[PrestonSturges]

This is on HBO again, so I thought I'd list a few things:

Denzel Washington is about 60 lbs too heavy for this role. We'd all be alot skinnier if we spent years wandering the wasteland.

Nobody wore hats even though the ozone layer was gone.

Denzel wears an I-Pod, so he's walking through dystopia wearing ear buds.

You would not shoot someone with an arrow and leave the arrow if you could possible avoid it.

The only structure in a landscape is not a good hiding place. A gully would be a lot better.

If you are fleeing on foot and know you are going to be pursued by men in vehicles, head across the roughest terrain you can find, don't follow the highway.

[JohnRM]

I completely agree. Prior to this film, I boasted that I had never seen a bad Denzel Washington film. This is no longer true.

[Cloud9]

It’s Christian science fiction. It has about as much relevance as a zombie flick.

[Daniel_Plainview]

This is on HBO again, so I thought I'd list a few things:

Denzel Washington is about 60 lbs too heavy for this role. We'd all be alot skinnier if we spent years wandering the wasteland.

Nobody wore hats even though the ozone layer was gone.

Denzel wears an I-Pod, so he's walking through dystopia wearing ear buds.

You would not shoot someone with an arrow and leave the arrow if you could possible avoid it.

The only structure in a landscape is not a good hiding place. A gully would be a lot better.

If you are fleeing on foot and know you are going to be pursued by men in vehicles, head across the roughest terrain you can find, don't follow the highway.

These are some valid points ... but overall I liked the movie.

Could you name some dystopian films that you approve of, please?

[Hawkcreek]

I kinda thought it was unusual that a blind guy could shoot so much better than the guys that could see.
That might kind of show that it was not intended to be something that gave good survival tips.

[PrestonSturges]

Hmmm.....Maybe it's like alien invasion movies where none of them really combine effects, plot, and acting to a 4 star level.

"The Postman" seemed like a plausible society. But in the words of Lisa Simpson-"Poor Mr. Costner, he tries so hard."

The English b&w version of "Lord Of The Flies" probably shows human nature the most accurately.

[Cog]

You do realize that its possible for someone with sight to also read braille. I never bought the blind thing.

[JohnRM]

The best survival-type movie I've ever seen was "The Edge", with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. While not a TEOTWAWKI kind of movie, it does give a very good summarization of the mindest and the kind of thinking required to survive a lack of civilization.

[dorlomin]

The best survival-type movie I've ever seen was "The Edge", with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. While not a TEOTWAWKI kind of movie, it does give a very good summarization of the mindest and the kind of thinking required to survive a lack of civilization.

"Alive" the story of the Urugyan rugby team is pretty aweseome.

There are two UK docudramas "Threads" and "The War Game" that are must view material for how a post war world would have been.

The vision of the future that I thought rings most true is "Children of Men", ignoring the plot macguffin its the shabby drabbness of a the world that is for me the most likely.

[Outcast_Searcher]

This is on HBO again, so I thought I'd list a few things:

Denzel Washington is about 60 lbs too heavy for this role. We'd all be alot skinnier if we spent years wandering the wasteland.

Nobody wore hats even though the ozone layer was gone.

Denzel wears an I-Pod, so he's walking through dystopia wearing ear buds.

You would not shoot someone with an arrow and leave the arrow if you could possible avoid it.

The only structure in a landscape is not a good hiding place. A gully would be a lot better.

If you are fleeing on foot and know you are going to be pursued by men in vehicles, head across the roughest terrain you can find, don't follow the highway.

These are some valid points ... but overall I liked the movie.

Could you name some dystopian films that you approve of, please?

Didn't see an answer on the thread thus far. Realizing that dystopia means anti-utopia and NOT EOTWAWKI/survivalist, you have:

Movies:

1). "Soylent Green". Excellently acted, given the material, IMO. Also the emotional tone/background settings, music, etc. were great. The great courageous aspect of the now (old, outmoded, or sick) "useless" citizen being able to VOLUNTEER to die a peaceful death at the hands of the state in the death scene of the old man (Charlton Heston's partner) was absolutely brilliant -- and IMO fortells a likely future to our society as irrational religious beliefs being FORCED upon others fades as we become a more secular society.

2). "Farenheit 451". Though the book was far better, this movie was faithful to the spirit of Bradbury's masterpiece. If you liked the movie, you HAVE to read the book (the audio-book was great too). The thoughts of the protagonist Montag vs. the forces that run society are simply without peer in how they are expressed.

3). "Blade Runner". Though based on the MUCH different book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", the director managed to keep the TONE of this post-nuclear apocalypse near-future movie consistent with one of Phillip K. Dick's most widely acclaimed novels. Just about everything Dick writes, BTW, (about 125 short stories and roughly 35 novels if memory serves) manages to be dystopian while questioning the basic nature of reality and "what it means to be human". In the book, the central issue was "Robots are now so well made that how does one distinguish a robot from, say, a man? In the movie, the main issue (IMO) was "Robots are now much BETTER than humans in every objective (performance) way. So, how long can humans manage to remain the masters, since the new high-end servants clearly want to BECOME the masters?

4). "Brazil" -- you have to see this to believe it. The Forecasts/warnings of things like societal pressure, big inefficient government, automation, terrorism, lack of privacy, pressure to conform, corporatism, and despoiling of the planet are absolutely spot on. Plus a heck of an entertaining film that takes you through the full spectrum of emotions at a dizzying pace.


Also, there are MANY COMPELLING dystopian novels/authors. Examples:

a). Robert Silverberg's early 70's "The World Inside" is a wonderful novel which on the surface is about a utopia, but by following briefly the lives of 8 citizens you discover (much to your horror) that it is a dystopia frighteningly worse than "Farenheit 451" AND (IMO) seems to be much like what we are headed toward at breakneck speed.

b). Kurt Vonnegut's early 1950's "Player Piano" depicts much of the brutal hit to employment and self esteem caused by automation now, that you'd think he was a time traveler who had witnessed our time and then gone back and written this novel as a dire warning! Seriously.

Too many to cite, really. That's what Google is for. Plus there are la-dee-da editorial books on dystopian themes, but as a layman, I prefer common sense and just honestly point out what I like (ignorance and biases included).

[dorlomin]

4). "Brazil" -- you have to see this to believe it. The Forecasts/warnings of things like societal pressure, big inefficient government, automation, terrorism, lack of privacy, pressure to conform, corporatism, and despoiling of the planet are absolutely spot on. Plus a heck of an entertaining film that takes you through the full spectrum of emotions at a dizzying pace.

Excellent shout. I was thinking of putting it in myself but did not think it was quite in the survivalist oeuvre.

[PrestonSturges]

Didn't see an answer on the thread thus far. Realizing that dystopia means anti-utopia and NOT EOTWAWKI/survivalist, you have:

Movies:
1). "Soylent Green". Excellently acted, given the material, IMO. Also the emotional tone/background settings, music, etc. were great. The great courageous aspect of the now (old, outmoded, or sick) "useless" citizen being able to VOLUNTEER to die a peaceful death at the hands of the state in the death scene of the old man (Charlton Heston's partner) was absolutely brilliant -- and IMO fortells a likely future to our society as irrational religious beliefs being FORCED upon others fades as we become a more secular society.
2). "Farenheit 451". Though the book was far better, this movie was faithful to the spirit of Bradbury's masterpiece. If you liked the movie, you HAVE to read the book (the audio-book was great too). The thoughts of the protagonist Montag vs. the forces that run society are simply without peer in how they are expressed.
3). "Blade Runner". Though based on the MUCH different book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", the director managed to keep the TONE of this post-nuclear apocalypse near-future movie consistent with one of Phillip K. Dick's most widely acclaimed novels. Just about everything Dick writes, BTW, (about 125 short stories and roughly 35 novels if memory serves) manages to be dystopian while questioning the basic nature of reality and "what it means to be human". In the book, the central issue was "Robots are now so well made that how does one distinguish a robot from, say, a man? In the movie, the main issue (IMO) was "Robots are now much BETTER than humans in every objective (performance) way. So, how long can humans manage to remain the masters, since the new high-end servants clearly want to BECOME the masters?
4). "Brazil" -- you have to see this to believe it. The Forecasts/warnings of things like societal pressure, big inefficient government, automation, terrorism, lack of privacy, pressure to conform, corporatism, and despoiling of the planet are absolutely spot on. Plus a heck of an entertaining film that takes you through the full spectrum of emotions at a dizzying pace.

Also, there are MANY COMPELLING dystopian novels/authors. Examples:
a). Robert Silverberg's early 70's "The World Inside" is a wonderful novel which on the surface is about a utopia, but by following briefly the lives of 8 citizens you discover (much to your horror) that it is a dystopia frighteningly worse than "Farenheit 451" AND (IMO) seems to be much like what we are headed toward at breakneck speed.
b). Kurt Vonnegut's early 1950's "Player Piano" depicts much of the brutal hit to employment and self esteem caused by automation now, that you'd think he was a time traveler who had witnessed our time and then gone back and written this novel as a dire warning! Seriously.
Too many to cite, really. That's what Google is for. Plus there are la-dee-da editorial books on dystopian themes, but as a layman, I prefer common sense and just honestly point out what I like (ignorance and biases included).

Excellent reading list! Was "The World Inside" the one where the public had to use PublicWater (?) which was foul chemical sludge that came out of the tap? And there was a sort of "V" like avenger who was killing off establishment figures?

I liked deNiros cameo in Brazil - the one guy who could actually fix things outside the authority of the bureaucracy was a wanted fugitive.

Edward G. Robinson's death scene in Soylent Green was great, and it was right before his real death. There's also one of the worst film editing goofs I've ever seen in that sequence.

[AgentR11]

I really did enjoy the movie, but just from a sci-fi perspective where I don't mind tacking in a good dose of suspension of disbelief. It tugs at my heart strings concerning preservation of knowledge; one man just doing what he does, keeping on keepin on till completion or death.

I didn't find the blindness issue any more unbelievable than I find FTL travel, or humans living their lives in space, nor the weapon thing; hollywierd always has their characters discarding magazines like tissue paper anyway, never taking the time to collect weapons or ammo from downed bad guys, etc.

The ipod thing... I dunno, earbuds are as common as dirt, hard to imagine we'd run out of the existing supply any time soon. The real killer might be battery end of life. Not a good way to get around that without compromising the seals on the device and thus making it much more vulnerable to humidity and dust.

[PrestonSturges]

The problem with earbuds is that in the wild your hearing is at least as important as your vision. This is true when hunting, and it would certainly be true in a potential defensive situation. Human attackers can be pretty devious, but they are usually a lot noisier than animals.

Another beef of mine is that dystopia or TEOTWAKI movies don't feature 22 caliber guns.

[Daniel_Plainview]

I really did enjoy the movie, but just from a sci-fi perspective where I don't mind tacking in a good dose of suspension of disbelief. It tugs at my heart strings concerning preservation of knowledge; one man just doing what he does, keeping on keepin on till completion or death.

I didn't find the blindness issue any more unbelievable than I find FTL travel, or humans living their lives in space, nor the weapon thing; hollywierd always has their characters discarding magazines like tissue paper anyway, never taking the time to collect weapons or ammo from downed bad guys, etc.

The ipod thing... I dunno, earbuds are as common as dirt, hard to imagine we'd run out of the existing supply any time soon. The real killer might be battery end of life. Not a good way to get around that without compromising the seals on the device and thus making it much more vulnerable to humidity and dust.

Nice response ... good job!

Dystopian movies are very tough to pull off. Most fail. If I wanted to pick apart a dystopian movie -- any movie -- I could find 100 reasons why it sucks.

The Book of Eli is not meant to be a survivalist movie, and it shouldn't be judged as one. Yeah, the movie has some issues, but these didn't interfere with my overall solid enjoyment of this post-apocalyptic action movie.

[PrestonSturges]

If he was blind wearing earbuds would have left him relying on his sense of smell. No wonder it took 25 years to walk across America.

[PrestonSturges]

Another scene on Book Of Eli was when they went to the cave where the water supply was and the guard is shown hogtied on the ground with his gun no more than two feet away from him. If the guard freed one hand he might have reached his gum and shot them.