In a world where every form of human emotion is forbidden, an enforcement officer known as Preston responsible for implementing the law, decides to rebel against it.
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In a world filled with Flora and fauna, Humans, ideas and whatever can define the existence of everything, the common thing that connects all of these is emotions. Indeed, we do fall in love with living things as well as the inanimates. And in case of humans, feelings for one another is the key characteristic in terms of attachment and bonds.
But what if, the ability of sense is destroyed or stopped temporarily in humans? Won’t it create some drastic positive changes in the evolution? Yes, indeed but humans with no emotions shall be considered as machines or robots operated by a supreme. And after all, it is we humans who own the greed of possessing the unimaginable as life travels through the tunnels.
Directed by Kurt Wimmer, Equilibrium is more like a structured movie that borrows most of its ideas from dystopian classics. It truly expresses the dilemma of post World War III, which was caused, because people felt too immense, according to the story. To persuade world peace and the survival of the human race, everyone has been put on obligatory doses of Prozium, a drug that reduces the emotions and shuts down the senses. In the movie, enforcers known as Clerics have the mandate to execute those who hold the ability of sense and emotions, or in other words, are considered Sense Offenders.
Christian Bale stars in “Equilibrium,” as Cleric John Preston, associated with Partridge (Sean Bean) as a top-level enforcer. The unsentimental appearance in the face of disgraceful provocation can’t be identified better than Bale, and he proves it here after his own wife is incinerated for Sense Offenses. Preston’s duties bring him into contact with Mary O’Brien (Emily Watson). He knows, to feel at all is the offense. Knowing that, but remembering Mary, he deliberately stops taking his Prozium doses to learn the hidden truth and end up the evil dictatorship.
The most provocative scenario in the whole film infact are all those moments when Preston can be seen fighting with self controlling his emotions at the same time while absconding the doses. In a much closer perspective, the film comprises of strong psychological speeches, and amazing fight scenes that have some unique tactics known as “Gun-Kata”, which is a form of martial arts based on guns. The action scenes are full of energy, vibrant light, noise, and amazing moves.
At some point we come to know the rebel group in “Equilibrium” preserves art and music and we are reminded of Bradbury and Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451,” where book lovers committed proscribed volumes to memory. One is tempted to look kindly upon “Equilibrium” and assume thought control can’t happen in real life, but somehow it can, and in fact it is useful to have an action picture in which the Sense Offenders are the good guys.