COMM 380:  Media Criticism

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Elysium, a 2013 film by Neill Blomkamp, gives viewers an image of the world in the year 2154, in which

Earth is suffering from overpopulation, extreme pollution, and general widespread poverty and sickness.  To escape this reality, the wealthy of the Earth have created a high-tech space colony named Elysium. Matt Damon stars as Max Da Costa, a reformed criminal scrambling for survival and redemption in a desolate, futuristic Los Angeles inhabited by as many Latin Americans as robots.

 

The film, while often falling victim to common tropes of hyper- masculinity and white heroism, offers a succinct critical analysis and evaluation of contemporary class differences and wealth disparities through its portrayal of Elysium and its inhabitants versus those left on planet Earth.

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There are many overt differences between the two societies, but the most obvious indication of wealth disparities between Elysium and Earth is the physical imagery of the locations and inhabitants themselves. Los Angeles in 2154 is presented in shades of brown: the sky is tinted by pollution, the streets are dusty, the homes are covered in grime, and the inhabitants wear layers of soot and ratty clothes.

 

The residents of Elysium, on the other hand, enjoy serene blue skies and scenic parks, clad in futuristic suits and kept coifs. The Los Angelinos are portrayed as extremely hardworking but stuck in cycles of poverty, while the residents of Elysium have leisure time as seen in the parks and in Secretary of Defense Claire Delacourt’s small reception at the start of the film. Even the children are representative of the differences, with Elysium’s shown as clean and happy, receiving gifts and kisses from their loved ones. The children on Earth, however, struggle with literacy and are forced to shoulder the burdens of a failing society. The portrayals of health care, a central theme of the film, show Elysium’s futuristic “med bay” that can cure virtually any ailment contrasted with Earth’s crude, aging, and understaffed hospitals.

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The aforementioned disparities are obvious to the casual viewer of the film, but Blomkamp continues to add more subtle indicators of social class throughout the movie. Delacourt’s use of the French language mixed throughout her accented-English clearly paints her as educated, cultured, and elite. It’s in clear contrast to the slang Spanish spoken by the residents of Los Angeles in their daily conversations. Even Frey Santiago, the childhood sweetheart of Da Costa played by Alice Braga, and the nuns at the orphanage converse completely in Spanish, indicating that the language use is ethnic and not acquired or learned.

 

This is a reflection of the contemporary socio- linguistic hierarchy in which the Spanish spoken in America is belittled as one that belongs in the lower rungs of society while French is the coveted language of artistic expression and high society (Train, 2000). The twist that Blomkamp offers is that the Spanish speaking characters are more likable and humanized, as in the scene when Da Costa is trapped in the radiation chamber and his coworkers struggle to save him, or when friends shout greetings and jokes to each other in the streets of Los Angeles. Delacourt’s French, on the other hand, is cutting and haughty, turning the hierarchy on its head so that interpersonal relationships and humanity are valued more than whatever the elite have to offer.

 

There is also a subtle exploration of the relationship between religiosity within different classes as well. Da Costa and Santiago are raised in an orphanage and receive wisdom from the nuns who run it. That Christianity has endured throughout the centuries and into this impoverished wasteland is not only testament to the enduring impact of faith for human beings, but also illustrates the significance religion can have on the impoverished that has been seen throughout history.

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A Gallup poll from 2010 found that religiosity is highest in the world’s poorest nations, as it plays a “functional role”, offering the masses a way out, a better future (Crabtree, 2010). As Rose Pacatte writes in her article, Out of this World, Da Costa represents a Jesus-like figure, a savior to the lower class and in opposition to the wealthy oppressors (2013).

 

In contrast, Elysium is godless. Both Delacourt and Armadyne Corp CEO John Carlyle, played by William Fichtner, live and kill without consequence. Delacourt, portrayed expertly by Jodie Foster, is a power-hungry character that sees herself as the only defense between sustaining Elysium and complete destruction. With all the technology available to her, she needs no god. In fact, the only mention of God in Elysium at all is when President Patel yells “God Damnit!” at a closing door towards the climax of the film.

 

 

The movie itself is not overtly religious; the nuns are depicted as nurturers rather than engaging in proselytism, and calling Delacourt a heathen is a paltry indictment. It does, however, engage in the idea that religion, or at least a spiritual background, can make those from the lower classes morally stronger, empowering them to make tough sacrifices like Da Costa does at the end of the film.

 

Finally, Blomkamp offers a biting criticism of the role of capitalism and worker exploitation in wealth disparities. CNBC’s Senior Editor John Carney analyzed the economics of the film and described “a failing private sector characterized by high unemployment and unprofitable businesses in both places” (2014).

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Carlyle, the human embodiment of the commercial enterprise, is seen as a ruthless businessman who runs an uncompassionate factory manufacturing the robots that police the Earth and serve the residents of Elysium. The irony is that the workers are manufacturing the tools of the system that oppresses them. Carlyle’s warehouse functions under unsafe conditions and he pursues the goal of raising profits with ruthless tunnel vision, observing his workers from an elevated, soundproof booth.

 

Workers are seen as disposable and many remarks are made about how they are “lucky to have the job” in the first place. Carlyle’s calculated cold-heartedness is seen when Da Costa is in the factory’s small infirmary, and advises the floor supervisor to make sure that he doesn’t get the sheets messy if his skin melts off. While this cruelty is obviously an exaggeration of that which exists in contemporary corporations, it indicates that despite our technological advances, society may be moving backwards in terms of exploitation and abuse of the working class to a form of neo-slavery.

 

The relationship between the government and corporations is especially daunting because it is very similar to the modern military-industrial complex in America with defense-contractors actively fueling global war efforts to drive profits.

 

In conclusion, through his use of imagery, language, religion, and corporations, Blomkamp takes the audience through a journey of futuristic class differences. Not quite a mirror-reflection of modern society but one exaggerated to show the heightened consequences, Elysium is as much a warning as it is a form of entertainment. Its fatal flaw, however, is the excessive display of masculinity through the characters of Da Costa and Kruger played by Sharlto Copley. The fight scenes and gun violence portrayed in the film obviously give it mass market appeal and hit a target demographic, but also risk pushing it into the genre of a pure action film rather than a socio-political drama.

 

Another interesting aspect of the movie that may detract from the film’s message is the casting of Damon as Da Costa. Damon is Caucasian and, although he speaks Spanish, sticks out in the scenes of Los Angeles in the movie. It doesn’t make much sense for practically the only white character in the movie to be the main hero—Diego Luna, who is cast as Da Costa’s best friend, could have easily played the same role.

 

Despite effectively portraying many consequences of an extreme wealth disparity, Elysium missed the mark when it came to its unnecessary white masculinity.

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Works Cited
Blomkamp, N., Block, B., Kinberg, S., Damon, M., Foster, J., Copley, S., Braga, A., ... Sony Pictures Home

Entertainment (Firm),. (2013). Elysium.

Carney, J. (2014, January 04). The real story of the economics of 'Elysium' Retrieved November 01, 2016, from

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/01/03/the-real-story-of-the-economics-of-elysium.html

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Crabtree, S. (2010, August 31). Religiosity Highest in World's Poorest Nations. Retrieved November 01, 2016, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/142727/Religiosity-Highest-World-Poorest-Nations.aspx

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Pacatte, R. (2013, December). Out of this world. U.S. Catholic, 78(12), 40-41. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from Religion Database.

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Train, R. W. (2000). Getting past the ideology of “the language”: The standardization of french and spanish, and its implications in foreign-language pedagogy (Order No. 9979837).