I wrote earlier today about The Day of the Triffids (1962), and specifically, how one element of the film (and John Wyndham's original novel) involves vast swaths of the Earth's human population going suddenly, irrevocably blind after a beautiful meteor shower.The result of the spontaneous loss of vision is mass global panic, crashing trains, burning planes, crass exploitation and other apocalyptic horrors.
It's a great end-of-the-world scenario. And actually, I had scrawled in my notes on The Day of the Triffids last night that "you don't even really need the man-eating plants." In other words, the idea of sudden blindness as impetus for rapid societal breakdown is powerful enough for a film alone.
Well, obviously, I wasn't the only one thinking that way, because Miramax is releasing on October 3rd a new genre film exploring that very concept. It's called Blindness and stars Julianne Moore, Danny Glover and Mark Ruffalo. Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener) directs.
Julianne Moore certainly has a bit of a mixed history in terms of her previous genre work, so I hope that the intriguing-looking Blindness is more along the lines of Children of Men than (the big box office hit...) The Forgotten. To coin a phrase, we'll "see."
Personally, I'm a sucker for these apocalyptic scenarios.
So FYI. Here's a preview for Blindness:
my mom said she read this book years ago, and that it was awesome. Hope the movie is too.
ReplyDelete