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Alfonso Cuarón - Children of Men

Goose

By Goose,
in Film, TV & Radio

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Major Britten

Major Britten

Posted
Posted

I agree ghost.

After clive died my fear for her out there alone was palpable.

Exactly! It was a very bleak moment.

Although I do see Paradigm point about having a glimmer of hope, I also think that the option of having humanity basically destroy itself and then with the only glimmer of hope being lost through mans own fighting and greed. Like for instance the baby is something that everyone wants, but noone can agree about how to proceed once one is born and when one is eventually born everyone is fighting over it and in the end everyone loses as the only child in the world drifts off away from the carnage. Im not saying that would be a better ending or in fact that is what should have been shown, but for me the thought of that scenario alone is more powerful than the eventual ending. If they had cut the boat rescuing her out of the film the end would be an awful lot more powerful and leaving it more ambiguous would result in the film being more thought provoking and talked about, like the very best films. for years to come. And although the the film does do that why not go a bit further? I wonder if the ending was done with the american audience in mind and especially the oscars?

Still that little niggle doesnt ruin the film and thinking back I would probably rate it as the best film I have seen all year, even if its not quite perfect :(

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Paradigm

Paradigm

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Posted

Ending it in a bleak manner is no more thought provoking than the happy ending because the future is nothing like assured. If anything that's actually the easier option and there's no way this is with the 'American audience' in mind. Cuaron's never played to Hollywood's tunes and this is most visible in Prisoner of Azkaban.

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Major Britten

Major Britten

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Posted

Ending it in a bleak manner is no more thought provoking than the happy ending because the future is nothing like assured. If anything that's actually the easier option and there's no way this is with the 'American audience' in mind. Cuaron's never played to Hollywood's tunes and this is most visible in Prisoner of Azkaban.

I wouldnt say that, one of the problems with the ending is that it answered some of the questions that had been asked throughout the film, the major one being about the existence of the human project. Personally I think it would have been better if they left it to the viewers own opinion about those bits. Also it would only have been a bleak ending if the viewer wanted it to be. I think this will split opinion the same way that A.I. did (which btw I thought the ending to was perfect, it has me in tears when I watch it)

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Vin

Vin

Posted
Posted

Update:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=63503

Universal Pictures have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of Children of Men for 15th January 2007 priced at £19.99. Alfonso Cuarón's science fiction thriller is set in a decaying future world where women have been infertile for 18 years. Clive Owen plays a former activist asked to protect a newly pregnant mother. Julianne Moore also stars.

Almost a barebones release features include:

1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

English and German DD5.1 Surround

English SDH, German and Dutch subtitles

Men Under Attack Featurette (8mins)

protectedimagedml0.jpg

One shitty featurette?

Cheers Universal.

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K

K

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Posted

Eight minutes of extras? Fuck that – if there's one film that came out last year where I actually want to hear a commentary and watch a making-of documentary, it's this one. I guess this is because it's not out in the states yet, and the director said he didn't want to reveal how the action scenes were done ahead of its wider release.

Still, it's bit rum charging twenty quid for such a sparse release. It's annoying when corkers like 'Children of Men' & 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' get shoddy treatment like this when turds like 'Kingdom of Heaven' get lavish four-disk extravaganzas that nobody will ever watch or care about.

Rubbish artwork as well.

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Hulot

Hulot

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I imagine that Criterion might try to wrangle for the US home video rights to this, considering their close relationships with both Cuarón and Universal. Or at least I bloody hope that they shall, considering that Universal appear none too fussed about it.

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roskelld

roskelld

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Posted

I'm glad I popped back in here before I frantically clicked on the buy button. I just thought I'd check to see what extras it had... clearly not enough to warrant a purchase.

Such a shame as I really want to watch this film again; although I don't think anything will come close to the cinema experience of it.

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K

K

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Posted

I really don't understand why some films have such great poster art, yet such awful DVD covers. Surely you'd just use the same for both? The Star Wars films are a particularly bad example – the posters for Episode II & III were lovely, hazy painted artwork, whereas the DVD covers looked like someone had done it in photoshop in about ten minutes. Anyone know why this is the case? Paging Kerraig…

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Vin

Vin

Posted
Posted

2nd Update:

R2 Backcover

chmjb2.th.jpg

Quite tempted to pick up the Region 3 version from cdwow.

1168319417_big.jpg

Cover looks shitloads better. Failing that, I've heard mumblings about a SE Korean Edition being produced.

Usually they outshine their Criterion counterparts, so I'll probably whack in an order for that as and when.

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Smitty

Smitty

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Posted

Well, damn, I thought i'd already commented on this, but I haven't.

Anyway. It's fucking amazing. I wept.

Incredible direction, superb performances, a good script all wrapped up in a completely believable and compelling vision of the future.

Five stars.

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sofasurfer

sofasurfer

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Half of the fucking image is a huge fireball. I don't remember seeing any fucking fire in it.

It looks like a film set in Kosovo or something.

Have you seen the movie?

The end is set in a war zone and the beginning has a fuck off bomb going off in a coffee shop.

A great film and I cannot believe some of the takes. The whole car scene had my jaw on the floor.

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Paradigm

Paradigm

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Posted

2nd Update:

R2 Backcover

chmjb2.th.jpg

Quite tempted to pick up the Region 3 version from cdwow.

1168319417_big.jpg

Cover looks shitloads better. Failing that, I've heard mumblings about a SE Korean Edition being produced.

Usually they outshine their Criterion counterparts, so I'll probably whack in an order for that as and when.

Keep us updated.

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Andsom

Andsom

Posted
Posted

The DVD features may not seem much on paper, but they explain how they did the car scene and there's behind the scenes stuff from the Bexhill bits and how they generally brought to life a future London.

I think it's fine. How often will you really watch all those features? An 8-minute documentary is perfect imo.

I always do, especially on films I really love. It's absolutely rubbish that there's no in-depth documentary on there.

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