What If There Were No More Babies?:
The Children of Men

January 7, 2007

This is a hell of a film to watch when you are expecting a child any week now. There is a point toward the end of the film when Theo (Clive Owen) with baby in hand and young mother in tow walks out of a building beset with bullets and fighting.. and the crying baby simply stops everyone. The poor immigrants reach out to touch the child and the government soldiers hold their fire and stare at the newborn child. It is an unexpected moment of awe.. reminding the viewer of the hope that should accompany every child.. but which we somehow forget in a world surrounded by babies.

The entire movie works to set up that moment. We are asked from the start to ponder what would happen to the world if there were no such thing as newborn children. According to director Alfonso Cuarón (and novelist P.D. James) it would be a world knocked off its hinges, with people looking to grab what remains for themselves. And maybe there is some truth to that.. if the desire for giving a better life to a child is a strong motivating factor for stability and security. There would be no soccer moms in a world without babies. Then in the midst of that world knocked off its hinges we are asked to imagine the entry of a single child.. a dramatic film entrance..

Looking out a London window you can see a Pink Floyd album cover re-made. When they initially entered the armed camp where the government holds immigrants, there were scenes with dogs and stripped humans reminiscent of scenes from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. As Theo and the young woman enter a building to get away from the camp we see on the walls of the cave-like building images reminiscent of paleolithic art. This kind of visual smartness continues throughout the film; every frame considered and created.

This level of allusiveness causes Children of Men to resemble The Matrix.. but some of the heavier religious symbolism is avoided. Upon meeting the young pregnant woman, Theo asks with whom she has conceived the child. The young woman looks at him and tells him she is a virgin. One thinks: No, not another religious allegory! But then the young woman laughs and gives a naturalistic answer. While thankfully bypassed as a plot device, the mention of a virgin birth nevertheless suggests the presence of an allegory. That allegory is strengthened at the end with the appearance of the ship named "Tomorrow" to rescue the young woman and her child.. That ending seemed heavy handed..

It is worth thinking about the portrayal of the two main human factions in the film. There is the xenophobic government brutally repressing foreigners in this time of crisis. And then the rebels are a cross between anti-globalization rioters and modern Islamic rebels. This group includes dreadlocked fighters and hooded men chanting "allah hua al-Akhbar" and wearing Arabic headbands. At one point there was a sign on a wall that said "Uprising" in English and then in Arabic "intifada" was written.

We are accustomed from Star Wars-like films to root for the rebels against the unjust empire. In this film both sides are hopelessly off track.. and the young woman's escape to the ship "Tomorrow" run by the Human Project appears to be a triumph of no political side, but of individual human values. There is no good side of the force.. only a struggle to be human. The fact that the hero of the film Theo at no time picks up a gun or shoots anyone.. despite wandering in and through much gunfire.. tells us something about how Cuarón imagines this human stuggle.