Blindness

The HyWy and I saw a movie on Sunday night called Blindness starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, and Danny Glover. 

What a movie it was.  It was an incredibly intense movie that takes a long and hard look at the presence or lack of morality and compassion in people particularly in times of despair.  The root plot was similar to 28 Days Later, I Am Legend, or Children of Men where a global epidemic causes mass panic.  However, there were subtle yet significant differences as this movie did not focus on the ailment (blindness in this case), cause, or search for a cure.  Instead it focuses on the lives of afflicted who have been relegated to a former mental hospital, because the disease is contagious.  What unfolds really reminded me of the Stanford Prison Experiment mostly because it showed how an individual's morality can really be pushed.  At one point the HyWy said that what made this movie so difficult was that there was no hope, but I disagreed.  I drew hope from the fact that despite the tremendous evils put forth by many of those in captivity, the rest of the society, and the government there were some in captivity whose ethical code was unwavering.  The movie also did a good job of showing how relationships can blossom or suffer in trying times.  Julianne Moore's character for whatever reason was immune to the disease, but she went along with her husband to the internment camp pretending to be blind.  In the camp it quickly became apparent that her inability to relate to his suffering and his inability to relate to her own suffering distanced them in their relationship.  Most of all I felt for Julianne Moore's character, because she could see the pain people were going through.  As people realized she could see she was somewhat unwillingly thrown into a leadership position or even that of a messiah.  What scared me most though about the movie was not that people could shift their morality, but rather that inhumanity and lack of compassion of the government is very reminiscent of real life today.