The Film of the Book of the Children of Men

Steyn Online ^ | 2 Jan 2021 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

As longtime readers know, I am a great fan of a certain P D James novel of the west at sunset. Xavier, a First Day Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club from Ohio, writes:

Also, January 1, 2021 is the opening of P D James' wonderful novel, The Children of Men, which Mark has written about before.

Columns like Mark's 'A Baroness on Barrenness', is why I am proud to be a Mark Steyn Club member.

Thanks for all you do.

That is very true, Xavier. Baroness James published the book in 1992, when 2021 seemed a long way off. But it has arrived, and we are now living in the time-frame of a great author's dystopian future. As the novel begins:

Friday 1 January 2021

Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years two months and twelve days. If the first reports are to be believed, Joseph Ricardo died as he had lived. The distinction, if one can call it that, of being the last human whose birth was officially recorded, unrelated as it was to any personal virtue or talent, had always been difficult for him to handle. And now he is dead. The news was given to us here in Britain on the nine o'clock programme of the State Radio Service and I heard it fortuitously...

[livius]

The Children of Men is a great book...and yes, I agree with Steyn on the film version. I think it was because the filmmaker wanted to avoid the religious dimension, because essentially we are looking at a world where man has ignored one of God’s basic orders to his created beings: be fruitful and multiply. And mankind has ignored it for so long that it has brought its own punishment, that is, the loss of the very ability to be fruitful.

I recall reading that in the US, something like 500,000 children will not be born in 2021 because of the shutdown.

[a fool in paradise]

“I remember her telling me she preferred Timothy Dalton’s 007 because he pretty much forswore all the sex and double entendres (which is why he nearly killed the franchise). Each to her own.”

I rewatched the 1960s The Saint movie (staring Roger Moore) aka The Fiction Makers.

the opening scene is in the cinema as Simon is watching a movie that seems to represent the Sean Connery James Bond films (judo fight scene and then sexual inuendos) while Roger Moore’s Simon groans. Did he know that one day he’d be stepping into those very shoes?

[dynachrome]

“500,000 children will not be born in 2021 because of the shutdown.”

Wait a minute, if people stop watching sports, going out,etc., what’s left? Boozing and making the two backed beast, of course. Should be extra kids born.

[a fool in paradise]

>> A society without youth is so alien to our assumptions about ourselves that we can’t even make a film about it.

Margaret Sanger wanted to take us there. NO MORE BABIES (even if a woman WANTED to have a child) for a period of TEN years.

No More Babies!” - Expert Calls For Ban on Childbirth (1947)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChCjgYGTL4Y

It would’ve taken a big bite out of the post war Western Baby Boom.

[Blurb2350]

That was my first thought too — more children post-lockdown, not fewer. I confess I haven’t heard the phrase “the beast with two backs” in ages!

[wally_bert]

There is another BW Saint episode where an older hotel desk lady says something along the lines “I’m working with James Bond”.

I’ve got the boxed set for Christmas and will open it up.

[Don W]

I couldn’t read the whole thing it was so depressing.

Or, as “Men on Film” (In Living Color reference) would say: “Hated it!”

[Chickensoup]

Read and enjoyed the book. Have been a PD James fan for many years. Btw I am revisiting many of them on audio book. They read aloud well.

The film was a dud and I so much wanted to like it.

Leftists ruin everything.

[Lurker]

The best thing about the movie was Michael Caine.

L

[montag813]

Hated the film. Didn’t help that it was hyped into the stratosphere by idiot leftist critics.

[mrsmith]

As usual a deep and worthy read from Mr. Steyn.

“.If “following the science” requires the total shutdown of life for a year, that too ought surely to be considered a “failure” and “humiliation”, no?”

We should recognize that we had a terrible and great failure against the virus.
The cause: rewarding without merit.
A science and public establishment that does not value merit is doomed to failure.

This time promotion without merit killed a quarter million. The next crisis will be worse.

[Ransomed]

I think the movie is directed well, I think I recall at least a few really long tracking scenes with no cuts. I remember thinking that worked pretty well. I saw the movie before I read the book and completely missed all the religious stuff that was adapted and cut out.

Freegards

[Organic Panic]

Terrible film. Horrible.

[LizzieD]

I already got my lockdown bonus...a grandson born December 1st...now if I didn’t have to worry about the world he will grow up in...

[livius]

You’re assuming they live with someone of the opposite sex or at least have a way of meeting them.

Also, many existing families will have no more children because of the economic disaster this has brought about. The birth rate drops when there is economic insecurity, even when people aren’t locked away from each other.

That’s why the population control nuts are thrilled with the government lockdowns.

Of course, just to make sure, they try to keep the funds flowing to the abortion industry, which seems to operate without any restrictions.

[Paal Gulli]

There's a serious "Easter egg" in the film for the Pink Floyd fans.

One scene in the movie was filmed in the decommissioned Battersea coal-fired power plant, located on the south bank of the Thames in west London. Battersea was featured on the cover artwork of Pink Floyd's album, Animals:

In the shot where Clive Owen arrives there, you can see the pig balloons floating above it, an homage to either Pink Floyd or Roger Waters (whose idea it was to use Battersea).

And in a later scene, one of the pig balloons is visible in the background as Owen talks to Danny Huston.

How very 'pink' of them.

[tbw2]

The movie gets points for being incredibly pro-life. It loses points for making it the child of a woman of color and injecting illegal immigration into the mix.

[tbw2]

Abortion was considered an essential service when getting cancer treatment wasn’t.

Contraception was essential, and telemedicine consults for abortion pills and new contraceptive prescriptions were approved IMMEDIATELY.