|
Doomsday on the big screen
IMAGINE waking up alone in the city you live in. There is no one there to help you. You are the last survivor
after a terrible virus strikes mankind, and all you have is your dog for company.
This is exactly what happens to Will Smith, star of I Am Legend, the latest addition to one of the most successful movie genres of all time, the disaster movie.
The film plays on humanity's eternal
fear that the end of civilization lies just around the corner.
This idea has preoccupied the human mind since records began. It features in the world's oldest literature, from the Bible's apocalypse
to the flood in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Many early films featured small-scale disasters, such as the 1901 silent film Fire, simply about a blaze in a house. But the movie genre really came into its own during the Cold War.
The onset of the Atomic Age inspired a real fear in the American public that the same thing could happen to them at the hands of Russia.
This bred a fear of the other, the different and the un-American, a fear that movie producers happily played upon at the box office. The alien
invasion theme in movies like Invaders from Mars, in which aliens land in a field and begin to take over the minds of people, had a parallel in reality.
Digital graphics and special effects gave the genre a new lease of life in the 1990s. Independence Day, Will Smith's first disaster film, was hugely successful in cinemas, even though it simply reworked a familiar alien invasion plot.
Yet the films also reflect ed a new fear: technophobia. This manifested itself in many ways, from industrial workers losing their jobs due to production line automation, through to the idea that machines could one day become our masters. The film that dramatizes these fears is Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
It should by now be easy to spot the key elements in disaster cinema. Disaster movies nearly always have some connection with real world events. The first climate change disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, which features a new ice age and a race to escape to a warmer place, is a perfect example of this.
They also provide Hollywood with an excuse to showcase the latest special effects technology. It should come as no surprise that I Am Legend features not only a killer virus, but also a group of computer generated, bloodthirsty monsters to keep viewers entertained.
He may be the last man on Earth, but Will Smith is not alone. The disaster movie will continue, unless of course, the real end of the world comes first.
Story line
SCIENTIST Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last human being on Earth. Everybody else on the planet has been transformed into vampires who want to feast on Neville's neck. For three years, Neville has spent his days looking for food and supplies and sending out radio messages in an attempt to find other survivors. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood.
Last question
IF I were the last person in the world, I would...
Rachel Song, 24, student at UIBE, Beijing: Sleep, as then I'd have no worries.
Andrew Macaskill, 23, Beijing: I'd go to Oxford Street and take all the nice things from all the shops and eat in all the fancy restaurants.
Alice Forster, 23, PhD student at University College London: I would go to live in an expensive hotel and steal from all the rich people's houses.
Survival tips
1. Copy the style of a cockroach; they are the natural world's greatest survivors.
2. Keep a store of chocolate and cookies, as these will be valuable items to trade after the apocalypse.
3. Remember you are responsible for the survival of the human race, so make sure you eat healthily.
Please tell us what you would do if you were the last one on the planet. Email to liaomeng@21stcentury.com.cn
VOCABULARY BUILDER
doomsday 世界末日
He realized that he didn't matter to her at all; he could go on in that way till doomsday, and it would have no effect. 他意识到自己完全被她忽略；他可能将如此持续下去，直到世界末日，而这不会带来一点影响。
end of the world: 世界末日
Breaking up with your girlfriend is not the end of the world. You have to learn from your mistakes. 跟女朋友分手不是世界末日。你必须从失败中学习。
post-apocalyptic: 世界毁灭之后的
The writer's new book depicts a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where familiar streets lie deserted. 作者的新书描写了末世之后的东京，熟悉的街道一片荒芜。
---------------------------------------
生词：
genre类型, 流派
preoccupy 使全神贯注
apocalypse 世界末日，世界毁灭
The Epic of Gilgamesh 吉尔伽美什史诗，美索不达米亚文学作品，记录了一位古代君主的冒险故事
onset 肇端
a new lease of life 重生
technophobia 技术恐惧
blur 弄得模糊不清
duo 二人组合
ideology 意识形态
premier 首映
retreat 撤退
trivial 微不足道的
|
