Contagion. Scary word. Frightening idea. Horrifying reality in world history. The human population of the planet has gone through:
- Bubonic Plague - the very name of this one sends shivers down the spine
- Smallpox - killed millions
- Polio [my maternal grandfather survived polio]
- Measels [I had this as a child - can remember my mom and dad taking turns being home from work to care for me]
- Yellow Fever, Scarlet Fever, Typhoid, Cholera
- Flu - the 1918 Influenza Pandemic killed tens of millions
- in modern times: SARS, Aids, H-1-N-1
And what about scary special pathogens like Ebola, Lassa, Marburg and others? Makes me never want to go into a cave in the heart of Africa, ever.
So. Why did I go see the new movie "Contagion?" It has to do with my enjoyment of the thriller/mystery novel genre. In
1995 an exciting and terrifying book came out: The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston. From the website:
"...The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story in depth, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their outbreaks in the human race. From a remote African cave hot with Ebola virus, to an airplane over Africa that is carrying a sick passenger who dissolves into a human virus bomb, to the confines of a Biosafety Level 4 military lab where scientists risk their lives studying lethal substances that could kill them quickly and horribly, The Hot Zone describes situations that a few years ago would have been taken for science fiction...."
Wouldn't you want to read this if you were a fan of thrilling adventure and dangerous human endeavors? I've since read it many times and constantly hope it never, ever comes to pass again.
So, when I came across the movie, "Outbreak," starring Dustin Hoffman, Renee Russo, Morgan Freeman, Donald Sutherland and others, I just had to see it and add it to my collection. Yes it's a rather simple story but the actors made it enjoyable "thriller" entertainment. It again was the whole idea of global pandemic but this time made into a bottle show by isolating it in a small coastal California town. It had drama and action and I even loved the bit of improv [that's what I read somewhere] Hoffman did in the scene with the little girl about his nose. Oh and there was witty dialogue too. In other words, it was a complete story.
Now to my movie review of Contagion. Saw it yesterday and came away dissatisfied. It also has a big cast including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law and others. This one was not a bottle show because the killer microbe began to circle the globe and casualties began to climb quite high. However this movie was not a complete story. It's my opinion as a viewer that the writer and director weren't quite sure whether they were going for a thriller movie or a pseudo-documentory.
The story is told in bits and pieces. And it doesn't finish certain story lines and doesn't give enough information about others. And it gives a pretty inaccurate view of bloggers and blogging. Again, just my opinion as a viewer. On that point, do I think that a blog can be "journalistic?" Of course. The Huffington Post is a blog and there are bloggers out there who do what I did as an actual journalist when I worked at a newspaper and was paid to write:
- have an idea for an article
- do research and investigation
- write the article either as objectively as possible, or write it as an opinion piece
Difference is that bloggers [normally] aren't paid. However, in this movie I found the emphasis on the crooked blogger [that's how this character came across to me] to be unbalanced.
What happened to the Kate Winslet character, Dr. Erin Mears of the CDC? It was kind of unclear as to whether she had THE virus or a really bad case of the flu [after all the blogger guy didn't have it]...and did she die or get better? Also, where did that kidnapping in China storyline originate? That happened too quickly without enough story around it.
So why are folks going to see this movie? I think people are interested in stories like this because of the whole "what if" thing: what if a new virus were to break out? What if it went global? What would happen?
There were no stellar preformances in this movie and no witty dialogue. One of my favorite actors, Laurence Fishburne, was wasted in this role. Many of the roles were very one dimensional which was too bad. Okay, drumroll: how many stars do I give it? Out of 5 I give it a 2.5. I will not be purchasing this one to add to my collection [I only add to my collections those that hit at least a 3 - the writers, directors and producers need to make me care about the story as a whole].
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