CIN 3110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Joseph Gandy, Apocalypse, Britishness
16 Jun 2018
School
Department
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Professor
The History of British Cinema Class 10
Apocalypse genre and its popularity.
• Why do we like to think about the end of the world?
Different kinds of apocalypse
• 28 Days Later – really fast. Based on speed and intensity. The rage virus. How it depicts
this very rapid apocalyptic event
• children of men – slow apocalypse. Film defined by waiting. Everyone’s waiting for the
end.
• Why do these filmmakers depict apocalypses in very different ways?
Apocalypse – the breakdown of society as way to think about British National Identity
• Focus on familiar architectural and topographical landmarks.
• Sense by depicting these familiar sites. By stripping away what we know, we reflect upon
the familiar markers of British-ness.
Pleasures of apocalypse:
• Apocalypse is the dominant genre of popular culture right now. Why? What do we get
out of it? Why the compulsion to imagine the end?
• We need to be aware that there is a long history of apocalyptic thinking – dates back to
the Bible with Revelation. The end times, the sheep and the goats are sorted into
appropriate categories. Time of fundamental judgement.
• Lost trappings of religious worldview in our society, and yet we retain from that biblical
thinking the idea of fundamental ultimate judgements. We see in absolute terms the value
of things.
• Widespread popular genre over the 18th and 19th centuries.
o “The Bank of England in Ruins” by Joseph Gandy. Depicting the heart of
England’s demise. As ruined ancient Greek or Roman city.
o Connection between apocalyptic thinking and modern life
o War of the Worlds: Wiping the slate clean. Stripping current institutions and
speculating other alternatives.
o Apocalypse is not just about blowing stuff up, but it’s also about dissolving the
unquestioned, habitual systems of value by which we live (like the bank of
England) which have become part of our reality.
• Poses existential questions
• The nature of mankind.
• Strips away all the inauthentic trappings of society. Evaluates relationship between
humans and the natural environment
• Bare human existence in unadorned natural world. Fundamental questions are
enabled by blowing everything up.
• 28: both have differing dispositions towards other characters they meet. They have
two basic responses to a situation, two different visions of human nature. Jim and
Selena are fundamentally different versions of human nature
• Children: the conceptual conceit is stopping human fertility. Slowly waiting for the
dwindling of human existence on the planet.
o Fundamental human experiences – key is being pregnant.
o What exact value does the production of new life have? What is the point?
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Different kinds of apocalypse: 28 days later really fast. How it depicts this very rapid apocalyptic event: children of men slow apocalypse. Apocalypse the breakdown of society as way to think about british national identity: focus on familiar architectural and topographical landmarks, sense by depicting these familiar sites. By stripping away what we know, we reflect upon the familiar markers of british-ness. Pleasures of apocalypse: apocalypse is the dominant genre of popular culture right now. Why the compulsion to imagine the end: we need to be aware that there is a long history of apocalyptic thinking dates back to the bible with revelation. The end times, the sheep and the goats are sorted into appropriate categories. Time of fundamental judgement: lost trappings of religious worldview in our society, and yet we retain from that biblical thinking the idea of fundamental ultimate judgements.
