This article contains spoilers For “28 years later”.
As part of the press tour for the release of “28 years later”, director Danny Boyle A creator of Tik Tok asked to make a blind ranking of his own five favorite films he made. Although the director was set up to select “28 years later” for first place, Boyle swerved in a different direction and chose “Millions” instead, the film he made in 2004 between the two two science fiction punch / punch of “28 days later” and “Sunshine”. Although some commentators on social networks find this confusing choice, it is not at all rare that an artist appreciates a work which is generally in view or underestimated. In some cases, it is almost self-promotion, the artist highlighting something which, according to them, has not been given.
In the case of Boyle and “Millions”, however, the filmmaker’s affection for the film is particularly authentic, and nowhere more apparent than a vision of his latest film. Boyle is an author, of course, and therefore there are many stylistic tics and thematic threads that connects all his films and are part of a coherent filmography. However, while “28 years later” is a series of “28 days later” of Boyle and presents elements that appear in many of his other films, it is “Millions” that the film seems to have the most common. Because Boyle’s work on “Millions” is truly underestimated, the aspects of this one that return in “28 years later” are welcome. In fact, it is these qualities that the two films share which help make “28 years later” one of the most unique and remarkable post-apocalyptic horror films ever made.
The religious foundations of millions and 28 years later
From the start of his career, Danny Boyle was also able to play with gender conventions as much as he manipulates the rhythm and tone of a film. As such, the majority of his films are either gender mash-ups or unique in their approach. “Millions” is no exception, because while the reputation he has is largely a gentle family film, his intrigue is essentially rooted in the film Noir, and it is something like “a simple plan” by Sam Raimi (or the beginnings of a boyle “,” Shallow serious “) but with children with wide -eyed eyes instead of Jadés. Elder Anthony (Lewis Owen McGibbon) fell on a bag full of money by playing near the railways in their industrial suburban city. to look for her, putting Damian’s plan to give as well as the life of her family and family in danger.
One of the most remarkable things about “millions” is how he treats Damian Catholicism with respect. In another film, his insistence to give money to others or to use it for other charities would be mocked, and the boy’s faith would probably be demented in the process. “Millions”, however, is not Catholic propaganda – the film depicts Damian’s version of faith, not that of the institution. Boyle and the screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce explore how the vision of the world of Damian affects everything around him, a boyle inserting fantasy cuts and thefts like other examples.
The same thing can be said for characters “28 years later”, because Spike (Alfie Williams) is part of an isolated community on a remote island, which seems to have established a faith in the branching of their own Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Spike is intended to be a hunter. Where “millions” positions Damien’s faith as a positive motivation force, “28 years later” questions the rigid beliefs of the island, especially when a man who lives in the continent that Jamie and others have considered a dangerous lunatic, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), is discovered by Spike as a kind and intelligent man who simply found his own spirituality.
Millions and 28 years later explore the maturity of a boy in a grainy world
Basically, “Millions” and “28 years later” mature, and even if the first is a little more traditional than the second, the two are deeply and strongly felt. This is because Boyle, Cotrell Boyce and “Years” the writer Alex Garland present their young protagonists with the traps of life without punching. Yes, “millions” in sugar sugar these lessons a little in the form of the fantasies and visions of Damian de Damian, but Boyle cannot help bringing an advantage to this fairy tale as external signs; In the way in which the return fantasies induced by the heroine (Ewan McGregor) in “Trainspotting” were slowly perverse, the visions of Damian in “Millions” are perversely soft. In accordance with this sense of subversion, one could say that “millions” are in fact not a film by majority, insofar as Damian does not undergo a huge change during the film. Although he has an alarm clock regarding stolen money and that causing more harm than good, his faith is ultimately rewarded, with his feeling of charity, which leads to built wells to help the depleted communities living in Africa.
The way of the boy to man is much harder and more traditional in “28 years later”, but it is also tenderly touching as “millions” by making years “the film zombie post-apocalyptic rare in which you can have a cathartic cry. Again, the feeling of Boyle’s subversion is at stake; Where in another film, the clearly sensitive peak would reject the insistence of his father to be trained as a killer, Spike comes to understand the value of power survive in a hard world of the infected, but always rejects Jamie (and the village) patriarchal and not very concerned with those who needed it. Given the end of the film cliffhanger (and a direct follow -up film that will be released in January of next year), Spike’s maturation is very likely to start. However, the “years” feel complete enough to judge it tied with the “millions” and its life lessons.
The most direct parallel between the two films is that Damian and Spike must undergo the loss of their mother. For Damian, the real event occurred out of screen before meeting him, but the boy’s visions indicate how his loss affected him and his family. Conversely, Spike must endure the slow decline of his mother Isla (Jodie Comer), who does not die from the rabies virus but rather from cancer. While Boyle fortunately did not have to undergo such an incident as a boy himself, he was raised by A devout Catholic mother who wanted him to become a priestA life he obviously rejected. This can be the heart of the fluid boyle tones in his films, in particular these two; There are higher powers, and there is a harsh reality, and both must find a way to coexist. In Danny Boyle’s cinema, they certainly do it.
