So I’ve been venting about this movie ever since I watched it, but then I realised I had the book stashed somewhere in my Tablet. To be honest, the book is better, half way through and I’m glued. The movie is set in the year 2048 where ‘Sameness’ has been adopted to avoid conflicts and war
It is set in a society which is at first presented as a Utopian society but gradually appears more and more dystopian. The movie follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth and thirteenth years of his life. The society has eliminated pain, conflict, differences and strife by converting to “Sameness,” a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Love, sex and emotions have been removed, all members of the society play a given role; giving birth also serves as a job and to have a partner you’d have to apply first and have it approved based on your character traits, maturity and responsibility.
Jonas is selected to inherit the position of Receiver of Memory, the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness (basically our current time where free will is practiced and differences accepted and celebrated), So Jonas was selected to be the receiver of the erased memories via the Giver in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. Jonas learns the truth about his dystopian society and struggles with its weight. The Community lacks any color, memory, climate and terrain whatsoever, all part of Sameness and this emphasizes the dystopian qualities of the Community.
With that being the case, Jonas ventures out on a mission to restore the real world.
My advice, find the book and read it first. When you read a book before you watch the movie you get to direct and produce unique imaginary scenes in your mind, but if you watch the movie 1st then try read the book that’s messed up coz then you have a base to work with, all the scenes in the book will now be linked back to Mr. Spielberg’s imagination… Limiting the stretch of your creativity.
