Children+of+Men

1. What did you think of the violence in the film (Julian’s death, Syd’s [presumed] death)? How is it like/unlike the violence in other films?

2. Do you think this is how the world might look if something catastrophic like there being no children happened? What happens when there are no children, no hope, no future (anyone listen to the Sex Pistols at all? – am thinking particularly of “God Save the Queen”)? You should maybe also check out the end of T.S. Eliot’s “Hollow Men” – might be the most famous thing he wrote (also check out the end of “Waste Land” – this film makes reference to that numerous times).

3. What did you think of the way the movie looked (can talk about the color in it, the bombardment of information/image, documentary feel, any or all of these things)? How was this effect accomplished? What does the look of the movie say – how does it tie into what the movie is about (another way to say this – how do form and content tie together?)

4. Why were people affected by Baby Diego’s death? Remind you of anyone else (the film makes an explicit reference to another person’s death in the manner people grieve over Diego).

5. Compare Theo to Rick from Casablanca. How are they the same/different. Maybe you could use Jasper’s line about Theo: “Theo’s faith lost out to chance. Why bother if life’s going to make its own choices?”

6. Though there is not too much explicitly in the film about religion (Theo saying his former lady friend is now a renouncer or repeller, the religious demonstration [signs about the lack of children being God’s punishment] going on at one point), what do you think the film says about religion? As I said there is not much direct reference, but still a decent amount there (parallels to Christ’s birth, quoting from the Upanishads).

7. Do you think Jasper’s response to the problems of the world is a fair one, dropping out? Theo’s cousin, the art curator, says something similar when Theo asks him about the world: “I just don’t think about it.”

8. What does the film have to say about torture? What are your thoughts on the matter?

9. This film feature a number of strong female characters – what did you think about their role in the film.

10. There is a difference of opinion with the Fish leadership about how to deal with the baby and the government – Julian prefers the Human Project option and non-violence, Luke prefers violent revolution as a means of accomplishing their goals. Who do you think is right? Also keep in mind this quote of Nietzsche – “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” – //Beyond Good and Evil//, Aphorism 146