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December 30, 2005

People Are People

Tonight, we gathered around the hearth that is our widescreen HDTV with digital 5:1 surround sound, myself, the wife, the in-laws, and our two children, one sleeping peacefully and one with the flu, to partake of the 2005 Michael Bay movie "The Island."

After the horror of his movie "Pearl Harbor," I had more or less written off Bay as a CGI-loving hack with an eye for talent akin to the wandering one of Sandy Duncan (and, hey, having one bad eye, I can make such jokes). However, I enjoyed "The Island" more than I had expected to, even if my expectations were due to the rather poor showing at the box office and the teaser trailers that made it look exactly like what it wasn't (e.g. absolute crap).

I've been a fan of Ewan McGregor since 1996's "Brassed Off," to the point of naming my son after him (just kidding, all coincidence, I promise), and - well - Scarlett Johansson is just mighty mighty hot, particularly in futuristic clingy garb that seems all the rage in sci-fi nocturnal emissionary fantasies. My wife would argue that Ewan is a visual treat as well, but, honestly, who the hell cares?

So, yeah, anyway - "The Island."

A fun, action-thriller, quasi-morality play movie with lots of things that explode and moments of humanity that you just know will be mucked up by someone or something.

Points of interest to no one other than myself:

• Ewan McGregor's character is named Lincoln Six Echo. In the movie "Logan's Run," which had a similar plot, Michael York played the protagonist Logan 5. Lincoln Six is like a step up. Or something.

• Lincoln freed the slaves, which is rather the role of McGregor's character, although he does it without being tall, gangly, or assassinated at a play.

• Also of note is that if you convert Six Echo to numerals, using "6" for Six and "5" for Echo (being the fifth letter of the alphabet), you get Lincoln 65, with 1865 being the year in which Lincoln was assassinated and the year in which the American Civil War came to an end.

• The scene in which Lincoln Six Echo (aka Mr. McGregor) struggles to destroy the holographic grid (uh, sorry, spoiler there) is highly reminiscent of a scene from Star Wars in which Obi Wan Kenobi is on a mission to shut down the Death Star's tractor beam.

  You might note that Ewan McGregor also plays Obi Wan Kenobi in the new Star Wars movies. Coincidence? I think not. Or whatever.

  I do get outside sometimes. Honest, I do.

• The evil overlord of the whole operation is named "Dr. Merrick."

  John Merrick is better known as the Elephant Man, and - at least in the movies - said "I am not an animal! I am a human being!" Which is odd, considering that in "The Island," Dr. Merrick is the least human character to which we are exposed.

  No word if Michael Jackson wants to buy his bones. Or bone him. Probably too old anyway.

Now, a point that might interest you (or not, you never can tell with you people and your finicky ways)... Dr. Merrick makes a comment that the clones "have no souls" and thus their treatment as less than human is justified.

Thoughts?

It immediately took me back to a discussion I had with a very-right-leaning Christian friend a few years ago on the topic of human cloning, a conversation during which he asserted, without hesitation, that clones would have no souls.

In essence, because they didn't come about by "godly" ways, they would be denied the opportunity to find favor with God. Let's forget, for the moment, that God is a fairy-tale and far too many of you are compartmentally delusional in that regard.

It struck me as odd, because I have little doubt that a fully cloned human would be - well - fully human. Entitled to the rights we ascribe to our fellow man. No matter what mark they bore or what the law might say, they would be human beings, not chattel for abuse nor ripe for the harvest when one more Red Hook IPA does in my liver.

As a secular atheist with humanist leanings, I simply can't see it any other way.

It scares me to think that some of the God-fearing can and - when the day of human cloning surely arrives - will think that way, happily oppressing human beings who aren't privileged enough to be born of natural blood and cottage cheese and Apgar scores.

So, let me wrap up this somewhat aimless ramble:

• Rent "The Island." Crank up the surround sound.

• Good Christian folk against cloning for whatever reason: what happens when we do have clones? Will they have souls? Will they be human? Just curious.

That's all.

Tags: The Island, Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Star Wars, morality, cloning, Christianity, Abraham Lincoln, Logan's Run, and movies.