Today I want to share an extremely interesting video clip with you that dissects the vast topic of dystopia into its most important aspects… It contains almost everything that dystopia is about.
So lean back and enjoy ’cause the future is coming…! 🙂
Tag Archive: Futuristic visions
A dystopian state can be as powerful and strong as it can be fragile, collapsing from one second to the next.
Skyscrapers soaring into the air easily demonstrate how oppressive dystopian states and their environment can be. There seems to be no way out of the system that is entirely aligned to govern people, to control their thoughts, to choke their feelings and to annihilate criticism.
But however meticulous the concept of society and governance is deliberated it can be rapidly broken up. A single person using his or her common sense, detecting paradoxes and discrepancies within the state’s doctrine is sufficient. Others who already harbour doubts can then be encouraged to rise up against a system that forces them into an artificial state of mind, an existence that bears comparison with robots corresponding to external commands.
And when this moment has come there may be nothing left than a tremendous havoc and a suffocating cloud of dust.
What do you think? Fair deal? Certainly not! However, it is indeed what the 1997 movie Gattaca by Andrew Niccol portrays.
It tells the story of Vincent Freeman (played by Ethan Hawke), a young man who is, without any technological interference, born into a society where human perfection and thus genetic manipulation are conceived as top priorities on the agenda.
As chance would have it, his life expectancy doesn’t amount to more than 30 years caused by a high risk of heart disorder. Being constantly exposed to discrimination and prejudices of all kind, Vincent decides to turn his current status of invalidity into one where he is perceived as valid, which means nothing else than having appropriate genetic advantage. Only then is he given the possibility to pursue his epitome of happiness: becoming an astronaut at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
Therefore, he sees himself forced to circumvent law by adopting the perfectly valid identity of Jerome Eugene Morrow (played by Jude Law), a former swimming star. In order to be admitted to Gattaca, Vincent must pass meticulously run genetic tests for which he uses Jerome’s DNA in blood, hair, tissue and urine samples.
Once granted access to the aerospace corporate, his career begins to boost up into the atmosphere. But it does not take long until some severe problems are approaching and Vincent’s life-long dream is at stake.
Since I don’t want to blow the end of this really great film, and as pictures are worth a thousand words, I leave you for two and a half minutes with this:
By the way, its opening titles are…
“Consider God’s handiwork; who can straighten what He hath made crooked?”
Ecclesiastes 7:13
“I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to.”
Willard Gaylin
Now imagine you were living in such a society, embedded by values that are overall driven by genetic engineering and biological perfectionism.
Would you then be willing to give up your own unique identity to find felicity?
Since there are probably hundreds of dystopian movies and another thousand films that could be easily confounded with what is dystopia as such, I thought a little, condensed cinematic overview could help you to not get lost in the vast dystopian jungle.
Governmental/social
The main focus of such dystopian movies lies on governments and societies striving for overall authority and surveillance which are achieved through rigid censorship (denied access to information) on the one hand, and control over free thought on the other hand. Restrictions and disparities are created with respect to age and intelligence as well as genetics and fertility.
- Aeon Flux (2005)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Brazil (1985)
- Children of Men (2006)
- District 9 (2009)
- Equilibrium (2002)
- Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
- Gattaca (1997)
- Metropolis (1927)
- Minority Report (2002)
- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
- The Island (2005)
- The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003)
- V for Vendetta (2006)
Post-apocalyptic
This category depicts the emergence of dystopian civilizations as a consequence of catastrophes such as wars.
- 12 Monkeys (1995)
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- 28 Weeks Later (2008)
- 2012 (2009)
- I Am Legend (2007)
- The Book of Eli (2010)
- The Postman (1997)
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WALL-E (2008)
- Waterworld (1995)
Miscellaneous
- Idiocracy (2006)
- Planet of the Apes (2001)
- Pleasantville (1998)
I tried to restrict the list to the most common and popular films otherwise it would have got way too extensive and confusing 😉
I really have to admit that I was, and still am, quite startled by the fact that almost everyone I asked for an opinion concerning the choice of my individual blog topic had never heard of dystopia. Okay… some of them had a vague idea of the meaning hidden behind this futuristic concept which, for the first time, emerged in the early 20th century. But it was still vague, if not to say remote guesses, and due to this surprise I absolutely felt the necessity to briefly explain what dystopia is all about. So let’s get started…
The term “dystopia” originates from the Ancient Greek for bad place and is often referred to as anti-utopia.
Alright… don’t even dare to stop reading now!!!! Even if you think it’s way too odd, all these complicated words you haven’t heard of in your whole life. Just stay with me for it’ll be fabulous 😉
First of all, utopia means no place or good place and depicts imaginary, often ideal societies, set in a distant place or the future, which are better than our current society. Throughout the 19th century people felt optimistic about technological progress. However, the speed and transformation power of industrialisation and scientific progress created anxiety and resistance in the beginning of the following century. That was when dystopia – the evil brother of utopia – came to life. The latter one portrays pessimistic visions of the future with negative, undesirable societies highlighted by a state in which the living conditions are atrocious (human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease and/or pollution).
Hopefully, I managed to awaken some remote memories and was able to help those who are completely new to it to dive into the myths and mysteries of my topic so that you can catch up with and eagerly comment on my weekly posts all around dystopia. 🙂
Dystopia 