The Island
released 2005
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“The Island” is an American, scifi, adventure, action, thriller film produced by Michael Bay, Ian Bryce, Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes. It was directed by Michael Bay and written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and it stars a very large cast of talented actors that include Ewan Mcgregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ethan Phillips, Brian Stepanek, Noa Tishby, Siobhan Flynn, Troy Blendell, Jamie McBride, Kevin McCorkle, Gary Nickens, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Richard Whiten, Gonzalo Menendez, Kim Coates and many more.

The Island IMDb webpage

“The Island” is a story that has been told many times in scifi. The themes are good ones and old in our culture. It is the story of Lincoln Six Echo, played by Ewan McGregor. He is a member of a seemingly utopian colony of healthy people who are told that the world outside is polluted and deadly. He begins to question his environment and realizes that he is in a kind of prison or more precisely a kind of people farm. It is a gilded cage but a cage nonetheless. He soon finds that behind the reality of this gilded cage are terrible secrets and he decides to flee with his love interest.

This is a well made movie done by movie company DreamWorks Pictures which is known for making good quality films and founded by some of Hollywood´s greatest talents. It is important to note that the creators of a 1979 film called “Parts: The Clonus Horror” claims the movie idea was taken from them but who knows? I only mention this because Hollywood is known for stealing ideas and works from people. In some cases it´s legally borrowed or bought but in some cases it isn´t and that´s just so wrong. Needless to say, “The Island” is a great movie with so much great talent, well made and all.

So many movies, literature, blogs and other art forms have explored the various themes in this movie. Take for example “Surrogates” where a person lives a more reckless life in another body that can be easily replaced, “Logan´s Run” where a person´s lifespan is dictated by society and not nature, “Never Let Me Go” where cloned people are raised to be so their body organs can be used for parts in a society that has complete control over their lives. “The Matrix” which we all know the storyline to. And the list goes on.

Indirectly, you can even say that Shakespeare´s play “The Tempest” lightly touches this topic where the protagonist Prospero is exiled for dabbling in things he rightfully should not have been. Using magic to turn people into animals might sound like a funny joke to us in the modern age but it was just as serious a transgression as people using cloned people for organs or various forms of slavery. Keep in mind that in Shakespeare´s day it was a calorie based economy where all work was done by people or beasts of burden and not machines. So, you really have to understand their paranoia and disgust at Prospero´s antics.

The lessons of this film and films like it are still incredibly relevant today. It´s the themes of slavery, the harvesting of others, the rights of humankind among others.

“The Island” is a good movie worth the watch. So, check it out folks and enjoy.

John Ink2Quill

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