they spend a passionate night together. While there Maria shows William her "memory scrapbook" (an electronic booklet that records and displays video from the user's mind), which contains memories of her parents and close friends.(6) Other movies show her passing off papelles to various people. Maria says she thinks these people are beautiful and that their eyes are full of desire and dreams, and she wants to help them. As Maria sleeps, William finds a forged cover in her room and takes it.

William's travel cover will expire the next day so he returns home to his family. On the way to the airport, he stops to give the forged cover document to a poor street vendor at the city's perimeter checkpoint, an act of humanity which could change the anonymous vendor's life. A few days later he learns that Damian died in Delhi after exposure to a virus to which he had no immunity(5), and it is known that Damian was able to travel there using a forged cover made while William was in Shanghai. William is reprimanded by his superior for not discovering the true Sphinx forger. He explains that he had trouble with his empathy virus and requests that someone else be sent. However, he is ordered to deal with the problem and to return to Shanghai to complete his assignment.

Upon his return William discovers that Maria has gone. Her apartment is abandoned and the only clue to her whereabouts is an appointment scheduled at a medical clinic. He visits the clinic and using his empathic abilities learns that Maria was pregnant, but that the pregnancy was terminated due to a violation of Code 46.(2) William knows that this means Maria is somehow genetically related to him, but he has no idea how this is possible.

William discovers that Maria has been taken to another institution to have her memory of the episode erased.(6) He travels there and talks to Maria, but finds her memory of him has been erased and she no longer knows him. He succeeds in getting the clinic to release Maria into his care by telling them she is a witness in his fraud investigation. After she is released William proves to Maria that she knows him by his intimate knowledge of her and by showing her her memory recording of when she gave Damian the papelle, which includes a shot of William. Williams tells her about the memory erasure, but denies knowing why it was done. He also tells her about how he didn't report her for fraud. Maria is disturbed by this information and becomes very distressed. William gives her a sleeping pill and while she is sleeping, he cuts some hair from Maria's head and takes it to a facility which provides instantaneous DNA analysis (similar to the one portrayed in Gattaca), and discovers that Maria is fifty percent genetically related to him, and that she is a biological clone of his mother, who was one of a set of twenty four in-vitro fertilised clones.(2) This knowledge does not affect William's feelings, but instead of going back to Maria he freaks out and decides to go home to his familly. However when he tries to leave he is not allowed to do so as his cover is now expired.

William then realises that his only hope of returning home is to get a papelle from Maria. He returns to Maria's apartment and tells her about his inability to leave and she agrees to help him. She tells him she must acquire a papelle and that she will meet him at the airport later. She goes to work and obtains a papelle. While taking a train to meet William she remembers her birthday dream, and that he was the person she is looking for in the dream, and she remembers her feelings for him. She meets William and gives him the papelle and then tells him she remembers him. He decides not to leave her.

William and Maria then travel to Jebel Ali in the Middle East, which does not require special travel clearance. The two hide out in the old city where they book a room. Here William reveals to Maria that as well as the memory wiping she has been given a virus that induces a terrorizing adrenaline rush in response to physical contact with the person who brought about the Code 46 violation.(6) However, Maria still wants to make love with William and so he ties her down to prevent her from fleeing once the adrenaline rush kicks in.

Afterward, Maria enters a somnambulistic state also caused by the virus which forces her to report the further Code 46 violation to the authorities.(5) She is unconscious of this though William is aware of the virus's reaction. They then rent an old car and travel away to escape the authorities who are tracking them. William crashes the car while avoiding a collision with pedestrians and they are both knocked unconscious.

When William awakes he finds himself in Seattle with his wife and child. He has no memory of Maria or the Code 46 violation, as all memories of her and their time together have been completely flushed from his mind.(6) The authorities had brought William before a tribunal, but decided the empathy virus had affected his judgment. He attempts to use the empathy virus to read his son's thoughts on the drive back from the hospital, but is unable to. Maria is more severely punished by having her memories of William loving her un-erased(6), essentially forced to remember him and exiled to the place she hated the most, the desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_46

The viewer is confronted with the following elements of predictive programming:

  1. Overpopulation is a given. Cities are cordoned off and inaccessible without special travel permits, called "Papelles" implemented through thumb or finger scanning. The viewer is made aware of a futuristic prospect of over-population and government control exercised by stringent travel restrictions.


  2. Code 46: Compelling regulations are put in effect regarding reproduction. The natural way to conceive children has taken a backseat and "in-vitro" ("test tubes") ways of conception seem to have gained prominence, while reproduction is subjected to restrictive laws. The viewer is made aware to the idea that the government will have more say in the specificity of the children you may want to have than Mother Nature.

  3. There seems to be one global language spoken, a mixture of several widely spoken languages but predominantly consisting of English, and containing traces of Spanish and French. The emphasis of the presence of a global language seems to familiarize the viewer with the concept of globalization and unification a bit further.

  4. The daylight seems have a toxic influence on the wellbeing of humans, in contrast with the darkness of the night which is bearable for humans. This theme seems to paint a scenario in which the world has fallen victim to its own pollution. A fashionable but no way scientifically endorsed cause for global pollution is humanly induced CO2 emission. The viewer may feel a certain sense of commitment to help reduce global pollution by accepting responsibility in contributing towards lessening CO2 emissions. As such, this theme is highly compatible with the whole Global Warming myth and welcomes the much touted but phony CO2 emission discouragement swindle dressed up as a remedy, called Carbon Tax.

  5. Viral-based technology abounds. The society of the future seems to feature a versatile virus-mediated technology capable of manipulating (enhancing or restricting) the host of a virus in a number of ways:
    1. "Empathy viruses" function to obtain unstated information from people if they voluntarily reveal something about themselves to the carrier of this virus.
    2. Unauthorized visits to certain cities can be met with death if no prior immunity for locally prevalent viruses has been obtained.
    3. A virus is given to Code46 violators, which is responsible for causing violent adrenaline reactions in case recidivism should occur between two Code46 violators.


  6. Memory retention can be manipulated by undisclosed neurological/ neurosurgical technology. That is, memory a person has of a specific event can either be wiped or, if they were wiped before, can also be restored again. This suggests that the process of the erasure of a memory actually consists of a reversible suspension of conscious access to that memory.

    The movie also alludes to a technology that enables retrieval of memories and place them into electronic storage devices.


  7. At some stage there's a woman revealing to the main character that she belongs to a religion she refers to as "Christian Science." Perhaps this is to make the viewer aware of any possible profound future merger between science and Christianity. Given its rather "progressive" tendencies nowadays, this may be the choice future garb the Roman Catholic Church may want to cloak itself in.

zaterdag 23 augustus 2008

28 Weeks Later (2007)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463854/



Gory context of the movie:
Society has plunged into a horrendous crisis where a part of the population has been transformed into raving mad creatures upon having been infected by some horrible transmuting virus (read: biological weapon). The hostile creatures ravage across the land trying to infect, by means of biting or vomiting, all the uninfected humans who come in their way.

Because of the severity of the national emergency situation, the country (UK) has transformed itself into a full blown police state, in which the military has totally usurped the task of the police and the rights of the people seem to have been totally neutralized.


Thematic PP elements:
  1. Surveillance cameras everywhere (at least in downtown areas), with military snipers doing the extra bit of surveillance through their rifle scopes. This programs the public to accept and get used to all the cameras snooping all over the place as well as the presence of military walking about everywhere and interfering with everyone. The sniper surveillance part seems to serve to instill some extra fear into the public.
  2. There's a mention of a presence of refugee camps and so-called "containment areas" (quarantine areas). This programs the public to get used to being herded as cattle and to accept living in camps or confined emergency spaces overseen by the military.
  3. Streets are deserted, shops abandoned, there's lots of garbage, and a blatant lack of hygiene and thus the city is depicted as being in a general dystopian mess. Images of chaos and discord such as these, seem to instill fear into the public in case a viral epidemic should break out. More programming of futuristic dormant terror on the plates of the public.


Suggested PP elements:
  1. Because of their utter indiscriminate, remorseless and extreme hostility, people sick by viral infection should not only be shunned literally like the plague but also be destroyed where ever and whenever possible. This programs the public, on the basis of fear, to prepare to part from family and loved ones once they get infected and sick. In addition, the communicated severity of the situation helps to generate acute antipathy of the uninfected towards the infected and sick.
  2. Those people infected but who haven't actually become sick should be shunned as well, since they may make one sick through biting or spewing blood-vomit or even simply by kissing. This programs the viewer to prepare to part from friends and loved ones who are infected but who haven't manifested the accompanying disease (yet).
  3. Because the military has difficulty in distinguishing between 'friendlies' (uninfected) and 'targets' (infected), just to be on the 'safe side', the military command decides to open fire on both parties. The public will thus be programmed to keep a distance from the infected even more so lest being confused for a 'target' by trigger happy military marksmen.
  4. I'm less sure about the next one, but here we go - for completeness' sake. The life in the inner city gets totally obliterated by incendiary bombs. This may instill fear into the part of the public living in crowded cities (at least, downtown) during times of crises and emergencies.
Needless to say, the conclusion is that this is a particularly antipathetic movie towards those of us who may get infected by viral agents in the future.

Children of Men (2006)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/



Thematic and obvious PP elements:
  1. No children are able to be born through all pervasive human infertility.
  2. Fugitives are all over the place, as are civilian arrestees.
  3. A full fledged police state has been installed, with the 'posse commitatus' rule nullified (the military is now used as police force).
  4. Flash mob activity and terrorism abounds. It is mentioned that terroristic attacks are perpetrated by the government, this will promote fear for the government.
  5. Society has seriously degenerated: living standards have gone down the drain (poverty is commonplace), schools are empty and deserted (at least in the rural area), overpopulation and immigration abounds, presence of military overseen refugee camps, chaotic and discordant populations.
  6. Militant Islam is openly professed in Britain. This theatrical given helps to incite fear for and hostility towards Islam by the public.


Subtle and less obvious PP elements:
  1. Elderly people are mostly senile and robbed of dignity, autonomy and are quite unlike being custodians of wisdom; a status which should be more or less the norm at the end of a long life of accumulation of experience.
  2. Subtle hints of medicine use being commonplace (imagery of pill strips are flashed by).
  3. Hiding behind the unarmed civil population has zero effectiveness for 'terrorists' since both parties are shot to pieces by 'counter-terrorism' armed forces. This helps to stimulate the widening of the trust gap between hostile resistive civil groups and passive compliant civil groups.


Predictive Programming in Movies Headline Animator