Ignorance is Bliss

I had been hearing good things about the new film "Knowing" starring Nicholas Cage that just came out in theaters, plus one of my friends really wanted to see this film, so last week we went to a late showing of it. I thought maybe it would be kind of a silly film (you have to admit, the trailer makes it look kind of that way), and I was pretty excited because I like Nicholas Cage, in silly films (National Treasure!) or good films (Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, he actually has quite a few good ones). About half an hour into the film, you realize that this movie is anything but light-hearted and silly entertainment (National Treasure it is not). Suffice it to say, the movie freaked me out, but the more I reflect on it, the more I am convinced that this is one of the better movies in theaters right now, and certainly it is pretty good science fiction. If you are going to stop reading know b/c of spoilers, let me say that I agree with Roger Ebert that this film deserves four stars, and Nicholas Cage is wonderful in it (he had me in tears in the end during a scene with his son).

SPOILERS! Lots of plot information follows--you have been warned (and seriously, you probably should be warned about this film, because it is pretty scary in my opinion--but then I get scared easily)

Anyway, maybe it is because I was born after the fear of nuclear war was pretty much over, but I have never seen a movie that ends in the almost complete annihilation of the human race. Usually almost everybody makes it off the planet to start a new civilization (exception, Battlestar Galactica, although they still manage to save a hefty number of people). Just to give away the ending of "Knowing" at the beginning of the post, they don't manage to save nearly this many (I'm guessing they end up saving about twenty children to restart on another planet).

The film starts off with a creepy girl staring at the sun, and the whole prologue is eerie. Then the movie progresses to the present day, the kid finds the paper with the numbers on it, Nicholas Cage figures out what they mean, etc. Then freaky parts just keep coming. There are strange men dressed all in black with gaunt faces and bleached blond hair who just keep popping up in rooms and outside windows with little black stones to hand out. My friend did not find this creepy, but one of the main conventions for horror films, and in general that are scary to the human mind is the appearance of something in an empty space where nothing had been before (think that overused trope where someone is looking in a mirror, bends down, and when they stand up there is someone behind them).

Next come the actual scenes of destruction. Let me tell you, these are not for the squeamish. Reality doesn't really come into play (after a plane crashes and blows up, how would there still be people running from it). That's not the point. The point is that it is horrible to watch, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. I have never seen a plane crash done like this, and with all the planes that seem to have been going down recently, it was almost too close to home for me (not to mention the explosions that engulfed people running and screaming from the wreckage).

I'll try not to go into too much more detail because I do think this movie is worth seeing, even though it is one of the more disturbing films I've seen in awhile. Children are haunted by "whisper people" who seem menacing throughout the film, but have secrets of their own. Probably one of the most frightening aspects of the film is that, unlike many disaster/sci-fi movies, there is nothing that Nicholas Cage can do to halt the events of the film. The ending is inevitable. Human beings like to feel like they are in control of their own destiny, and can change things if they try hard enough. This film has a debate going about pre-determinism versus chance, and what's in control of the fate of the world (if anything). I've heard that this is based on the book of Ezekiel, and that might be, but then again they might be aliens (or aliens are what the book is based on...it gets confusing and you basically have to make up your own mind).

All this being said, (BIGGEST SPOILER) the film ends with the death of virtually all humans, except those lucky few who are taken by the aliens to another planet. It was simply shocking--usually they find a way to save most of humanity. I am assuming that there were more films like this around the time of the Cold War, when the threat of complete destruction was at the forefront of many peoples minds, and it seems to me that the current war, tension and political atmosphere is again making a stand in film (although science fiction is always the best place to find this, and is why that is one of the best genres of film that you can watch).

This film is definitely worth the time, despite what some critics are saying, and the special effects are amazing, and deserve to be seen on the big screen, which always does movies like this the most justice.