The American Spectator : 2012

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2012

By James Bowman on 11.24.09 @ 6:02AM

Domestic terrorism, from Roland Emmerich -- and it's a shameless blockbuster.

Not, I hope, to seem too much devoted to my one of my pop-cultural hobbyhorses, but the attraction of apocalypse movies to a mass audience seems to me to be essentially the same as the attraction of superhero movies. Both, that is, are forms of power fantasy designed to appeal to the younger -- and, increasingly, older -- adolescents for whom Hollywood movies are now made by satisfying the urge to be rid both of their feelings of weakness in relation to the adult world and their sense of helplessness under the crushing burden of the past. In Roland Emmerich's 2012 the frisson of excitement as we watch the collapse and utter destruction of the Washington Monument, the Vatican, the White House and (as you will have seen on the posters) the Art Deco Cristo Redentor that overlooks Rio de Janeiro cannot be unrelated to a general sense of relief at seeing the symbols of Western civilization at last deprived by raw nature of their power to intimidate.

If the monuments of other cultures than our own may be supposed to suffer a similar fate in the global cataclysm the German-born Mr. Emmerich so enjoys imagining, we don't get to see them going down. But, then, Arab or Chinese or African youths presumably wouldn't feel quite the same liberating effect that our own do on seeing the glories of the past washed away by gigantic tsunamis. Mr. Emmerich has exploited this vision of hobbledehoy heaven before in movies like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, so he has plenty of experience with the formulae for cinematic apocalypse. He just has to put together the destruction of all that history-book bunk with some conspiracy theory and a few isolated nerds with an interest in non-Christian prophecy who know the truth but are regarded as crazy by the rest of the world. "We Were Warned" is the movie's tagline -- though I don't remember being warned of this.

The final element of the formula is an incongruous sentimentality about a broken family's being drawn together again by their efforts to escape the general doom. John Cusack plays Jackson Curtis, or possibly Curtis Jackson, author of a widely disregarded book about Atlantis that in some vague way may or may not be among the alleged warnings. Jackson is a divorced dad whose efforts to rescue his two young children (Liam James and Morgan Lily) from the fate of 99 percent of the earth's population generously takes in both his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and her new husband (Tom McCarthy), the chances of whose sudden removal from the scene are obviously excellent. The result caters to the childish wish to be free and powerful at the same time that one is contained and nurtured. And the boy also gets to help dad save a fifth of the post-Apocalyptic world's population by being disobedient. No wonder 2012 did $65 million of business on its opening weekend, a preponderance of that immense sum having come from those whose discretionary income comes in the form of an allowance.

The formula is also meant to remind those who like to be thought of as "media savvy" that this is, like so many others these days, essentially a movie about movies -- which is why it comes as no surprise when we are told that its geological Armageddon is "going to start in Hollywood." This is one of many little in-jokes -- like having an Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalike on TV reassuring the people of California that all is under control as the hero says: "The guy's an actor; he's reading from a script." Who cares that Governor Schwarzenegger will be out of office in 2012? This kind of thing also helps to remind us of the formula, since we know that, in the movies, conspiracy-theorists are as often right as they are often wrong in real life. Where would we be without such classic lines of the genre as this: "All our scientific advances, all our modern machines, but the Mayans saw this coming thousands of years ago."

Likewise, Oliver Platt's de facto political leader of the small remnant of Americans -- after Danny Glover's saintly President goes willingly to share the fate of the rest of his people -- muses wonderingly: "The nut bags with their cardboard signs had it right all along" That's the classic paradigm of the Hollywood holocaust and a necessary precondition for making a hero of the high school nerd, now a grown up but girlfriendless geologist, Adrian (Chiwetel Ejiofor). No prizes for guessing the purpose of Thandie Newton as the daughter of the martyred president, now that, in spite of Adrian's warnings, almost the whole world has been wiped out. The clichés of situation and dialogue help to reinforce our sense that the allegedly spectacular computer-generated imagery of collapsing skyscrapers, bucking and heaving mountain ranges or the Pacific Plate's cracking loose along the San Andreas fault and tipping into the ocean like a cascade of giant ice cubes are by now clichés as well. The latter may not have been portrayed before, but the technology of the kid-movie made it inevitable that it would be sooner or later.

This movie's politics are adolescent too, though of course that's no liability these days, given that our national politics are also dominated by fantasy. The oriental wisdom of the Chinese grandma who agrees to take on the party containing our heroes when they are stranded in the Himalayas about sums it up: "We are all children of the Earth. We will take them all." This prefigures the same decision, after the urgings of hero Adrian on the TV monitor in his Chinese-built ark. "The moment when we stop fighting for each other, that's when we lose our humanity," he says. "Everybody out there has died in vain if we start our future with an act of cruelty." Remind you of anything? Of course, everyone advises that opening the gates of the ark to the locals who are understandably unhappy to have been excluded will lead to disaster but, equally of course, it doesn't. As in Obamaland, it seems, politics never presents us with any hard choices. Being nice and kind and moral and unselfish comes without any cost -- at least to our heroes.

For what it's worth, parents ought to be aware that allowing their children to attend the latest propaganda effort on behalf of such fashionable one-worldism will also expose them to a certain amount of -- mostly implicit -- anti-Americanism. The collapse of the Washington Monument, along with so much else, doesn't come untinged with malice. It's also interesting that the land of "can-do" only a generation or so ago is now more like the "pitiful helpless giant" of Richard Nixon's nightmare. When the remnant of humanity -- and a Noah's ark sampling of animals -- has to be herded into movie's own, apocalypse-proof arks, it's Chinese engineering, not American, that proves equal to the task. "Leave it to the Chinese," says somebody. "I didn't think we could do it in the time available." That sounds to me like a self-fulfilling prophecy. For a start, all our best technical talent has given up working on military hardware and is now concentrating on computer-generated imagery.

About the Author

James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (36) | Leave a comment

Appleby| 11.24.09 @ 7:03AM

I read Lucifers Hammer years ago, in which a giant asteroid smashes into the Pacific Ocean and predictable trouble happens. One thing I remember was a man whose response was joy. He was, you see, just about to be caught in a Madoff-type scheme, and now he was safe.

Back in May I lost my job and one thing I took comfort in was all the crapola that I would now not have to do.

There is no great loss, said Granny, without some small gain.

Bydand76| 11.24.09 @ 7:23AM

That was agreat book.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

They wrote Footfall as well.

That was about the elephant like aliens who smash some asteroids into our planet to make it more adaptable for their own enviroment.

Hmmmmm.

Bill H| 11.24.09 @ 9:25AM

In Footfall, the aliens used the asteroids to "soften us up" during the invasion.

The best part of the book was when the environmentalist character realized that development of (space) technology was the only way to "save the planet" and ends up drowning the reporter who was going to break the story of the atomic bomb powered space battleship to fight the aliens in a toilet.

Appleby| 11.24.09 @ 9:38AM

Larry Niven can't write characters for sour apples, but his science and engineering take on disaster is fascinating. Although the little scene in Lucifer's Hammer in which he shows ghettomeisters looting White neighourhoods and just piling up the haul of loot when the asteroid strikes ....

Other examples of irony: Brave New World assumes that Indian Reservations will still be sinkholes no matter what the rest of the world becomes; and Arthur C. Clarke's book 2081, purporting to predict the world 100 years from the date he wrote it, assumes that the African continent will still be a pesthole. (Of course he also assumes that people will still consider a deep tan to be a mark of wealth and leisure, and that everyone will smoke.)

Tim| 11.24.09 @ 11:35AM

What were the aliens doing in the toilet?

Adam Smith| 11.25.09 @ 3:09AM

Read them both as well and enjoyed them.

Just wish they were about 5oo pages longer. Decent sci fi is hard to come by.

Bydand76| 11.25.09 @ 5:29AM

Yeah I agree,

Good Sci Fi is getting harder to find and it seems that they always develop into some type of super mega series where if you dont start at the beginning you are totally lost as to whats going on.

Another really good book by LN and JP was Legacy of Herot. Although it wasnt a disaster theme and more of a monster type aliens book it was really good.

The Mote in Gods Eye was by far their best effort though. The sequel "The Gripping hand wasnt as good but still there best to date. The story and the Aliens were really well thought out!

Really good storytelling.

Cpm| 11.24.09 @ 9:36AM

I Was Warned - not to see this movie the first time I saw the trailer.

Howard| 11.24.09 @ 10:17AM

It seems that Emmerich's movies get worse each time a new one is released. I thought that Independence Day was fun. Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow were garbage. I wonder if there is a scene in this new movie of a Golden Retriever barely escaping some calamity. Nothing like being Politically Correct and reusing things such as ideas.

Speedbump| 11.24.09 @ 10:47AM

Howard, I agree with you...while Independence Day had holes you could drive a Mack truck through, I could still enjoy the movie...since then his movies have gotten to the point where 2012 was an insult to my intelligence...I was warned, but I went to see it anyway...

Tim| 11.24.09 @ 11:38AM

According to one review I read, the Golden Retriever in 2012 is a chicken.

Brian B| 11.24.09 @ 10:40AM

--If the monuments of other cultures than our own may be supposed to suffer a similar fate in the global cataclysm the German-born Mr. Emmerich so enjoys imagining, we don't get to see them going down. But, then, Arab or Chinese or African youths presumably wouldn't feel quite the same liberating effect that our own do on seeing the glories of the past washed away by gigantic tsunamis.--

The reality is a little more prosaic, at least regarding the Religion of Peace.
Mr. Emmerich and his head writer, after considering the portrayal of the destruction of Mecca, decided prudence was the better part of valor in avoiding a fatwa on their brave, calculating heads.
Blowing up cristo is safe and lucrative (at least in this life).
Alas their art apparently isn't quite worth blowing up the Kaaba.

Clintidote| 11.24.09 @ 10:53PM

When some director finally destroys Mecca, I'll cough up the movie cash to see it. It's long past time for Allah and his defective death cult to die.

There's your sequel, Roland - get on it.

Seek| 11.24.09 @ 11:48AM

Oh, lay back and enjoy the astounding CGI effects. It's only a movie, for Christ's sake (not Muhammed's though).

The German-born Emmerich did "The Patriot," starring Mel Gibson, did he not? Would an anti-American do that? Yeesh.

Tim| 11.24.09 @ 2:10PM

Truly. A more plausible plot might involve the destruction of America by an avalanche of debt, but there'd be no cool CGI stuff.

PacRim Jim| 11.24.09 @ 1:46PM

Emmerich did Stargate and Independence Day, so his sci-fi bona fides are impeccable.

Jack Olson| 11.24.09 @ 2:52PM

I never thought of it before, but Bowman has pointed out a strange fact. Many recent disaster movies do involve broken up families. I cite "Day After Tomorrow", "Dante's Peak", "Deep Impact", "Twister" and the "War of the Worlds" remake which starred Tom Cruise. I have seen four productions of the sinking of the Titanic. All but the Nazi German one (yes, they made one) included subplots of adultery or at least unfaithful lovers like the one played by Kate Winslet. I recognize that a disaster movie can't just star the earthquake, volcano or meteor. The drama of the Titanic sinking is about the people who live and die, not the ship. But, it does surprise me how many of the subplots involve divorced people. I guess it's easier to write a dramatic subplot about divorced people than married ones.

Carpenter| 11.24.09 @ 3:00PM

Since I don't pretend to any intellect, I don't have to argue the merits of Ingmar Bergman films, and prefer lightweight Woody Allen Bergman parodies like "Love and Death". But there is something distinctly brain-numbing about heavy reliance on CGI in films today. Maybe it started with the blue screens of "Star Wars" so long ago and far away, but moviegoers seem unable to enjoy a film with dialogue or more than a millisecond of inaction. Nothing that can be imagined is now impossible to film, thanks to CGI, and wonderful, thought provoking films like "Two-Lane Blacktop", "Aguirre, Wrath of God" or even "Garden State" scarcely have a chance despite their low budgets.
Too bad...

stargate worlds naquadah | 11.24.09 @ 8:59PM

According to one review I read, the Golden Retriever in 2012 is a chicken.

Tony in Central PA | 11.25.09 @ 12:44PM

Yup, the Mayans saw it coming. We should trust their judgment. Why don't we start cutting out the still- beating hearts of people to avert this cataclysm ?

BK| 11.26.09 @ 3:31AM

We already do that, it is called abortion. Boy, we really know how to learn from history. And will the USA go the way of the Mayans?

Donald Niedospial| 11.25.09 @ 1:50PM

In Roland Emmerich's 2012 he took joy in destroying the symbols of Christianity in the film. He refused to destroy any islamic religious sites because he didn't want to offend the terrorists. I don't think God will follow his hollywood script?

Rich Rostrom| 11.25.09 @ 6:55PM

Tony in Central PA: The Mayans sacrificed their victims by drowning them in "sacred wells". It was the Aztecs who practiced instant cardiectomy.

Mandarin Chinese Online| 11.28.09 @ 5:07AM

nothing is impossible to a willing heart!

electronic| 11.30.09 @ 4:20AM

nothing is impossible to a willing heart!

kolef| 4.7.10 @ 1:43AM

thanks you very much for
This movie's politics are adolescent too, though of course that's no liability these days, given that our national politics are also dominated by fantasy.

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Back in May I lost my job and one thing I took comfort in was all the crapola that I would now not have to do.

There is no great loss, said Granny, without some small gain. Review HDTV

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