6. 28 Weeks Later Is A Statement On Surveillance Culture
Michel Foucault is a very smart man. No duh - he's a philosopher and he's French. That's the double whammy. Most of his best-known theories focus on the relationship between power and knowledge, and how institutions use both to wield control over society. So, like, people who know things that you don't know find it easier to keep you in your place. Makes sense? Maybe it'd be easier to get your head around with an example. Such as, for example, 28 Weeks Later, the somewhat disappointing follow-up to Danny Boyle's iconic not-a-zombie movie. Throwing out all the characters of the first movie and placing Juan Carlos Fresnadillo in the director's chair, it's a very different film from the original. What it lacks in the slower pace it doesn't lose out on in terms of social satire, though. In 28 Days Later it was the military state when the state doesn't exist; with a Focuault angle, 28 Weeks Later is that state being reinstated, and instantly returning humanity to the surveillance culture the audience is used to. Pretty deep for a movie with, well, this scene.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
