Modern Renditions of “Duck and Cover” Films
Many modern day science fiction movies reflect much of the same “sensuous elaboration” as the films Sontag examined from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Similar to their predecessors, contemporary SF films such as Interstellar, Elysium, and Mad Max all convey a common theme regarding the downfall of the Earth, as we know it. All three of these films represent the possibility of an “earth shattering end to life as we know it,” as described in Imagination of Disaster. The differentiating factor these films have from those of the mid 1900’s is the themes used to instigate the change of Earth. Films from the “duck and cover” era utilized the expansion of nuclear programs in both the United States and the Soviet Union, as a way to take “real world trends and events,” to fuel the “fears and preoccupation of societal, global, or ecological destruction that results in the end of mankind.” Comparatively, modern films utilize the publics concern for climate change, food and water shortage, overpopulation, and …show more content…
Both disasters render Earth uninhabitable and the only possibility to prolong mankind’s existence is by transporting Earth’s population to a new home through a wormhole. The disaster this film uses to stimulate the audience is relatable to the world we live in today. With the rising global temperature, extreme cases of water shortage in regions responsible for the mass production of our world’s foods, and an ever-growing population, there is cause to believe in the possibility of earths downfall due to a blight and dust bowl. A shortage of water would lead to an inability to irrigate the world’s crops, which in turn would lead to the erosion of soil and a possibility for a second Dust Bowl to occur. This alone would be able to drastically alter Earth, let alone with the addition of global crop
Many modern day science fiction movies reflect much of the same “sensuous elaboration” as the films Sontag examined from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Similar to their predecessors, contemporary SF films such as Interstellar, Elysium, and Mad Max all convey a common theme regarding the downfall of the Earth, as we know it. All three of these films represent the possibility of an “earth shattering end to life as we know it,” as described in Imagination of Disaster. The differentiating factor these films have from those of the mid 1900’s is the themes used to instigate the change of Earth. Films from the “duck and cover” era utilized the expansion of nuclear programs in both the United States and the Soviet Union, as a way to take “real world trends and events,” to fuel the “fears and preoccupation of societal, global, or ecological destruction that results in the end of mankind.” Comparatively, modern films utilize the publics concern for climate change, food and water shortage, overpopulation, and …show more content…
Both disasters render Earth uninhabitable and the only possibility to prolong mankind’s existence is by transporting Earth’s population to a new home through a wormhole. The disaster this film uses to stimulate the audience is relatable to the world we live in today. With the rising global temperature, extreme cases of water shortage in regions responsible for the mass production of our world’s foods, and an ever-growing population, there is cause to believe in the possibility of earths downfall due to a blight and dust bowl. A shortage of water would lead to an inability to irrigate the world’s crops, which in turn would lead to the erosion of soil and a possibility for a second Dust Bowl to occur. This alone would be able to drastically alter Earth, let alone with the addition of global crop