May 29, 2008

Just finish watching The Brave One (starring Jodie Foster, my favorite actress of all the time) and The Invasion (starring Nicole Kidman) this afternoon. The movie The Invasion really urged me to ponder and to reflect the issues that are plaguing our current world. As what happens in Resident Evil and Black Sheep, this movie talks about the proliferation of a virus. The debris of a crashed space shuttle between Dallas and Washington DC has brought with it an extraterrestrial virus. The only way for victims – who have contracted this virus – to stay alive is to stay awake. People who fall asleep will be physically unchanged but they will become emotionless. People without the virus should not show emotion or else…

The main character, Carol Bennell, tries to locate her son (Olive), who is with Carol’s ex-husband (who is infected with the virus). Fortunately, Olive was diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) years ago and that gains him immunity against the virus. Carol gets the virus from her ex-husband and the only key to survival is to stay awake.

Nonetheless, the notion that the movie really tries to impart is that the only way to make this world a better place is by being emotionless. Throughout the movie, the tensions between the United States and other countries, wars, atrocities are emphasized. Therefore, the movie suggests that without such feelings as greed and desire, the world can turn out to be a better place to live in. Besides that, the movie also highlights the love of a mother towards her child. Frankly speaking, movies with this theme interest me very much. For instance, Panic Room and Flight Plan.

Here is a dialogue from the movie The Invasion that is worth to be contemplated;

A: *I say that civilization is an illusion, a game of pretend. What is real is the fact that we are still animals, driven by primal instincts. As a psychiatrist, you must know this to be true.

B: *To be honest, ambassador, when someone starts talking to me about the truth, I hear they tell me about themselves more than what they say about the world.

A: *All I am saying is that civilization crumbles whenever we need it most. In the right situation, we are all capable of the most terrible crimes. To imagine a world where this was not so, where every crisis did not result in new atrocities, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence, well, this is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human.

The following is the idea espoused by the people who have been infected by the virus:

*Is this who you are? Is this who you want to be? We were wrong to fight them. You wondered what it’d be like if people could live more like those trees completely connected with each other, in harmony. As one. Have you seen the television? Have you read the newspapers? See what’s happening, what we’re offering? A world without war, without poverty, without murder, without rape. A world without suffering. Because in our world, no one can hurt each other or exploit each other or destroy each other, because in our world, there is no other.

Of course, I can’t deny the fact that hostilities and suffering are instigated by avaricious minds of those ruthless dictators, including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Pol Pot, you name it. Nevertheless, let us not forget that love is the element that makes this world a better place to live in and yet love is a kind of emotion. Without emotion, without love, I can’t believe how this world will turn out to be…

*The Invasion 2007, motion picture, Warner Bros Picture, Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment & Olive Pictures, New York. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel.