Released in 2011, Contagion is a movie about how society
reacts to a virus, MEV-1, that quickly becomes a global pandemic. Internet exploration
tells me that Scott Z. Burns, the writer of the story, was fascinated with the transmission
of infectious disease. He extensively researched how societies deal with epidemics
by contacting health organizations such as the CDC. Diseases like Spanish Influenza
and Malaria have certainly made their mark throughout the history of mankind,
causing more casualties than wars and threatening entire populations. It was
only three years ago that Swine Flu threatened our society for the second time since
causing damage in 1976, a reality that makes this Sci-Fi thriller seem like
non-fiction.
Communities are depicted in an apocalyptic state, robbing
grocery stores and fighting against one another in lines for medications. The
fast rate in which the virus was spreading causes a breakdown of social order
and poses moral dilemmas on the doctors of health organizations. For example, a
member of the CDC informs his wife to leave the city before the public has any knowledge
of quarantine. In hopes of providing a cure to the public fast, another member of
the CDC illegally injects herself with a research vaccine. When an employee of
the WHO has the fate of his village in his hands, he kidnaps and exchanges his colleague
for vaccines. Wouldn't it be fair to say that these morality-questioning examples cause
anxiety in our current culture when we think about the plausibility of the circumstances?
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| A Biological Monster: Micrograph of Smallpox Viruses |
Much of our society opposes extreme governmental control,
yet government agencies are the only hope for survival in Contagion. An anti-government
conspiracy theorist, with a blog, becomes very popular among civilians when he advertises
what he thinks to be a treatment for the virus hidden by the government. As
distrust erupts when he exposes some of their selfish acts, the government is
concerned about this private-sector endorsement of a treatment with zero medical clearance.
Like us, Burns was utterly aware of the consequences of epidemics, and his story
represents potential problems our culture would face in the presence a biological
monster.
You mentioned the anxieties present in the movie, but are there any underlying issues below the surface here? Why would our culture feel so afraid of epidemics? Do epidemics have another symbolic meaning? I'm sure more people have died of heart disease than any of the recent epidemics, yet we are not making movies about heart disease. Why not?
ReplyDeleteTo answer one of Rowena's question,I think we are afraid of epidemics because we are not sure how to handle the situation. These epidemics are caused by fast acting viruses that spread not only through people, but thanks to the 24 hour news cycle through our culture. Whenever a new virus emerges I can guarantee that at least three channels will be devoted to talking about the virus, giving solutions, and giving death counts. And in a lot of movies since September 11th, the focus has been the destruction of our civilization by terrorists. And we have been told that this is a new method that they can use to harm us which causes more anxiety each time something breaks out.
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