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Blindness (DVD)
Year: 2009
Rating: MA
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo
Distributor: Roadshow
The Film: 3.5
The Disc: 2.5
A terrifying film that's all exploration, no explanation, Blindness is a stark look at the basic human traits which go out the window when one of the most essential senses - sight - is lost. The outbreak of a mysterious virus which sends people blind leads the government to isolate its first victims, fearing further spread. Those infected are thrown into a concentration camp-like quarantine station, where two opposing sides quickly emerge, violently fighting for survival in their increasingly dirty, squalid, and volatile surrounds. All the while, the audience is kept in the dark and given absolutely no explanation whatsoever as to what the disease is, why all this is happening, or why there is only one woman (played by Julianne Moore) who is immune to the blindness. Meanwhile, the fact that one mildly deranged man (Gael Garcia Bernal) has a gun will have dire consequences for all involved...
Based on the novel by Jose Saramago, and from the director of City Of God and The Constant Gardener, Blindness presents this escalating, chaotic situation as a microcosm for humanity, and its tendencies towards cruelty and tyranny. While the storyline is not entirely original, it has been given a horrifying new angle, with everyone eerily zombie-like due to their lack of sight.
The characters have no names, perhaps suggesting that intimacy must be forged on much less superficial qualities, and ironically, the film is visually impressive at every turn. Initially drenched in a bland, whitewash-effect, Blindness soon becomes ruled by graphic, vivid scenes, often shot in near darkness to instil the same panic in the audience as a group of blind people cooped up with a perverted, gun-wielding maniac. The imaginative cinematography, and the film's refusal to dwell on complicated scenes attempting to scientifically clarify the situation, are two of its major strengths. With uncompromising gusto, Blindness launches straight into action - it's often so relentlessly gritty and intense that you won't believe your eyes.
Disappointingly slight in terms of special features, Blindness comes with a making-of doco titled "A Vision Of Blindness", as well as five deleted scenes. For such a strange and compelling film, a little more insight would have been more than welcome.