Today sees the UK DVD release of a highly acclaimed film from director Alfonso Cuarón which includes a clear homage to Pink Floyd. "Children Of Men", which has just opened in movie theatres in the US, is a stunning look at the world in a possible near future. BD contributor Stephen Humphries has taken a close look at the film...

I've just returned from one of the best movies I've ever seen. Ever. "Children of Men" made virtually every film critics' top 10 lists here in the US, so I went to see it. It's one of the most powerful movies I've ever seen and it shook me to the core. If you read our previous news story about this brilliant, yet bleak, movie about a dystopian future, you'll know that it includes a distinct homage to Floyd in it.

This is one to see inside a cinema. You want to be so completely sucked into the world director Alfonso Cuarón has created and not have any distractions while watching it. The movie is set in 2027 and describes a world without children.

Women across the world have become infertile and science is a loss to explain it. The world has descended into anarchy and only Britain remains relatively sane because it has imposed totalitarian rule and become a police state. It also rounds up illegal aliens who are pouring into the country seeking refuge. Clive Owen discovers a young African woman who miraculously has been impregnated and has to spirit her out of the country. Cuarón's vision of such a dystopian future is so complete, down to the minutest detail, that he makes it utterly believable. Because mankind has no future, men rely on their basest instincts for survival.

In thinking about the movie -- which borrows imagery from, variously, the war-torn guerilla warfare on the streets of Baghdad, the July 7 tube bombings, the holocaust, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo -- I think I understand why it resonates the way it does. The warfare we see between men in the movie is happening on a smaller scale now -- whether its rounding up illegal aliens because they're an "other" or whether it's war between tribes in Iraq or Somalia. It mirrors how divided mankind is today between classes, race, nationality and even gender. Men don't see the bigger picture, that we're all part of one race. All part of the same species. Men only see the differences between us and it's what divides the world so.

The marvel of "Children of Men" is that this theme and message is so subtle that it's only after the film is over that one parses out its meaning. Lesser filmmakers would have hit viewers on the head with such a message. Or made it a sentimental one.

In sum, well worth seeing -- including for the Floyd bit...

MORE INFORMATION/ORDERING THE DVD:

The trailer for the film can be found through this link.

The film recieved its official premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 30th, and with the exception of the UK (opened on September 22nd), the US (January 5th), and Denmark (January 12th) it hit all regions of the world in October and November. To buy the DVD of the film, use these special links: Amazon UK, or Amazon Germany.