January 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Newest apocalyptic films more than just sci-fi?
by JIMMY J. PACK JR.

In Cloverfield the Statue of Liberty loses her head, and in I Am Legend Will Smith is responsible for the apocalypse. Is there more to these messages than meets the eye?

I’m willing to bet that most people have asked themselves the rather selfish hypothetical question: what would I do if I were the last person on earth?

Any time I have ever thought of the question, it has not   been a fantasy but a nightmare. I guess I am not the only person to imagine the scenario. Science fiction novels and Hollywood have been mulling over the possibilities for decades. The thought of being the last person alive has made for some of Hollywood’s most popular movies — The Last Man on Earth, Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later and even Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.

And if you go through the decades, you can analyze many of these movies in comparison/contrast with the society they are supposed to reflect. For instance, the original Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1956) has been for years connected with McCarthyism and conformity. Planet of the Apes (1968), the Cold War and nuclear weapons. 28 Days Later (2002), the rising violence and political unrest in the world.

Typically, what makes a film go from a genre film (sci-fi movie) to cinema (a film with some artistic/philosophical merit) is that it doesn’t dwell in clichés. In other words, the director isn’t just trying to scare you or create images that give you nightmares. This is why my aforementioned list of movies is considered iconic. For some reason or other, they have broken out of the cliché and left an important message for the viewer that explains a particular moment in history. Even at it’s weakest, any of the Star Wars movies is symbolic of WWII and a reminder that evil is not inherent; it’s learned.

But two recently released sci-fi films — I Am Legend and Cloverfield — have lifted a mirror up to our society and presented some of the most horrific examinations of our world.

Sure, I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, is the second (technically third) remake of The Last Man on Earth (1964), starring Vincent Price, which was more faithful to the plot of the original book (I Am Legend by Richard Matheson); it’s a vampire story. We feel for Price’s character, Robert Neville, because he’s alone and misses his family and his old life. In Omega Man (1971), Charlton Heston’s Neville struggles with loneliness but finds solace in Lisa, a young black woman. And in the end, when Neville dies, he is truly a Christ figure. He gives up his life to save mankind. You can’t leave the movie without thinking of issues of race and the concept of sacrifice. And finally, in 28 Days Later (much more thinly borrowed from Matheson’s I Am Legend), you’re left with dissecting mankind’s abuse of each other and why we live in such an angry world.

But Will Smith’s I Am Legend features a younger, cocky, selfish Neville who (SPOILER ALERT!) dies not because he needs to sacrifice himself so that others may live, but because he was the cause of the disease that killed everyone, and he’s going to fix it. It’s all about ego for this Neville. He sacrifices himself so that he’ll be remembered.

And in Cloverfield, which can only be described as Godzilla Meets Blair Witch Project (SPOILER ALERT!), we’re at first introduced to a group of 20-somethings having a party who slowly get picked off one-by-one by a giant monster. It’s an hour-and-a-half of cinema verité — hand-held camcorder images that quite often make the viewer nauseous — that forces you to watch a group of selfish, ignorant myspace idiots run around New York as it’s slowly being destroyed. And not once do you care about any of these people as they die.

And in the most compelling scene, when the monster swipes the head off the Statue of Liberty and destroys many buildings, you see smoke fill the air and thousands of papers fall from the sky. In 2008 you’re immediately connecting this scene to the camera footage of 9/11, but not once does this film draw the connection between the two. The horror of watching New York City crumble to the ground should give every one of these characters some sort of reaction — even some weak commentary — on the terrorist attacks. Instead we get a pathetic quest/odyssey movie about a guy who has to find a girl to tell him he loves her.

Both movies transcend the sci-fi genre and mere computer effects. (Will Smith’s performance is Oscar-worthy, and Cloverfield presents a fresh take on narration and is bold in presenting an entire movie with a hand-held camera.) People will talk about these movies for decades. And they’ll also be reminders that so much has gone wrong in our society, and so many of us have become so self-absorbed with what we believe, with what we want, that we are not listening carefully to our neighbors, friends and family. The concepts of consensus, cooperation, empathy might just become legend, like the civilizations in these apocalyptic movies. So what would you do if you were the last person on earth?