Joseph Losey's These Are The Damned is perhaps one of the most unique films to come out of the Hammer catalog - a film that manages to defy typical genre conventions, being both a disturbing apocalyptic science fiction story as well as a story about teen rebellion and personal freedom. The film is centered around Simon Wells, an American whose visiting England in an attempt to getaway. Simon meets Joan, a beautiful young woman, and the two have an instant connection, but unfortunately Joan's older brother King, the leader of a street gang, has other plans. Attacked, Simon is left serious hurt, eventually being aided by the local authorities and a high-ranking government researcher, Bernard, who waxes poetic about 'the age of senseless violence' they now live in. Living under the oppressive control of her older brother, Joan is sick of being controlled, eventually managing to escape King's grasp and track down Simon in order to seek forgiveness. The two are eventually discovered by King and his gang, but this time while escaping they end up stumbling onto the grounds of a top secret research facility run by Bernard, eventually discovering a group of strange, cold-blooded children who've been genetically engineered to survive a nuclear war. These Are The Damned blends begins with two very distinct narrative storylines, ultimately blending them to create a fascinating indictment of modern times where violence is simple viewed as an inevitability. There is an interesting dichotomy between thse two narratives that eventually merge, with the street gang’ s penchant for violence and oppression directly speaking to what the Bernard is trying to achieve at his facility, creating human beings strong enough to survive the worst aspects of man, which in this case would be nuclear war. What’s interesting is how through his research he has become just as, if not more oppressive, having these genetically-modified children completely segregated from the outside world. While there is no question that Losey’s larger critique is simply about humanity’s penchant for violence and destruction, the film also does raise interesting ideas as it pertains to censorship, blending the two narratives to do it. For those unfamiliar, Joseph Losey’s films tend to be some of the most uniquely photographed films that exist, with These Are The Damned is no different, as the filmmaker delivers another stylistically impressive film, full of well-placed camera movements, forced perspectives, and sweeping photography which gives the film a truly uncommon look and feel. Bernard’s character is essentially a mad scientist whose become so fearful of humanities inevitable destruction that he has created this radioactive children, convinced that evolving the human species is the only way to assure survival in this time of such violence. Bernard isn’t a character that is painted in a particularly good light by the end of the film, but he is the character most responsible for helping make These Are The Damned statement about the state of humanity. Unique, fascinating, and one-of-a-kind, Joseph Losey’s These Are The Damned is a sci-fi apocalypse oddity, which speaks to the violent nature of man.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|