Mandy first recommended me to watch this movie in the forum, and Mary had already written something really wonderful about the concern of environmental problems depicted and suggested in the movie. Now, it comes to my term. My focus will be different from Mary’s. I’d like to mainly talk about the movie itself from the perspective of appreciation. Overall, it’s really a successful movie worth watching. I hope friends here in this forum will also watch it, and then share with us your comments or whatsoever.
As Mary remarked, this is not a scientific fiction, and the vivid high-tech effect seems a little bit exaggerated in the movie. However, what I’ve seen from it most is the glory of “humanity”. It talks about how our human-race reacts in front of the sudden and disastrous weather (storm, hurricane, flood, snow…), and the greatness of humanity is exactly depicted in the process of the hard struggle for survival.
This is a French movie, though with America as its background. Like many other movies, a specific group people have been chosen as the focus to carry along the story. Here it happens to a special family: the father is an expert in weather forecasting, and he has already foretold the coming disaster; the mother is a very consientious doctor, helping a disabled girl to recover from the operation; and the son seems to be a very excellent university student. He comes to attend a question-and-answer competition held in North America for the sake of the girl he has always adored. At that time, practitioners of weather-monitoring all around the world have actually got some bad signs about the coming disaster (such as the dramatically decreasing temperature of water in Atlantic) in advance. All those show the correctness of the hypothesis that the global weather is endangered, which was presented by the father in an international conference. He then goes to the White House immediately to warn the vice-president to do something timely to minimize the harm of the disaster, but has been rejected and ignored. Then the extremely destructive weather really arrived. The son and his fellows (including that girl) are cornered in the public library by the flood that swallows everything in its way. As Mary said, the storyline was sort of predictable. The heroic father together with his two friends comes to rescue his son. They eventually meet and embrace each other with happy smiles. Also, the brave son has won the heart of his girl, as he has endangered himself twice to rescue her... (Once he comes to take her running from the coming flood, and the other time, he comes to the ship to look for the medicine to save her life, as she got hurt accidentally, and the injury got infected and caused a high fever.)…
Obviously, this is all about a story of love, the love between father and son, men and women, the love among peers or friends. When it comes to humanity, there are several occasions really impressive and touching. The glory of humanity appears to be even brighter in front of the huge natural disaster. Take the minor details beyond the main storyline for example, the three colleagues in the monitoring spot in Atlantic even toast to Britain (obvious it’s where they come from) and the entire human race when they know they are going to die, as one of the professors said in the call that they had missed the opportunity to evacuate. (In such icy weather, the early three rescuing helicopters have fallen into the ground killing the pilots, as the gas is frozen.) They are going to die, but still thinking of their family members. The professor looks at the drawing pictures of his grandsons, talking to his black colleague that he regrets for not being able to see them grow up. They are going to devote their lives to the undertaking of the entire human being, and before it, they still pray for those still alive but have to face the disaster both in their own country and all around the world.
Likewise, a colleague of the father almost drops into a shopping center when they come to the North. Looking at the going-to-be-broken windows-pane that could hardly support the weight of them three, he cut off the rope decisively. He has sacrificed himself for the rest of his fellows. His last joking words that “I don’t want to go shopping at the moment” really struck me. Isn’t it sad to let such a humorous and optimistic man die? …Death is most horrible, but not always. Somebody is smiling to die, what behind the beauty smile, as I suppose, is the glory of humanity.
The other touching plot is the mother’s choice of staying with the sick girl in the hospital when being required to evacuate. She doesn’t abandon her patient, as she cannot go with her in the vehicle handy. She just embraces her colleague saying goodbye, waiting for another chance which may not even come at all. From this point, we can see she is really a great mother. She doesn’t only care about her own son, but as doctor, she cherishes whatever life of others. Luckily, somebody finally comes to pick them up. She smiles broadly with tears. I’m truly moved.
The name of is movie is “the day after tomorrow”, which serves as an index of the theme. Looking back to the international conference at the beginning of the movie, there’s an official rejecting to the father’s suggestion on protecting the invulnerable environment. He argues that it costs great deal of money, and the economy is also invulnerable. Afterwards, the son is cornered in the library. He follows his father’s suggestion on the phone, namely, stay inside, burn everything to make warmth. They are staying in a library with so many books. The two librarians reject to burn their beloved books at first, and there’s also one scene that one of the librarians hold an old Bible, saying it represents the beginning of the epoch of civilization of the entire human being. “Civilization” seems to be very ironic in this scene. I’m just wondering what makes so-called civilization, the development of economy in terms of the material world, or the wonderful books in terms of the mental world. All these two kind of civilizations have become insignificance when compared with the serious topic of survival. If there’s no guarantee of our survival, what’s the point of the so-called material or mental civilization? Where is the future, the tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow? This is the theme of the movie. It actually leaves a question for all of us to ponder.
The imaginary story also touches upon the international cooperation in the context of globalization. For one thing, the monitoring spots are all over the world, people of different nationalities are working together for the good will of the entire human race. For the other thing, as the "American President" say in the TV camera that he would like to thank everyone that has helped the Americans, especially those countries in the so-called "third world" (Here refers to Mexico, since they are adjacent to each other.) The entire movie ends with a picture of our mother earth. The message trying to convey is that as human, we should united in the work to protect the environment of the earth, to work together for the mutual tomorrow.
-------- Joan, 10/29/2004 in Sydney
