My presentation was on the communities of the apocalypse and how different causes of an apocalypse would create a different realm, a different collection of people and ideas in order to survive in their own personal post-apocalyptic world. My first topic of discussion was that on the last humans and how in Earth Abides, they have a dream of restarting humanity in their little community. The Road was an example of where everyone was out for themselves living in a world with no trust. Also, Waterworld has the classic bad versus good scenario; it depicted a future with gangs, rebellion where their appearance consisted of tattoos, piercing’s and body modifications. With no authority, law and social standards to follow, the gangs could rebel openly.

I then discussed the Zombie narrative, this fear of disease and infection has leaked into such films like Resident Evil where the ‘Umbrella Incorporation’ have made viral weaponry via the T-Virus which brings the dead back to life, thus creating the zombies. Night of the living dead is an example of traditional zombies, slow and dumb just wanted to feed on human flesh. The old zombie narratives were inspirations of gypsy curses, now days its disease that creates the zombie population as you can see with the Dawn of the Dead remake. The Zombies are now fast and out for the kill, suggesting the public is harder to scare, also the traditional zombies are seen as comic now with satire film’s being made such a Zombieland and Shawn of the Dead. There are also a couple of metaphors included in the zombie narrative. One being consumerism, they other being Religious punishment, for turning away from faith. The Dawn of the Dead tagline “When there is no room in hell, the dead will walk the earth” is a quote from The Book of Revelations. It’s also used in Steven King’s novel The Stand, which is another post-apocalyptic tale.

I also briefly discussed the robot take-over apocalypse using the Terminator franchise as an example of where artificial intelligence became to strong and became hostile towards humans, destroying most of humanity with a nuclear holocaust, followed by a war between the machines and the survivors for the control of earth.

All bar the Zombie narrative have a happy ending, illustrating there is still time to make a difference in this world before its too late, yet with the endings of a zombie movie always ending with no way to escape and with the zombie’s being so closely linked to humanity, this is suggesting that our modern way of consumerist living is doomed.

Wall-E

Wall-E is one of my favourite films because not only is it enjoyable but it sends an important message out to our younger generations. Columnist Frank Rich has written an article for the ‘New York Times’ entitled ‘Wall-E for President’ where he discusses the message the film sends of an apocalypse caused by lazy-ness, obesity and consumerist waste causing the world to be inhabitable. During his article, Rich says in relation to the reaction of the children in the audience at the end of the film “What they applauded was not some banal cartoonish triumph of good over evil but a gentle, if unmistakable, summons to remake the world before time runs out” which is a subtle message you find the film when the Captain says “I don’t want to survive, I want to live” illustating humanity needs to fight to save this planet and and a realisation of how to look after the planet when he feeds the plant some water. Also, the issue with obesity is brought up when you see humanity being fed through a cup whilst floating around on hover boards 24/7 and doing no exercise. This can be translated to over use of fast food and automobiles which are destroying humanity’s health, and the waste of these is destroying the world. On a plus note, the film has a happy ending showing the remake of a happier world through the credits, sending the message that its not too late to change things.

Wall E

Wall E is a fantastic film, showing just how far the apocalyptic tale has come within American culture. Wall E, though primarily aimed at children, shows to everyone the state that Pixer see the world to be in with the continuation of the destruction Americans have on the planet.

There are some moving but also comic scenes that show the reality of the future. Though exaggerated in parts the fact that Americans are growing in size can't be argued with, and the fact that the American government are funding NASA to find alternatives from space for resources, and ultimately the rescue plan.

Though The Road showed the destruction in a negative and hard hitting way, Wall E showed the depressing future in a way that gets us off guard. Both use the connection of love to employ these message, therefore both would agree that this is still powerful within the human and strong enough to ultimately rescue us from the future. This is an idea and theme that has been seen throughout this module, one scene in Dawn of the Dead we watched was the one where the wife of a Zombie runs to save from being shot and ultimately gets bitten, suggesting that family and love is the stronger then the desire to live and life.

Presentation on an American and European Apocalyptic films

My presentation is about two apocalyptic films, Dawn of the Dead from America and Children of Men from Europe, to show that films can have different issues but yet can relate to the rest of the world. I will also be talking about why peoples fear has become our entertainment?
This quotes sums up why films are created from our fears:

•Michael Huany quotes that ‘ films express the anxiety in modern society that something great and terrible is going to happen soon, something beautiful perhaps but also awful’

Both films have a meaning to its own individual country but the fears of most people in the world.

The entertainment world can not seep into our reality.

If and when is does it will not be so entertaining anymore!