Children of Men is a film set in the year 2027 in a chaotic world where humans have not been able to conceive for the past eighteen years. However, there has been a discovery of a miraculously pregnant woman who is being helped by a former activist to transport her to a sanctuary at sea where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humanity. One of the reasons why Children of Men is considered to be a postmodern film is because it has a mixture of genres including sci-fi, documentary, war and action which use a repertoire of elements to clearly indicate to the audience the type of genres the film has. However variation is also used within these genres to explore unique ideas challenging the repetitive conventions of the genres supporting the film to be postmodern for example immigration is explored deeply within the film dwelling away from the repetitive conventions of the genres such as tanks and destruction conventions represented in the war genre.
Another reason why Children of Men is considered to be a postmodern film is because it explorers different forms and types of art including Banksy’s graffiti of the two police men kissing (popular culture), Michelangelo’s sculpture of David (high art), Picasso’s Gurnica (high art) and the reference to the Pink Floyd album (popular culture). What this tells us is that both popular culture (street art, pop music/TV) and high art (fine art, opera/classical music, literature) are equally as important and valid, as equal numbers of each type of art are shown within the film and none are particularly emphasised upon which again considers the film to be postmodern.
Also Children of Men is considered to be postmodern as the film is full of intertextual references a feature of postmodern texts for example the pink pig/ Pink Floyd refers to the film animal farm expressing the idea of communism that in the film Children of Men economic and social activity was controlled by one political party. As we live in a world surrounded by the media to such an extent that texts make frequent references to other texts, spotting these references rewards the audiences cultural capital making the audience feel good about themselves as they were able to identify the reference.
Children of Men is furthermore considered to be a postmodern film as it explorers the idea of ‘the grand narrative’ which are big ideas that cannot be explained why they exist or are happening and this is explored in Children of Men as nor science or religion can explain the issue of human infertility.
Finally Children of Men is considered to be a postmodern film as there is a counter typical ending as
To conclude children of men is considered to be a postmodern film as explorers different concepts and movements through art and the media that bring together a unique group of ideas and theories to try and define the state of affairs in society. It is also considered to be a post modern film as it challenges the modernist theories that existed previously.
