Bromkamp’s "pseudo-documentary" science fiction films have always maintained their sensitivity to reality. From "The Ninth District" to this "Elysium", the story changes from South Africa to the future United States (Earth), but the core of the story is always It is thought of as ethnic struggle in real society-the aliens in "The Ninth District" are said to allude to the problem of illegal immigration in South Africa, and the core drama contradiction of this "Elysium" can still be interpreted as smuggling. , Illegal immigration, these practical problems, in "Elysium" where the national identity is relatively weakened, the life and death of the bullets is very connotation of class struggle-under Matt Damon's interpretation, class struggle is obviously intensified.
Putting it in the coordinates of sci-fi works, "Elysium Space" actually inherits the dualist population setting since Wells's "Time Machine". Of course, the humans in "Elysium Space" did not evolve into Eloys and Morlocks. There are two completely different types of people, and there is no such direct and cruel setting of one race to kill another race, but behind the veil of "civilization", the fierce struggle behind the crowd\class has not weakened-when the earth becomes dirty After the chaotic hell, the space station named "Elysium Space" has become a high above "heaven". People living in it do not have to face the threat of poverty and disease, but intend to "smuggle" from the earth to the "Elysium Space". The male protagonist in "became a "revolutionary" who challenged the authority system and the ruling class.
Zizek interpreted "The Rise of the Dark Knight" as "the dictatorship of the proletariat in Gotham City." Terrorists led the mob in Gotham City to establish a short-lived Jacobin regime. "Elysium" firstly refers to the real problems of the United States such as illegal immigration and medical reform, while Bromkamp from South Africa is obviously more sensitive to the unequal international political and economic order than the local director of the United States. Baudrillard To say that the United States is a "realized utopia", this "promised land" "flowing with milk and honey" in the context of Christianity is nothing more than the "blissful space" "after the end of history". And those third world illegal immigrants looking up to the aloof America just want to get the minimum medical guarantee in this "paradise".
Is history over? Is the world "generally homogeneous"? In this so-called "globalization" era, the gap between the North and the South is widening. After destroying the Iron Curtain and overthrowing the Berlin Wall, the developed countries in the West chanted the concept of "human rights above sovereignty" and interfered in the "humanitarian disaster" of other countries; The people of the country ran to their turf. Logically speaking, if "human rights are higher than sovereignty," then there is no reason to prevent people from other countries from crossing the border to improve their living conditions-isn't this also interference in other people's human rights?
The "Elysium Space" was established, but the class struggle continued. Of course, from the operating mechanism of popular culture, once a topic becomes the content of film consumption, it is difficult for us to take it seriously. Under the control of Hollywood, everything is a game.
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