Where does one start when describing Alfonso Cuarón's epic thriller "Children of Men"? Well there really isn't a bad place to start, actually. This film is frightening and moving at the same time, but it's also laced with enough subtile touches about history to make you think.
So what all is laced into this movie? Many historical notes, some past and some present, can be seen if one looks hard enough. Some good examples are:
-The scene where Miriam(Pam Ferris) is taken from the bus at Bexhill you see a man with a hood over his head, in the exact same pose as the infamous "hooded man" from the Abu Ghraib prison torture pictures.
-The song playing when Miriam is taken off the bus is "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means "Work shall set you free", this was written over the entrance to the infamous Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
-Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" painting(which was an expression of disgust at the Nazi bombing of Gernika, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War) is seen twice, when Theo enteres the dining room at the Battersea powerstation and again as Theo and Kee escape Bexhill in the rowboat.
Director Alfonso Cuarón didn't even read the book(by P.D. James) on which his film is based, he had his co-writer, Tim Sexton, read it instead. This film is also filled with one-shots(long shots without a single break), the longest being the siege of Bexhill, which clocked in at 6 minutes and 18 seconds. "we don't want to favor character over the environment, we want to keep a balance. And that means that you don't do close-ups, because then you are favoring the character over the environment." says Cuarón. He also said “If you are going through life and something happens, you don't have the luxury of going , ‘Stop, stop, guys, and let me get a close-up!’" These long shots add a touch of class in a weird way, and “keep a balance” as Cuaró n puts it.
The casting was even done in the somewhat unorthodox way that Cuaró n seems to go about making his films. “Ever since we were writing the script, we used to refer to Jasper as the ‘Michael Caine’ character” he says.
But all this innovation, creation, and all around great film making is for naught if nobody likes it. Thankfully this isn’t a film that went un-noticed, it was nominated for 27 different awards(including 3 Oscars) and won 17 awards(including the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction film). Even ignoring the awards and praise this is a must see for any intellectual or even someone who wants to expand their horizons on humanity, or if you just want to see a sci-fi movie without laser guns.