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Children of Men -- A belated view

Saw this a couple of weeks ago with a friend in San Diego and have been mulling it over ever since. We both agreed, it was great, great. Most everything that can be said about it, has been already, and most everyone knows the general outline too, so:

Technically the film was masterful, lots of action without a single (so far as I could see) frame of digital FX. Dramatically, it’s a series of set pieces that not only hang together but are almost psychically draining in their intensity. As one critic (Lisa Schwartzbaum) noted, “There’s no gap between entertainment and art.”

Ah, but the music! Few have spoken of that.

The film opens with – and how long has it been since you’ve heard this? – In the Court of the Crimson King. Val and I looked at each other…

And older British rock music is heard throughout, with several appearances by Pink Floyd. At two points the visuals flash Pink as well: A brief re-creation of the Animals cover with Pigs on the Wing (the great balloon), and even more briefly, as the illegal immigrants flooding post-Apocalypse Britain are shipped off in boxcars, we see their faces turn into the masks of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, in a similar setting.

Most searing of all, and not likely to be caught by many, was the song sung at low volume in the background as the Clive Owen character (what a great actor!) overhears a discussion about his deceased child. It was Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n -- from Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children). Whew!


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Topic - Children of Men -- A belated view - clarkjohnsen 11:54:42 02/14/07 (22)


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