ok, Jim, I've got some bad news.
Apr. 22nd, 2007 01:47 pm
While this is usually referred to as a zombie movie, I find that it's more of a post-apocalypse movie. More important than the zombies and the gore and violence (which is not in excess here), are the reactions of the survivors in evacuated and decimated Britain, quarantined by the rest of the world. There is no paranormality here either - Rage is a lab-created disease produced by exposing lab monkeys to endless videos of violence captured on the news, and it is set free when well-meaning animal activists decide to free one of the monkeys, which immediately attacks them. Which means, in effect, we create our own doom, and the real difference between the Infected and a furious non-Infected (like Jim) is some hold on what we call "humanity" - a sense of humor, a sense of restraint, the ability to love, the ability to do anything that is not for your own gain but someone else's, motor skills, recognition, memory. While language is, to some extent, also a facet of humanity, a little Infected boy that attacks Jim says, "I hate you." I wasn't sure if I heard it when I watched it, but it's confirmed by IMDb. Which is to say, this disease is basically rage and hatred without anything else.
Equally or maybe more alarming than the Infected themselves are the reactions of the survivors. Jim is compassionate, reluctant to kill or leave anyone behind. Selena believes survival is "as good as it gets". Frank and Hannah always try to make believe that it's not really that bad (probably because Hannah's a child) and they live for each other, having a dynamic very similar to the Man and the Boy in Cormac McCarthy's The Road (interestingly, they have parallel fates as well). The soldiers are a strange mix of excited to be in a warzone where they get to exercise their shooting and bashing skills and experience dangerous adrenaline highs, and depressed because "there is no future". Despite issuing a broadcast all over England inviting survivors to come to Manchester, they only protect those who can serve a purpose to them - the men they find are executed, and the women are kept to breed the next generation. Selena bashes in her teammate when he becomes Infected without hesitation, while Jim ends up killing two soldiers - one who tried to kill him, and one who tried to rape Selena - in cold blood. Interestingly, Jim also sets the soldiers' "pet" Infected loose, allowing him to wreak havoc on the base and spread the disease further. And by that time, I have to admit, I was rooting for the Infected Mailer over the soldiers.
Basically, there's not that much difference between the Infected and the non-Infected. The enemy is us. As U2 says, "and you become a monster so the monster will not break you." - Highly Recommended (but I was waffling between this and Recommended).