Blindness (2008) More at IMDb Pro »

First published by Portuguese writer José Saramago (b: 1922), this adaptation to the cinema screen by City of God (2002) director Fernando Meirelles has made a fine visual metaphorical interpretation of the 1995 novel. The sense of blindness that evolves within society has only perpetuated the climax of the negativity within human nature. This being not so much a race suffering the loss of sight but a race who seems to have lost its way. With this infliction, we see that all are equal in a world of the sightless; there are no comparison, no limitation, no expectation and a definite lack of conviction. We are judged by our action for who we are here, and the atrocities that are seen here being more than a poor reflection on how far the human race has evolved.

Containing a little more depth of soul than your standard apocalyptic movie as Doomsday (2008), for example, and with a social comment in its narrative as worthy as The Exterminating Angel (1962), Blindness has quite possibly taken it further. By adding the equation of the apocalyptic and social comment together, we see that in the realms of life not all things are equal. The forces of nature take control, and the inevitable will, eventually, happen, with sight or without sight, the hierarchy mentality takes place only too quickly, and with this social breakdown, we are then driven to quickly adapt, or succumb to the nature of the beast. This is the premise of Blindness, even if we were to see, in general, we were never so blind as to not see the consequence of our daily action.

Bringing the story together in three stages, we see the slow demise of a society catapulted into fear, paranoia and true blindness; ignorance. Placed together in a makeshift prison and finally released into the world; this is a fable of strength and unity without prejudice, and a wonderful allegory for unification through intolerance, indifference and social decay. Beautifully shot and woven together with more than one viewpoint, it is more than just the blind-leading-the-blind; we see a vision of hope for the Spirit of the human race with its camaraderie and self-discovery.

This is the blunt and uncompromising message that Blindness holds over its audience, psychologically interesting and at times a visually disturbing film of social breakdown and the rebirth of acknowledgment and faith of the human spirit. It may work in theory, but in practice? Try it out; it just may open your eyes.