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Harrison Bergeron is all about a futuristic society in 2053 where, in the U.S. at least, a form of mind control has been exercised to render all people "equal" by removing their capacity to be individuals.Harrison, played by Sean Astin, is simply too smart to be brainwashed, though, and is recruited into the elite society of brainiacs that purposely keep the populace dumbed down.
He ends up revolting against the fact that his family and the entire U.S. are little more than mindless puppets, and tries to change that...but only succeeds when he blows his own head off on national T.V.
(There's a great love story in this too; I'd recommend you watch it if you can, even though I've pretty much now told you the entire plot! Duh...)
A fascinating flick, and it reminds me of a similarly brilliant movie, Pleasantville, where everyone was mindlessly happy and the same, if completely ignorant of all that was going on around them.
It brought me to thinking about today's mass media and CNN and Enter"taint"ment Tonight and the filtered, completely subjective main messages sent to all in North America and around the world...
...And how the masses seem to be completely brainwashed by the crap we are fed every day, whether it be from CNN's "The Week in War" to Entertaintment Tonight's nightly "Mel" file.
Kurt Vonnegut, an American, was amazingly right on with his book on which the movie is based. The only part of this that's 2053 are the bands placed on people's heads to supress their creativeness and intellect.
I think the brainwashing is happening right now, without the bands...they don't need 'em. Many of us are falling for this crap on our own, blinded by the reality of what's really happening.
That's not a comment on our intelligence, it's a statement about how we're being distracted from it all by everything else we're confronted with in a world that's moving far too fast in front of our very eyes.
Which is just the way the power elite want it...
UGH- I'M SURROUNDED BY ASSHOLES!
ReplyDeletemwaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha!
your other movie sounds interesting, i must see if i can track it down!
so, is it art reflecting reality... or vice versa?
loving the sting BTW
ReplyDeleteI'm surrounded too!!!! What is happening???
ReplyDeleteBut on a serious note, WW, nobody needs to actually PLAN how to distract us. They just think up the toys and we distract ourselves. Distraction is our whole life, if you think about it. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about real issues or planning on how to prevent a Republican from winning the next presidential election because we are busy planning what to eat for dinner, reading our emails, paying our bills, watching the TV and downloading music. Reality is just too, ummm, REAL.
ReplyDeleteAngel:
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely art reflecting reality, I figger, but more than just reflecting...
I think it's blowing it up into what it really is or can be if we don't maintain our sense of individuality and free thought and expression of our thought.
I don't mean to say that the unaware are assholes, if that's what you mean.
But I think the elite prey upon the ignorant, who also have their democratic right to vote.
But they are uninformed voters, in many cases, so they listen to what the pollsters say and what the bullshitters spin.
How does that change, if it's true? I don't know for sure.
Glad you loved Sting...
Carmenzta:
What are you surrounded by?
What I'm saying is the world goes round and round because of the corporate world.
You can't tune into a fucking baseball game without hearing that this pitching change is brought to you by...
All those shit reality shows about re-decorating your house and buying the right house?
Who is sponsoring those? It's the entire home-selling industry. It's all about getting us to spend our money and consume.
Consume, consume, consume. Spend, spend, spend.
While you're doing that, we'll feed you the "objective" pap from Lebanon and Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan.
My feeling is we distract ourselves from all that stuff that we know because we have no choice.
We can't process it all because we're too busy getting our kids off to school or paying our medical expenses or picking our kids up from day-care or going out to exercise because they tell us we're getting too fat or we need to watch this or that to be cool or just like the Joneses.
We're too busy watching Entertaintment Tonight to get the latest crap on Mel, or watching Situation Room on CNN to get the "Breaking News" on the latest hangnail on Bush's pinkie.
We're too consumed with consuming and all retreating to our little suburbs and double-attached garages and security systems and escaping from the latest serial rapist to focus on what's really going on.
Where's Get Smart and the Cone of Silence when you really need him?
Sometimes I feel claustrophobic by an extremely media-driven world and this movie sounds like it's abt a nightmare coming true. I guess its already happened/happening.
ReplyDeleteI so wanna see it.
Keshi.
I'll get on the shoe phone to Headquarters about this right away.
ReplyDeleteIt is all an act of follow the leader. We, the masses, have always been entranced by that of which we see on tv. Whether it be real, fake, demeaning, or degrading, if its on tv...we are all, for the most part, captivated.
ReplyDeleteTechnology is ever-changing and ever-making life much more simple for us. Simplicity, of course, coming at a price. The price being the cost of sacrificing our families, abilities, talent, and soforth. Yes, we no longer have to slave in the kitchen to create a gourmet meal, we have the microwave and Stouffers. We no longer have to entertain our children ourselves, we have the internet, televisions, and MTV to do that.
Physical activity is being replaced by lounging activity and clanking on keyboards.
We (speaking generally) are brainwashed. Brainwashed to accept the shackles of media today in effort to avoid the shackles of our past. But what are we avoiding? Shackles are shackles no matter how many microchips or horse-drawn buggies you own.
Sheesh...there ya go getting me to rambling and crap. Sorry.
Keshi:
ReplyDeleteYa, catch it if you can. As bleak as it sounds (our world, that is, not the one depicted in the flick), I don't believe it would ever get to that point.
I don't believe people would let it get to that point. They don't call it the Idiot Box for nothing.
MJ:
Har Har! Sorry about that, Chief!
Awaiting:
You go, girl! This following comment was amazing...
Shackles are shackles no matter how many microchips or horse-drawn buggies you own.
I was reading an extraqct from '1984' the other night and had decided it was about time I reread it ( it must have been over 20 years ago). Your film recommendation sounds very similar.
ReplyDeleteStupidly, Cherrypie, I have not seen 1984, so must do that.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, if you get around to it, do enjoy this movie...
I agree with Cherrypie. I read 1984 in 1983 so I must tackle it again. Must put this one on my "to watch" list. This weekend I caught up with "Mr and Mrs Smith" (crap) and the first six episodes of the BBC series "The Office" which is brilliant and highly recommended!
ReplyDeleteHi Andrea.
ReplyDeleteI must respectfully disagree with your assessment of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
For what it was -- a flick for mass consumption starring the supposedly two most beautiful uber beings on the planet -- I thought it was surprisingly cute.
And, let's face it, AJ isn't hard to look at...
And I thought wotshisname was pretty cool in Troy with that running sword lunge through the shoulder blade of that big 6-foot-6 international rugby player Cherrypie and you have been hissing over.
Or was that you and Cherrypie and Carmenzta and The Tart and Homo Escapeons?
ReplyDeletehehe lets just hope so.
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
Keshi...
ReplyDeleteYa gotta believe, girl...in this and in everything else, like your search for a young guy.
Ya gotta believe.
I agree with Andrea on Mr & Mrs Smith. What a terrible waste of time and probably the worst movie of the year...imagine any man on the planet being disinterested in Angelina Jolie!? PUHLEEZE! The entire premise was too stupid ..from start to finish...
ReplyDelete'Suspension of disbelief'..they ask too much.
As for cheery futuristic movies I still enjoy Clockwork Orange, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Fifth Element, Outland, Gattica, Slaughterhouse Five and Spaceballs.
So does that mean you DON'T give it four out of five stars? Picky movie reviewers...
ReplyDeleteHE: I agree on 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith."
ReplyDelete"War of the Roses" was much darker, funnier and emotionally draining and satisfying. And Kathleen Turner was a babe.