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Contents © 2006
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
TALK ABOUT MOVIES
April 2006
THE ISLAND
Directed by Michael Bay. Starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johannson. 2005, USA, English, Color, 136 minutes. Available at Blockbuster Video.
Matthew: Laurent had been hardened by a life surrounded by violence. First it was inflicted on him; now he inflicts it -- he's a bounty hunter, with small regard for human life. He's willing to trade life for money. But as he watches Merrick play God -- deciding who is human and who is not -- it awakens something in his conscience.
Ernie: He taps into his own past suffering, when he was branded during the racial warfare in Africa in order to signify that he was less than human -- just as the "products" are branded in the lab. Their fate finally melts him.
Matthew: But Tom Lincoln is just too wrapped up in his own suffering, his own fear of death, to get the idea of Lincoln Six Echo's humanity through his head. Of course, the film makes it easy to loathe him -- he's earned his death. Sarah Jordan tugs on your heartstrings a little more; she's dying, and she's leaving a child behind. But it doesn't change what Jordan Two Delta is.
* * *
Ernie: The movie, while it tossed in some futuristic elements, wasn't set too far in the future. The cars were like the cars we have now. They still used helicopters and guns that shot bullets. The horror of breeding humans for the sake of harvesting them was raised, because it wasn't that far off. It's close to what people talk about now.
Matthew: You get the feeling that McCord just found himself doing this stuff one day, that he didn't think about it much when it wasn't as clear, and then when it did become clear, he felt too far in to pull out. He doesn't want to see what gets done, but he hasn't been able to bring himself to reject it. It's as if he thought, "This is just the way it is now. No sense in getting upset about it."