The Happening (2008)
Mar. 17th, 2012 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveWatched “The Happening” (2008) , a film by M. Night Shyamalan , a good if flawed piece of environmental science fiction.
It was a bit naff in parts , but enjoyable nonetheless. Atmospheric in parts where the mood of the film: is a tantalising, sometimes frustrating parable about the menaces that human beings might face from unexpected quarters, drawing especial attention to "the sound of the breeze and the sight of it ruffling the trees or blowing across the grass, and an image of tension that calls to mind Antonioni's Blowup.
The Happening has also attracted academic attention. Joseph J. Foy, professor of politics and popular culture, describes Shyamalan's film as an expression of "post-environmentalism" in which traditional paradigmatic politics are replaced with a call for the world to "embrace a revolutionary re-evaluation of wealth and prosperity not in terms of monetary net worth or material possessions, but in terms of overall well-being". Foy praises the highly complex narrative in which Shyamalan weaves contemporary environmental challenges with hard science and social theory to create a "nightmarish future that... may advance the type of dialogue that can truly change the cultural conversation".
It was a bit naff in parts , but enjoyable nonetheless. Atmospheric in parts where the mood of the film: is a tantalising, sometimes frustrating parable about the menaces that human beings might face from unexpected quarters, drawing especial attention to "the sound of the breeze and the sight of it ruffling the trees or blowing across the grass, and an image of tension that calls to mind Antonioni's Blowup.
The Happening has also attracted academic attention. Joseph J. Foy, professor of politics and popular culture, describes Shyamalan's film as an expression of "post-environmentalism" in which traditional paradigmatic politics are replaced with a call for the world to "embrace a revolutionary re-evaluation of wealth and prosperity not in terms of monetary net worth or material possessions, but in terms of overall well-being". Foy praises the highly complex narrative in which Shyamalan weaves contemporary environmental challenges with hard science and social theory to create a "nightmarish future that... may advance the type of dialogue that can truly change the cultural conversation".
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