Wednesday, May 12, 2010

28 Days Later

The 2003 film, directed by Danny Boyle, won 7 of 21 nominated awards. It begins with animal activists releasing chimpanzees from cages who were being experimented on with a virus that causes rage. 28 days later, Jim, the protagonist in the script, wakes up in an abandoned hospital and beings looking for anyone left in London. After finding a church, Jim runs into two people, Selena and Mark, who bring him up to date about what is going on. This is when we find out that the disease locks its victims into permanate, murderous rage. The infected seek out the uninfected to kill and destroy them. Within 28 days, there are only a handful of survivors, who then try to salvage a future of mankind.
This is a film about survival and heroics. There is also an underlying message of society's savage nature.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Themes and Influences

I have noticed that many of Boyle's works have action in common. They are all criminal or sci-fi theme to them. In Slumdog Millionaire, a Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He is arrested under suspicion of cheating, and while being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers. In 28 Days Later, a disease takes over an entire population turning them into zombies. In order to keep it from spreading and wiping out the entire human species, military takes action by "containing" victims and potential victims. While this is happening we witness a tragic seperation of a family when the mother is infected followed by the dad, leaving the childeren to fend for themselves in hope to survive. Trianspotting is about a group of friends who would rather live in a drug haze than sober. They try sobriety for awhile but after things go wrong they decided life is better high, so they get back on heroin.

Boyle's Major Works

Danny Boyle's major works include Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire. All of these movies eaarned Boyle numerous prestigous awards. Slumdog Millionaire has earned him the most awards by far including eight "Best Director" awards, one of which was obtained at the Academy Awards.
Some of his lesser known works include A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, Millions and Sunshine. These also won some awards, but they were not as major of awards as the ones won for Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire.
All of these films a commonality about them. They are all categorized in either crime thrillers, or sci-fi horrors. My favorite of these movies is 28 Days Later.