Hollywood Caliber
This thread is a counter to the 'Hollywood Ballyhoo' thread in the Canteen forum. Here let us discuss the high caliber with which Hollywood and other films exposes the falsity, farce, hypocrisy, and the alarming trends in the corridors of power, science, religion and society.
The film 'Outbreak (1995)': Subverting democracy
Is democracy, which is supposed to be the "government of the people, by the people, for the people" nothing more than a farce, even in a lavishly liberal country like the U.S.? Is it only the military which is behind vital policy decisions and runs the democracy by proxy?
The film explores the dangerous extents to which the government and the military can go to 'contain a situation' such as the following:
• The US military discovers a killer virus named Motaba in the African jungles and decides to preserve it as a biological weapon. A mercenary camp that discovers the virus is infected by it. The army annihilates all the members of the team, disinfects the area and contains the virus, all in one stroke--by dropping a fuel-air bomb on its own soldiers. The army also develops a serum for the virus but keeps it a secret.
• Twenty-five years later, the virus resurfaces in Africa again. Col.Daniel is sent to investigate. He and his crew manage to contain the virus but after they are back in the US asks their boss Gen.Ford to issue an alert. The General ignores the warning since he was among the two authorities who gave the decision to destroy the mercenary camp earlier.
• Meanwhile, a White-fronted Capuchin Monkey, the host animal of the virus, is smuggled into California to be sold illegally to breed in a pet store. The monkey spits on the man who smuggled it, so he catches the infection. The pet store owner rejects the offer as it was of the wrong gender. The monkey scratches the hand of the storeman and infects him. The smuggler lets out the monkey in the woods of California. These two men die within days.
• A hospital man, who treated the two infected men, gets the infection as he was careless, goes to a packed movie theatre and infects the crowd as his own infection was airborne, caused by a new strain of the virus. Soon most of the citizens of the town Cedar Creek get the infection and start dying.
• The US army takes control of the town, imposes curfew, restricts movement of the citizens beyond the critical area, blocks public communication lines, and declares the area a no-fly zone. The media spreads the news without the actual knowledge of why an entire town is held captive. A meeting of expert virologists speculate that at this rate the whole country of US could be infected in less than a week. So they discuss 'containing the virus' by 'objectively viewing the situation' and recommend to the President, the annihilation of the town Cedar Creek, with its 2600 inhabitants. The military promptly takes up the presidential directive and prepares to annihilate the town.
• Meanwhile, Col.Daniel defies the authority and orders of his bosses who seek to arrest him under the false implication that he is a carrier of the virus. Daniel's systematic and fast-paced investigations reveal the story of the monkey as the host animal, which carries both the original and the variant strains of the virus. Daniel also comes to possess the serum the military developed long back and tests it but finds it ineffective as the new airborne virus is a variant strain of the original Motaba virus. Thus the only way to cure the town people is to catch the African monkey that had the necessary antibodies.
• In a narration full of suspense, the film reveals how the monkey is caught, how Daniel encounters two army helicopters that seek to kill him, how he and his colleague in their own chopper outwit the army crafts with a decoy crash, manage to reach the site and proceed to disinfect the people, how they learn about the decision of his bosses to destroy the entire town, and how Col.Daniel successfully meets the situation and convinces the soldier pilots of the bombardier plane to defy authority and thus save the town.
Dustin Hoffman, one of the best actors produced by Hollywood, shines in the role of the colonel.
The moot questions the film raises expose a shadow reality lurking behind the supposedly people-friendly actions by authorities in the corridors of politics and governance. At least in the film there was a hero to save the people. In reality, there would be none and only the news of such misdeeds would be contained from the general public.
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
Bookmarks