Regarding Children of Men, yesterday’s National Post reports:
It’s no coincidence that Cuaron began the script in a post-9/11 world, having refused to read the pre-9/11 P.D. James novel that the movie is based on. “Because of those 9/11 events, it was important to set the film more in the 21st century, since the world has changed since then,” he says.
So if Alfonso Cuarón didn’t read the book, how do we explain the various minor points where the film and book do agree? Well, at least four other screenwriters are credited with the script, so presumably Cuarón just re-wrote one of the earlier drafts and accidentally imported whatever elements from the book had survived into those earlier versions. The Post continues:
“The movie is really an observation about the state of things today,” explains Cuaron. “I wanted to make it futuristic but feel like today, so it can comment on the state of things. ?The premise of the infertility is a metaphor for the fading sense of hope humanity has today.”
There are two other issues prevalent in Children of Men that the director hopes audiences pick up on. “Environment and immigration are two of the main issues shaping the world today, and they affect everybody,” he says.
Huh. It’s been over a month since I saw the film, and I don’t remember any environmental subtexts. As for the immigration theme, I found the film’s treatment of this particular issue so exaggerated — and, as others have noted, so inherently illogical — that it didn’t affect my views on current matters one bit.
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