Fans of District 9 know that Neill Blomkamp not only delivers a great action movie, he has the rare knack of embedding the strange and alien within the texture of everyday life. Once the adrenalin from Elysium, (his most recent film just out in Israeli theatres) subsided, I was amazed in retrospect at the complacency with which I completely accepted the world he presents, and it is perhaps this quality which makes him stand out in the crowd working with “sci-fi” or “futuristic” materials. It’s not so much a question of “Wow! look at those great effects!” but rather, total unquestioning immersion in the experience.
One reason for this acceptance is that Blomkamp sticks close to the concrete here and now in many respects. In Elysium‘s opening moments, we learn that the year is 2154 and Earth is polluted, poor, disease-ridden and over-populated. Nothing too unusual here, it’s a fairly accurate description of life on much of the planet today, and a rather natural extrapolation of what the situation might be in another hundred years or so. Then we learn about Elysium, a bright luxurious halo of a refuge in space where the exorbitantly wealthy can escape to a life of pleasures and eternal good health. Here is where Blomkamp inserts a small “what if” straight from the sci-fi speculation wish list: yes, humans have figured out how to cure everything.
The quest for eternal life is in itself eternal, from young Trojan Tithonus, the hapless lover of Eos, granted immortality from Zeus yet without the accompanying useful gift of eternal youth (rumor says he shriveled and withered away until he ended up as a cicada) to current medical and scientific research. Living forever looks good on paper, yet the question of how to have an eternally satisfying life has yet to be solved. Please read Kurt Vonnegut’s short story Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow in his collection Welcome to the Monkey House.
One solution to this problem (this may sound familiar to those of you living on Earth in 2013) is to provide excellent health care and comfortable living conditions and delicious food for those who can afford it, and well… to hell with the rest of them. Or rather, not to hell, but to the daily struggles and dangers of life that is poor, disease-ridden and over-crowded. Blomkamp simply takes this idea to the extreme, and does it extremely well. In fact, scenes on Earth were shot in two locations in Mexico, while Vancouver, Canada was the basis for some visions of Elysium.
Here’s what I like about Elysium:
The art and look, especially human-machine interface in all its variations: from the seamless perfection of Elysium droids, to the DIY down below. It’s all rendered so beautifully, and yet so plausible.
Sharlto Copley. Yes, Matt Damon exudes likeability from his pores, it’s undeniable, but Copley (who starred as Wikus van der Merve in District 9) is a really wonderful actor. Here he starts out as a mere tool, a filthy mercenary skulking around, scarcely worth noticing, then builds up into something really vile.
Upon contemplation, there are some elements I find disturbing about Elysium. If Earth represents dystopia in the film, then does Elysium, hovering just in sight of beleaguered Earth, represent utopia? Is one at all to be bothered by the notion of seeking solutions by escaping to a fantasy-like world far beyond, a solution that does not reflect on consequences much beyond the individual?
Humans are spectacularly selfish. We somehow manage to care for our offspring (which, interestingly enough, does not seem to induce us to more ethical behavior, cue Jodie Foster as Elysium’s Secretary Delacourt, an excellent role model for future female dictators), and perhaps most humans can spontaneously conjure up an unselfish act or two for the ones we love (or lust for), but that’s about it. Embarrassing to admit, but true, and I think a truly utopian vision should take that selfishness into account and figure out how to contain it within a system that works fairly for all. So, not to let any spoilers slip, Elysium gave me a nice burst of adrenalin-induced elation, but then the rest of my mind caught up.
None of this rambling should get in the way of enjoying a good action movie, it’s only disturbing if one considers Elysium a work of speculative fiction. Or perhaps it was Blomkamp’s intention to disturb?
Elysium (USA, 2013, 120 min, English with Hebrew subtitles)
Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley.
