By Lindsey Schibelhut, Staff Reporter.
What would it be like to live in a utopian society where equality and sameness is heralded above all else? Where war has been eradicated and being politically correct reigns? Where the elders (leaders) know your every move and word? These are some of the Orwellian themes explored in the movie “The Giver.”Based on the classic novel by Lois Lowry (1993), “The Giver” tells the story of a boy named Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) who lives in a dystopic society. The community in which he lives is grey and everyone lives in same styled homes and ride same styled bikes (no cars). The neighborhoods are spied on by elders via drones and cameras throughout the city, even inside their own homes. Their emotions are suppressed by daily injections in their wrists so that there is no anger. The community maintains a blissful ignorance to past memories, which have been eradicated in order to maintain control
Jonas is given the task by the elders to become the “Receiver of Memories”, so he can assist elders when they seek wisdom. However, when he begins to see the world for what it once was before the “sameness”, he journeys into the unknown in order to restore the memories back to the whole community.
Beautifully filmed in black and white for the first half hour or so, the film flows seamlessly into color as Jonas finally starts to see the world as it should be, while undergoing his receiver training. The black and white filter gives a haunting look into a society that isn’t allowed to have individualism. Everyone dresses the same, talks the same and even claps the same.
The story is brought to life with an all-star cast consisting of Jeff Bridges who plays The Giver, Meryl Streep who plays the Chief Elder, and newcomer Brenton Thwaites, who plays Jonas.
While the story of “The Giver” is now 21-years-old, the subject matter couldn’t be anymore relevant. Following in similar genres of movies such as “The Hunger Games Trilogy” and “Divergent”, The Giver gives a different take into the downfall of a society whose government has been corrupted by the need to control it’s people through suppressing their emotions.
We live in a world where drones are a reality, where being spied on by your government via the NSA (National Security Agency) has been exposed by people such as Edward Snowden, and where politically correct speech is only growing more rampant. The question is whether stories such as “The Giver” are fantasy-imitating life? Or is life now imitating fantasy?
The decision we have in our lifetime is: Do we want to live in the type of society depicted in the film? With the insight Jonas garners through his receiver training, the answer to that question for him is: No.
The Giver is a movie not to be missed; it explores the moral and ethical dilemmas of our time. By attaining a utopian society, the community lost what made it unique, what made it beautiful and lost the emotions that ultimately made them feel the essence of humanity.
