Our first essay...

After watching the introduction of the film 'Children of Men' numerous times, it was time to write an analysis of it! Here is my first shot at a Media Studies essay...


Analysis of Children of Men


‘Children of Men’ is set in London, in the year 2027. London appears to be represented in a negative way. Rather than a positive representation of the advanced, modern London that you would expect to see in 2027 we are shown a dark, gloomy, polluted, miserable city with only a few ‘modcons’ such as motorised rickshaws and moving advertisements on buses. The modernised rickshaw could also represent the mass immigration which appears to be a strong them in the film from the start, as rickshaws are normally associated with India. We are shown this gloomy city through the usage off very dark, grey lighting with little colour visible on the set. Pollution in London seems to be high as there is a lot of smog surrounding the cars and buses on the street. The only colour we see is the red of break lights and buses, this may be because many see the colour red as the colour of death and drama, this could be representing what is going to happen later in the film. Also in the streets of London we see piles of rubbish bags, many more than we see today. This indicates to the audience that people have no pride in keeping their streets clean, and also indicates that society may be in meltdown as the rubbish is just being left in the streets rather than being collected.

In the film, with it being of the action genre, we assume we will see a ‘hero’ type character in the opening scene. However we see instead ‘Theo’, who we believe to be the main character as the camera follows, and concentrates on him. He does not seem to be an obvious hero, with grubby, tatty clothes, and he appears to have little authority at work, having to ask his boss to leave the office to go home. Therefore the only reason we believe him to be the main character is due to camera following him. In the film women seem to have equality with men and appear to be represented in a similar way until we go into Theo’s office, where all the women are crying over the death of ‘baby Diego’ whereas the men do not appear to be overly affected by it.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the lighting in the opening of the film is very dark, with the use of greys and dark colours giving the illusion of a miserable, gloomy atmosphere, except for the juxtaposition of the red that is seen in the break lights and on the buses. The camera work in the opening of the film is very slow, using long shots, which does not give the impression of an action film. However this changes when the bomb explodes in the coffee shop as the camera pans one hundred and eighty degrees round Theo, moving back away from the explosion with him, until Theo goes out of shot and the camera zooms quickly into the explosion. The use of sound in the opening of the film is very minimal. After hearing the news report at the beginning we hear very little sound until Theo leaves the café and we hear music coming from the television which is violins playing to pictures and videos of ‘baby Diego’. I think the minimal use of music is purposeful to give the illusion of mystery.

The opening of the film leaves you wanting more, it makes the audience interested to know what is going on due to its bizarre concepts. For example, that ‘the youngest man in the world has died’, and also we see a bomb going off in a coffee shop and Theo acts as if this is normal. All of this leaves us intrigued as to what is happening and therefore we want to continue watching the film.

In my opinion the target audience for this film is men aged around sixteen and over. I do not think the audience is affected by lifestyle or financial situation as I think all men are attracted to it due it being of the action genre. I also think some women, perhaps women between twenty five to forty, due to the infertility storyline and baby Diego.

I think ‘Children of Men’ gives the message to society about how London will be in 2027, and if it will be how the film represents it. If it will, are we pleased with how London will end up, or would we want to prevent it getting like that?

‘Children of Men’ was made by Universal Pictures. I think this will attract viewers because people will trust Universal to make good films as they are well known. Due to the size and income of the company they will have a big budget, so the film should have good quality sets, editing, special effects and actors.