Elysium is an American science fiction action thriller starring Jodie Foster and Matt Damon. The film is set majorly in two places a space habitat named Elysium and ruined Earth. Elysium is set in the year 2154, where a small number of populace resides on a lavish space habitat while the rest, a majority dwell in an earth ravaged by pollution, disease, and overpopulation. The main character, Max (Matt Damon) has grown up on earth watching the Elysium from his Los Angeles neighborhood where he works in the Armadyne Corp, a company that makes the Elysium ammunition and police robots. He resides in a society that is rigged against impoverished. The character is used in the film to help advance the class and social inequality themes. The storyline of the film constructs and challenges these themes, which are synonymous with the current Australian society (Blomkamp, 2013).
Social inequality is constructed in the film in various ways. The two prime settings in the film (earth and Elysium) posit the disparity between the poor and the wealthy. The earth hosts a great number of impoverished individuals that are denied access to social amenities such as health facilities. Max, the lead actor’s radiation accident at the plant captures the deplorable condition of health facilities on earth. Max’s treatment can only found in the Elysium, which predominantly sets the basis of the film’s plot and storyline. Matilda, a Leukemia patient, is also another case of an earth resident that lacks access to proper health care due to the social inequality.
The residents of the planet earth are further subjected to pollution, unjust law enforcement system characterized with brutality. The police robots are shown in the film indiscriminately making arrests in the earth streets. Innocent people are sentenced by automated systems administered by droids. This is in contrast to the Elysium where the wealthy minority enjoy lavish lifestyle with no intrusion from the police robots. The strict immigration laws set by the Elysium seek to construct and advance the social inequality theme. The earth residents are barred from attaining citizenship due to their impoverished backgrounds. The Secretary of Defense of the Elysium habitat even goes to the extent of shooting down a caravan transporting illegal immigrants to the medical bays in Elysium. The social inequality further prompts the main character to sacrifice his own life in order to ensure all citizens of the earth and Elysium attain the same social status. This would translate to a just society, which is achieved as many sick earth residents in the end access same healthcare facilities as the Elysium residents. Max actions eventually challenge social inequality theme.
Social inequality and class issues presented in the film capture the situation in the modern Australian society. The Australian society is capitalistic and materialistic at the same time where there is a vast majority that is poor and a wealthy few. A few individuals dominating and controlling major resources, characterize the Australian society. The minority dominate most of the places of authority (Leigh & Durand, 2013, p.43). The society is further materialist because it is stratified into two: the ruling elite and the subjects. The ruling elite lives in lavish lifestyle as compared to the majority that struggles to survive. The majority is exploited by the minority in terms of labor and control and ownership of production factors.
Reference List
Blomkamp, N. (Director). 2013. Elysium [Motion picture]. United States: Media Rights Capital.
Dowd, J.J. 2010 “Understanding Social mobility through the movies” in Sutherland, J. And Feltey, K. (eds.) Cinematic Sociology: Social Life in Film. Pine Forge Press,, Thousand Oaks. Pp. 3646.
Eschholz, S., Bufkin, J., and J.Long 2002 “ Symbolic Reality Bites: Women and Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Modern Film” in Sociological Spectrum, Vol 22 (3): Pp 299-334
Henslin, J., Possamai, A and A. PossamaiInesedy (2013) Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach, Pearson Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW.
Leigh, M. K., & Durand, K. K. 2013. Marxism and the movies: Critical essays on class struggle in the cinema.
Sutherland, J. A., & Feltey, K. (Eds.). 2012. Cinematic Sociology: Social Life in Film. Sage.
