'Chaos with a conscience'
2004-05-28 07:58
Los Angeles - When the real world is filled with war, desperation and terror, The Day After Tomorrow could have turned out like a barbecue in the middle of a forest fire.
But director Roland Emmerich, whose disaster movie wipes out earth's northern hemisphere, describes his weather-run-amok story as chaos with a conscience. Unchecked pollution will cause havoc with earth's natural balance, he says, so ordinary people need to start being more responsible.
"It says to be a little more concerned about what we're doing to our environment, to think about tomorrow," Emmerich said, adding with a smile: "And the day after."
Despite the movie's fantastical science, Emmerich's logic has been embraced by former Vice President Al Gore and numerous environmental groups and scientists as a way to invigorate the public on the issue of global pollution.
The director's city-smashing has not always had such noble aspirations.
In 1996, he had alien invaders detonate the White House and the Empire State Building like Fourth of July fireworks in Independence Day. In 1998 he allowed Godzilla to trash New York City like Motley Crue at the Holiday Inn.
'Done with sensitivity'
Disaster used to be good fun in those days. Armageddon and Deep Impact pummelled continents with asteroids, Volcano scorched the self-obsessed residents of Los Angeles, President Harrison Ford fist-fought terrorists on Air Force One, and Titanic tested whether young love could survive an uncomfortable sinking feeling.
It's a whopping understatement to say that catastrophe ceased to be so entertaining after real planes crashed, real buildings fell and real people died by the thousands on September 11, 2001.
"I think something like Independence Day, I wouldn't do today," the German-born Emmerich said. "You cannot so innocently blow up buildings anymore."
But he says you can still cause havoc - as long as it's done with a sensitivity to what the audience wants to see, or NOT see. It also helps that the villain here is not human - it's hubris, by way of Mother Nature.
Only two characters actually die on camera - one is instantaneously frozen solid, and another is whacked by a flying billboard. Emmerich's theory: Audiences don't want to see the human cost of realistic disaster.
'Right or wrong choices'
"I think if we showed it the people would say, 'Ugh ...,"' the director said, scrunching his face in mock disgust and waving his hands in front of his face. "There's a couple close-up shots of people panicking and falling in the water, but it's not necessary to get the idea across, seeing people die."
Dennis Quaid is an environmental scientist who risks his life to rescue his teenage son, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Sela Ward is a doctor who must choose whether to stay behind with a cancer-stricken child. Kenneth Walsh is the Dick Cheney-lookalike vice president who dismisses the initial scientific findings.
Some of the imagery was crafted to avoid comparisons to September 11.
For instance, tornadoes tear off the corners or sides of buildings, but no buildings fall. "I didn't want to see it, and I thought it would be bad taste," Emmerich said.
He was nervous about devastating New York with a superstorm, but decided that he wanted to reflect the camaraderie and goodwill that the city's residents displayed in the face of real calamity.
"It's not just a disaster in New York, but also the people surviving this disaster. There's nobody looting, there's nobody being a bad guy," Emmerich said. "Just people making the right or wrong choices."
- SAPA