Children of Men

Children of Men, currently in theaters, uses many cliches of the action/adventure drama about the reluctant hero and his eventual passionate engagement in the mission forced upon him, but the social commentary and powerful imagery will leave you pondering scenes in this film long after you leave the theater.

The film is set in Britain in 2027. Heavily armed Homeland Security forces are perpetually rounding up illegal immigrants and putting them in camps. Their processing is portrayed as cross between post 9/11 airport security and entry into a Nazi concentration camp. A large chunk of the film takes place in lawless urban wasteland that has a number of parallels to present-day Iraqi cities outside the Green Zone, and harkens back to British occupation of Northern Ireland. The British forces try to keep order amongst an intimidated non-British population living in squalor, whilst also battling terrorists and heavily-armed sectarian groups. I worry that the portrayal of security forces here is much like the vision present day Iraqis have of occupying coalition armies. One U.S government poll found that 90 percent of young Iraqis view the U.S. "as an occupying force." If so, our enterprise there is doomed.