By guest writer Professor Paul Nygard, FVCC
Imagine
the world in the year 2154: the lines of nationality, race, gender, and
religion have been obliterated by a fierce demarcation placed by the powerful
between those who have and those who have-not.
The wealthy (“Citizens”) have retreated to an orbiting space-station
utopia called Elysium (a reference to the paradisiacal realm in Hades set aside
by the Greek Gods for the worthy one percent of the humanity). In space, life is good (especially if you like
McMansions with swimming pools and robot butlers), with every household
equipped with a healing chamber providing cures for any ailment, including
old-age (for more info, check out www.welcometoelysium.com). The
rest of humanity (“Illegals”) struggles to survive on the over-crowded,
worn-out, polluted anthill that is the Earth.
This
is the premise of the film “Elysium”, starring Matt Damon, Alice Braga, Diego
Luna, Jodie Foster, and directed by Neill Blomkamp, who stepped with authority
into the film world with his groundbreaking 2009 SYFY parable, “District 9”. To be honest, I had a somewhat emotional
response to “Elysium” so, to help collect my thoughts in a rational way, I consulted
the reviews of others who saw this film.
To no great surprise on my part, I discovered that the sentiment “openly
socialist” appeared in several (my favorite is one found on Twitter: “Greatest film
ever made about free health care.”) To
be honest, I thought the "Do unto others..." theme throughout made
the film “openly Christian.”
Other
reviews mentioned "slick cinematic violence" and bemoaned the
filmmaker’s sell out to testosterone-driven Hollywood summer spectacle. These views, possibly betraying fatigue from
summer movie excesses, seem to casually overlook what I think is an important
aspect of the filmmaker’s intent. I’ve
watched (sometimes painfully) several Hollywood CGI-driven tent-poles this
summer where indeed the violence is pure spectacle, filling gaps in a tale that
really has little to say in the first place – there for the sake of being
there.
The
violence in “Elysium” is definitely not that for the mayhem is not driving the
story, it is embedded deep in it. For
example, it helps ask this very common-sensical question: Does anyone really
think that you can deny "them" a cure for their child's cancer and
not expect a violent pushback? As John
Harrison remarked in “Star Trek: Into Darkness”: "Is there anything you
wouldn't do for your family?" Does
this film go over the top on the spectacle and fighting? Of course-but that is the way great
storytelling has always operated, going back to Homer's “Iliad” (the Goddess
Athena spearing her brother Ares on a
battlefield before Troy is over the top-but it was put there by the poet for a damn
good reason).
Another
point raised by some is the fact that
the film is set primarily in Los Angeles, where the hero, Max (Damon), labors
for the Armadyne
Corporation, the entity that both built Elysium and manufactures the bullying
robots that keep the “them” in line (the powerful also use off-the-books Black-Ops
operatives when mere bullying is not enough).
Throughout the film the backdrop
remains Los Angeles, with the world of Elysium hovering visible in the sky,
even in daylight.
One
review wondered: Is this happening in
Russia, China, or is this exclusively an American thing? The answer clearly is “No” on the “American
thing” but the director wants filmgoers to come to that conclusion as the story
unfolds. As suggested earlier, Blomkamp
has no trouble imagining all other contentious issues in human society
(including nationality) vanishing in the face of just one of the few, with
plenty versus the many, in want. The
societal conditions under which LA suffers are without doubt a “global thing.” Simply, we are in LA because the hero of this
story lives in LA.
About
the hero: there is a lot of Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” in the story
of Max and his attempt to reconnect two long-divided elements of humanity (the
best loved tales in history tend to be about the Hero striving). Blomkamp uses flashbacks to establish his hero
as, perhaps, a child of destiny but initially Max wants only to find a healing
chamber to cure his soon-to-be deadly radiation poisoning (no OSHA regulations
at the robot factory, apparently).
Still, when circumstances force upon him the ability to challenge the
status quo, he embraces it-but for what is clearly a very personal reason. Witnessing yet again the contempt of the powerful
for the peons, this time directed at a beloved childhood friend, Max explodes
in a rage that, for the first time in his life, is not blind or destructive but
now has a path to follow to a constructive end.
When
it is asked “why do people go to war?”, the answer can be as simple as this:
they are fighting to protect the ones they love. For Max, his final sacrifice is about doing
right by his friend but, as the larger consequences of that sacrifice become
clear, yet another Christian element emerges: “Whatever you did for one
of the least
of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Is this film perfect in every aspect? Perhaps not, but if perfection is one's
expectation of anything made in this world, you will live with considerable disappointment. In my opinion, “Elysium” is a thoughtfully
crafted work of art that, above all, offers a powerful tale for our times.
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