Dystopia now

"Mockingjay filming district two Tempelhof airport Berlin 02" by Lienhard Schulz - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mockingjay_filming_district_two_Tempelhof_airport_Berlin_02.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Mockingjay_filming_district_two_Tempelhof_airport_Berlin_02.jpg

 

Professor Stuart Price's lecture on sci-fi alluded to a wide array of tropes that we see in most Hollywood Sci-Fi blockbusters, ranging from gender stereotypes to the protagonists’ common loss of identity.

Alongside these themes was an underlying message in the lecture that stood out to me. The point that Professor Price made is that cinema isn’t portraying a dystopian future in these action sci-fi movies. It’s actually a dramatization or a cinematic portrayal of modern day life itself.

Are we already in the beginning stages of what we call a dystopian future? Was film director Alfonso Cuarón right in saying that “The tyranny of the 21^st century is called democracy”?

Either way, I was fortunate to hear Professor Stuart Price discussing these important topics and sharing his insights.


Sam Ellison