Blindness (2008)



Blindness (2008)
Lust is blind.

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of the blind" quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hording the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. There is however one eyewitness to the nightmare. A woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague follows her afflicted husband to quarantine. There, keeping her sight a secret, she guides seven strangers who have become, in essence, a family. She leads them out of quarantine and onto the ravaged streets of the city, which has seen all vestiges of civilization crumble.

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Runtime: 121 minutes
Rating: 6.7/10 (19,359 votes)
Release Date: 14 May 2008
Country: Canada, Brazil, Japan
Languages: English, Japanese
Company: Rhombus Media
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for violence including sexual assaults, language and sexuality/nudity.

Director(s): Fernando Meirelles



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Producer(s):
Nicolas Aznarez - line producer: Uruguay
Andrea Barata Ribeiro - producer
Bel Berlinck - co-producer
Claudia Büschel - associate producer
Simon Channing Williams - executive producer
Gail Egan - executive producer
Niv Fichman - producer
Sari Friedland - co-producer
Akira Ishii - executive producer
Victor Loewy - executive producer
Sheena Macdonald - associate producer: Rhombus Media
Aeschylus Poulos - associate producer
Chris Romano - line producer: Uruguay
Sonoko Sakai - producer
Barbara Willis Sweete - associate producer: Rhombus Media
Larry Weinstein - associate producer: Rhombus Media
Austin Wong - associate producer
Tom Yoda - executive producer

Writer(s):
José Saramago - (novel "Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira")
Don McKellar - (screenplay)

Cast:
Yusuke Iseya - First Blind Man
Jason Bermingham - Driver #1
Eduardo Semerjian - Concerned Pedestrian #1
Don McKellar - Thief
Ciça Meirelles - Driver #2
Antônio Fragoso - Concerned Pedestrian #2
Lilian Blanc - Concerned Pedestrian #3
Douglas Silva - Onlooker #1
Daniel Zettel - Onlooker #2
Yoshino Kimura - First Blind Man's Wife

Music: Marco Antônio Guimarães

4 Responses to “Blindness (2008)”

  1. Matt_Layden Says:
    July 27th, 2009

    There is usually a few films in which I absolutely hate a certaincharacter. In Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it was Franklin, Marcia GayHarden from The Mist, just to name two. Yet in Blindness, I hated abouta dozen of them. Never in a film as much as this one have I hated somany characters and their actions and Julianne Moore's character has togo down in history as one of my most hated…ever….in the history offilm.

    An epidemic spreads and everyone is suddenly blind by this whiteness.It's apparently highly contagious and the government decides toquarantine these people and shoot them if they were to try to even comeclose to someone outside of the facility. Moore's character is somehowimmune to this blindness even though she has direct contact with thoseinfected. Does she offer to help find a cure using herself, no she goesinto the facility with her husband and pretends to be blind. I can getthat, after all love is blind. Yet her actions within this place areextremely questionable.

    The entire film is suppose to show how we would fall from our heightand destroy our humanity if we were to lose something as precious asour sight. Thus, the film is gritty, unapologetic and disturbing. Thefacility is split into 3 wards, we never meet ward 2. Ward 1 has Moore,Ruffalo and Glover. Gael Garcia Bernal is in ward 3 and for some reasonhas a gun, so he decides to take control of the food supply andthreaten to shoot anyone who gets in his way. Keep in mind, they areall blind. He, and his ward who all support him, will exchange the foodfor money, jewelery and other possessions. Why? They don't even knowthemselves, but they want it. what happens when the possessions runout? They resort to sex. Yes, they exchange food for sex with the womenfrom the other wards.

    So begins the rape scene in which the women are beaten, one is beatento death, all of this happens while Julianne Moore can see and she doesabsolutely nothing to stop it. Here is a woman who has such a greatadvantage over everyone else and she doesn't use it. I became soaggravated with this character and her stupid actions to do nothing.Instead, she goes down on one of them. How easy could it have been tosteal the gun, or use scissors or a pipe and kill him? They claim itwill start a war, so be it, she can still see. I guess the life anddignity of others mean nothing. She even catches her blind husbandhaving sex with another woman, yet she is too tired to even care. Whenshe finally decides to do something, I've given up already. I can'tstress how much I hated this character and her willingness to donothing.

    The film is bleak, yet beautiful in it's cinematography and atmosphere.The deserted streets and apocalyptic feel of the world outside is welldone. Yet all that does not make up for such a dirty feeling the filmleft me throughout it's 2nd act. The characters all 'act' blind, forthe most part it comes off believable, but I did not care for anyone inthis movie. The husband is himself is stupid and weak.

    I can't really recommend this flick. It's well made and has the samefeel as films like Children of Men, except it's nowhere near thequality of those films. I just can't recommend a film that made me feeldisgusted by characters and actions.

  2. anonymous_007 Says:
    July 29th, 2009

    This is a blatant rip off of Day of the Triffids, but without a goodplot, or story lines, or action, or …

    It is just amazing to me that nobody else has seen the obviousparallel, since in Day of the Triffids, the only thing that reallymakes the Triffids dangerous, is being blind. If you have sight in thatfilm, you simply kill the Triffids, they are only good at sneaking upon blind people, which is most of the population.

    Since she can see, it seems impossible to me that she would put up withthe other floor raping all of the women. This would have made moresense if the guy with the gun could see. What sighted woman allowsherself to be raped by a blind guy? Just too stupid. And shown to bestupid, when she finally does easily kill him. And still she doesn'ttake the gun!

  3. Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) Says:
    July 30th, 2009

    There's less of a gripping story here than a parable. As Gregor isturned into a cockroach overnight, a large number of people arestricken blind here. No prodromal symptoms or anything. Bang — you'reblind. And thereafter no screen time is given over to a search for thecause or an antidote.

    The blind people don't live in the darkness. Instead they all seewhite. Since it's thought that the disorder is contagious, the victimsare herded together into a large prison-like facility, surrounded bywalls and armed guards and thereafter largely ignored.

    The institution receives some food but not enough. Its sterile hallsbecome filthy. The food supply is taken over by a gang of thugs led bya blind but murderous thief who has a pistol. He extorts everything ofvalue from the other prisoners, right down to their wedding rings, andwhen the coffers are empty, their women.

    The story follows Mark Ruffalo as a doctor and his wife, JulianneMoore, who fakes being blind in order to be with her husband and see tohis needs.

    The place deteriorates into a living demonstration of Justice LearnedHand's observation: "A society in which men recognize no check upontheir freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession ofonly a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow." The thugs arefree to do what they want, while the other blind victims are prisonersin more sense than one.

    In the end, Moore is instrumental in changing the living conditions,but it hardly adds up to a happy ending because the story isn't aboutblindness at all but about human nature — and it's not a prettypicture.

    There's a lot of razzle dazzle in the direction, cutting, andphotography but it doesn't save the film from being as depressing as achest X-ray that turns out bad. Whew.

    Is this what we're really like when responsible agents of social changeare removed? Are we dominated by our reptilian brains? Well, there havebeen enough instances of political and economic anarchy to suggest thatwhat we see here is an expectable outcome, except that nowhere else dowe find a heroine like Julianne Moore. In any case, until the climacticscene, she's as impotent as everyone else.

    Scary stuff indeed.

  4. thesuthernman Says:
    July 30th, 2009

    First it makes you think about what you would do if you went blind.Then it makes you think what would happen if everyone you knew wentblind. What if the world went blind. What if you went blind with no oneto help you assimilate. I don't think it would happen the way thewriter and director envisioned but perhaps, who knows. Would I bestrong, would I want to give up or would I become a champion for thecause. If there were sightless people to take care of me and teach me,all would be somewhat well but in utter chaos such a disability couldbe catastrophic. Being alone would mean so much more yet being togethercould be worse. How would society react. Then after you figure a fewthings out and the world is upside down, sight returns. Then it makesyou think if it could possibly be worse to see. Would that not be themost scary of all. A society in utter shambles with survivors able tosee you in order to steal, rape and pillage. I don't know…..thepossibilities are endless. The performances in this movie are prettygood. I find it hard to judge the actions of the characters, other thanthe simply demonic ones, because it is such a outrageous premise. Wecan judge the evil characters that kill rape and steal but can we judgehow the other people react to the dilemmas they encounter? Only if wewere in their shoes. The photography in the film was great but I didhate the location. I couldn't stand the city they were in….I mighthave wanted to go blind if I lived there. One of numerous flaws in themovie concerned people that were already blind before the tragedy. Nomention of them other than one character. I think if this reallyhappened everyone would have looked to the preexisting blind for help,advice and support.

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