In America on Friday, October 3rd, a new movie will be coming out entitled Blindness. It seems to be that this movie is very much to be made in the very ilk of Cuaron’s Children of Men in that there is an inexplicable global epidemic that causes panic, spouts of anarchy and hosts my favorite actress, Julianne Moore. Sadly, this film doesn’t appear to have any press releases, however, just like Babylon A.D., perhaps I can get in early through my friend.
From what I can tell through the trailer, the movie takes a throwback towards William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Just like Flies, I do believe Blindness is very much a story that is on the fence about being a dystopia. While Golding’s novel deals with children lost on a deserted island, the two stories share the nature of anarchy against two “camps:” those who are vying solely for power and those who are for the betterment of the populous. The most important part about each of the respective stories are not the gimmicks–being lost on an island and an epidemic of blindness, respectively–but rather the condition of human nature.
Now the subject of human nature is for another post at another time, but it is certainly of the most interesting things in the world for me. The connection of human nature and dystopias is one of perfect balance. In the two tales of focus, both require for people stranded from the rest of civilization to rebuild everything that they once knew. That which is made through this band of people is based entirely on how they view the world, so in the hands of the power-mongerers, a dictatorship will be built, but in the hands of those who are looking out for the betterment of everybody, a normal civilization will be made. All of this plays into one question: what is the nature of man?
The very same question appears to be asked in Merielles’ Blindness, and on Friday, we will know another person’s answer to the question.
Blindness: how will you see it?
