End of the World

Date: July 9, 2008
Time: 18:47
Place: DeVry Lab

Most people, when they talk about “The End of the World”, they usually think about no more life on the planet, with the exception of maybe just the cockroaches.

When I think about the end of the world, I think about Dystopia. For those who may not know what a Dystopia is, Merriam Webster refers to it as “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized lives”. Literature, and therefore film, is littered with stories about dystopian societies and worlds.

Take for example, “Fahrenheit 451”, a somewhat futuristic society where books, and reading is outlawed, firemen are charged with burning books that they find, and people do much of nothing else all day except watch television and take drugs to keep them happy.

Then you have the 1927 classic film “Metropolis” by Fritz Lang. Society is divided right down the middle, the workers, and the city planners. The video by the rock group Queen uses many images and scenes from that film in their video to the song, “Radio Ga-Ga”. There is one almost iconic scene showing the workers going off one shift, and another group going on. Their faces are blank, their movements are almost robotic.

But, if you really want to talk about dehumanization, then you have to talk about the film version of “Planet of the Apes” (1968). The screenplay was written by Rod Serling of “Twilight Zone” fame, which is why there is the twist of the astronaut Taylor, played by the late Charlton Heston, finding the Statue of Liberty half-buried in the sand. In the film, for those that may not remember, human beings were treated like animals, herded and hunted for sport and for experimentation.

Dystopia, maybe it is an imaginary place, but then again, maybe not.