Contagion: a nightmare vision of a society collapsing

[Lord Beria3]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep20 ... -s26.shtml

Contagion is the latest from US film director Steven Soderbergh. Best known today for the blockbuster Ocean’s Eleven heist movies, Soderbergh got his start as an independent filmmaker in the late 1980s, first gaining notoriety with Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989). For a time, he produced a number of interesting films, including King of the Hill (1989), Kafka (1991) and Schizopolis (1996). Beginning with Out of Sight in 1998, he moved more and more into mainstream Hollywood filmmaking. In between his major studio films, Soderbergh continues to work on smaller films which are ostensibly more serious and challenging. There have been diminishing returns on both fronts. Contagion is among the more serious-minded works.



The film concerns the spread of a deadly new virus and the social response to the resulting epidemic. The trouble begins when Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns home to Minneapolis feeling ill after a trip to Hong Kong. She is quickly overtaken by a mysterious disease, leaving her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) to pick up the pieces. Signs of the same illness soon begin to appear in cases throughout the world.


Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is approached by the Department of Homeland Security and given the task of investigating the new disease and developing a treatment. An Epidemic Intelligence Service officer (Kate Winslet) is sent to Minneapolis to investigate the outbreak, but makes little headway before contracting the virus herself. Efforts to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease come to nothing and millions become infected. Panic sets in as the CDC struggles to produce a vaccine to combat the epidemic.


Contagion has its moments. To its credit, it is one of the few Hollywood studio films in which one does glimpse something of the immense social polarization in the US and the potentially explosive nature of such disasters. One sees bitter clashes at food distribution sites and at pharmacies, conflicts produced by overwhelming social need and inadequate supplies or the unpreparedness of government agencies. FEMA tents turning away those in need because the agency has run out of supplies, producing a riot in one scene, recall the images from the Hurricane Katrina disaster, as do the makeshift hospitals set up in sports arenas.


Among the more memorable moments is one in which a desperately ill woman shows up at the door of a conspiratorial blogger (played by Jude Law), who claims to have found a cure for the disease. “I can give you some money,” she says, holding the cash in front of her face. Something of the ugliness and tragedy wrought by a system in which the health care needs of the population remain subordinate to money and profit interests is communicated here.


The film is intelligently made. Soderbergh has his talents, including a feeling for film imagery and rhythm, and he has assembled an impressive cast.

This should be a good and worryingly realistic portrayal of the near future.

[adam2]

Seems to have become more topical, suitable viewing perhaps in quarantine facilities ?

[kenneal - lagger]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep20 ... -s26.shtml

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Contagion has its moments. To its credit, it is one of the few Hollywood studio films in which one does glimpse something of the immense social polarization in the US and the potentially explosive nature of such disasters. One sees bitter clashes at food distribution sites and at pharmacies, conflicts produced by overwhelming social need and inadequate supplies or the unpreparedness of government agencies. FEMA tents turning away those in need because the agency has run out of supplies, producing a riot in one scene, recall the images from the Hurricane Katrina disaster, as do the makeshift hospitals set up in sports arenas.


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This should be a good and worryingly realistic portrayal of the near future.

The heavily armed survivalist will win out in the end by taking food from those silly enough not to arm themselves or be able to afford to arm themselves. Just goes to show that the poor, in the absence of proper jobs, should take to drug dealing to be able to afford a gun.

[Little John]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep20 ... -s26.shtml

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Contagion has its moments. To its credit, it is one of the few Hollywood studio films in which one does glimpse something of the immense social polarization in the US and the potentially explosive nature of such disasters. One sees bitter clashes at food distribution sites and at pharmacies, conflicts produced by overwhelming social need and inadequate supplies or the unpreparedness of government agencies. FEMA tents turning away those in need because the agency has run out of supplies, producing a riot in one scene, recall the images from the Hurricane Katrina disaster, as do the makeshift hospitals set up in sports arenas.


......................

This should be a good and worryingly realistic portrayal of the near future.

The heavily armed survivalist will win out in the end by taking food from those silly enough not to arm themselves or be able to afford to arm themselves. Just goes to show that the poor, in the absence of proper jobs, should take to drug dealing to be able to afford a gun.

I disagree. Those who survive will be tightly knit communities that are quite prepared to be lethally violent where necessary.

No man is an island.