'Children of Men' Essay

The film 'Children of Men' is set in 2027 London, England. From the first 5 minutes that we watched, London in this time is represented by the dirty, dreary and dark surroundings. The buildings, pavements, sky and costumes are all grey and muted. The explosion seen at 2:12 minutes gives the world at this time a negative appearance. This negative atmosphere is created (especially on the street) by mise en scene.Rubbish bags are scattered on the pavements, old fashioned richshaws spew out thick black smoke and  people's clothes are grey, old and in some parts ripped. There is a large sense of protecting the past: people such as Theo's boss has kept a lot of his cricket memorabilia such as old cricket bats hung on the wall, a photograph printed onto his mug of himself and friends in cricket gear and cricket balls places into a jar on his desk. The general lighting of the sequence is dull and drab which links to the movie's depressing continuous theme.

In the first 5 minutes of the film, we have definitely been shown a main character but we do not yet have a defined hero- we have a protagonist. We know he is the main character because he is in the centre of the shot and when he is exiting the coffee shop at 1:30 minutes, he is followed by the camera out of the shop and onto the street by an originally still camera. The camera also reacts humanly to the explosion at 1:51 by darting to the side in shock then hastily running forwards to get a close up of the figure that walks out of the coffee shop into the smoke.

Our protagonist, Theo does not fit our established ideas of what a hero should be as we would expect the character to be young, fit, handsome and skilled whereas Theo seems to be your average office worker who dresses in ordinary and shabby clothing. On the contrary, in most modern films, ordinary people such as Theo do tend to reveal themselves as the true hero- this is intended to make the audience relate to the main character.

Women in this sequence are represented as emotional, crying and sentimental as one of Theo's colleagues is sitting opposite him at her desk, sobbing while surrounded by small figurines a child would have. This relates back to the plot- people can no longer have children and have become attached to the past.

The future in this movie is portrayed as negative. Humans have 'given up' on the world because women are no longer fertile. The earth is now polluted and there is a sense of anger and worry amongst the world. We know this because at 3:55 for 20 seconds, we see a tv screen showing images of disaster and  violence with countries written on top. However, the world has evolved as there are modern video advertisements on busses and sides of buildings.

The main camera work in the beginning of the clip is still and is 22 seconds long showing a crowd of people in a coffee shop. As the protagonist leads the camera out of the coffee show it develops human-like features such as moving out of the way for people in the coffee shop, panning round to see the entire street before stepping out of the door way and when on the street, the camera develops a shaky movement which mimics a documentarian style. These camera shots have been chosen to personalise the sequence and also to tell the audience who our main character is efficiently.

There is a variety of editing in this short sequence such as the very first clip of a black screen with credits lasting 25 seconds. The sound over this combined with the blank screen gives the audience a sense of worry. Next, there is a continuous shot lasting a total of 52 seconds which would have to have been shot many times due to the lack of editing. CGI (computer generated image) also features in the first few minutes of the film. The shop windows are animations to advertise the shop. This would not be possible to create on set so CGI must be used on top of the footage during the editing process.

Sound has a large effect as the background of the story is described through a voice over in the beginning shot which enables the viewer to focus and clarify. Non-diegetic musics follows our protagonist out of the coffee shop and onto the street which then flows into traffic noise creating a realist atmosphere. A sound bridge occurs in the form of ringing linking the end of the shot of the explosion and a shot of his office. The sound at first seems diegetic as the sound imitates a ringing in your ear: this linked with the humanist features of the camera movements makes the viewer believe that he is in the shot.

This film falls under the genre of sic-fi, action and thriller for example, the explosion, the murder of an almost 'treasured' person and an armless woman walking towards the camera.

The way the narrative is structures in this film is that is begins with a black screen and the voice over of a news reporter. When it cuts to the first shot, it links to the devastation the news cast was previously discussing. We are shown the main character quickly and are secretly told that he is on a journey through the context of his appearance in the coffee shop and on his way to work. We then witness an explosion which contrasts with the mundane situation. We then follow our protagonist to his work place where we see many emotional people linking to the news cast heard earlier. This film opening would seem normal had it not been for its long opening shot and then it's use of humanistic characteristics in the following shot.

This film would mostly appeal to adults and teenagers, mainly male due to its violent feel. The film seems political due to it's main theme: the world being destroyed by humans and only one government is left in-charge.  People who enjoy action-packed films may enjoy this due to the large explosion at 2:22 minutes as this suggests the film is full of vicious destruction.

This film was produced in 2006. The film centres around the plot that in 2009, the last child was born due to infertility and now, in 2027, the world has fallen to anarchy because it has not found a cure. Because it was written for the future, this film may have been intended to have warning like messages about protecting and saving the earth otherwise, the world will fall into disaster.

Universal Pictures created this film which makes me wonder why such an enormous film company who usually caters for demand would produce a movie for such a certain group of people who enjoy the futuristic/sci-fi genre. Although, having the same director as the film 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', the film may appeal to more although it caters to a niche market.