Equilibrium Review
EQUILIBRIUM (2002) is one of my most favorite Deeply Personals, thus it merits a Deeply Personal film critique. Firstly, look at this list:
a/k/a "Cubic" - Europe
a/k/a "Rebellion" - Japan
a/k/a "Equilibrium - Killer of Emotions" - Germany
You will not find another film quite so well-viewed and beloved. For good reason, mon famille....
In the sprawling fascist city-state of Libria, the Tetragrammaton is like the commie party. Ruled by the "Father" (think Mao, Pot Pol and Saddam Hussein all rolled into one) and with the iron hand of the body of clerics, Libria is a drug-addled place. Not for fun: this drug is meant to turn them all into Vulcans. It eradicates emotional extremes (it does not eradicate emotions completely as has been wrongly stated).
I will say I was offended by the use of the word Tetragrammaton, which in my tradition is the word representing the 72 Names of God, but oh well, it's THE MOVIES! Not theology school!
Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale in his first and only impressive role) is forced to execute his partner, Cleric Partridge, for "sense offense"--Cleric Partridge has been reading Keats (or was it Yeats?--they read the same thing in 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD). Partridge has stopped his drug intake, and he's feeling.
Bad!
Cleric Preston finds his world and acceptance of all things Libria is crumbling. He meets with the resistance, and the results are SLAM! BANG! Better than the comics. And that is the smooth beauty of this action-packed, philosophically charged film that to a degree influenced everything that was to follow.
It had few predecessors, and practically no inspiration or idea-stealing. The closest thing I could ultimately find to compare to EQUILIBRIUM was GATTACA (1997) and LOGAN'S RUN (1976). Both these films are also major genre-establishers.
I got hooked on this because of the fashion. Seriously. But also due to the fact that I also carry the title "cleric", and because we also try to eradicate strong emotions. EQUILIBRIUM explains how that is not possible, unhealthy and at the end of the day, unnatural. From the beautifully slick habit-uniforms worn by the clerics to the "gun katas", a T'ai Ch'i-like martial art of the two-handed gun (all inspiring the dreary SPIRIT a couple years ago), EQUILIBRIUM has it all.
Taye Diggs and Angus MacFadyen are most impressive in their villainous roles, sneering and scene-chewing with the best of the chewers. The martial arts, while quite sparse, are spectacular (MacFadyen is most surprisingly gifted) and the moral-emotional tension never quits until the end.
Well past the end, you will be thinking about this unique, thought-provoking masterpiece--and you'll wonder why they don't usually make them this good.
Equilibrium Overview
Delivering awesome high-tech action in the power-packed style of THE MATRIX and MINORITY REPORT, EQUILIBRIUM stars Christian Bale (REIGN OF FIRE) and Taye Diggs (CHICAGO) in a thrilling look at a future where the only crime is being human! In an attempt to end wars and maintain peace, humankind has outlawed the things that trigger emotion -- literature, music, and art. To uphold the law, a special breed of police is assigned to eliminate all transgressors. But when the top enforcer (Bale) misses a dose of an emotion-blocking drug, he begins to realize that things are not as they seem! Also starring Sean Bean (THE LORD OF THE RINGS) and Emily Watson (RED DRAGON).
Equilibrium Specifications
A broad science fiction thriller in a classic vein, Equilibrium takes a respectable stab at a Fahrenheit 451-like cautionary fable. The story finds Earth's post-World War III humankind in a state of severe emotional repression: If no one feels anything, no one will be inspired by dark passions to attack their neighbors. Writer-director Kurt Wimmer's monochromatic, Metropolis-influenced cityscape provides an excellent backdrop to the heavy-handed mission of John Preston (Christian Bale), a top cop who busts "sense offenders" and crushes sentimental, sensual, and artistic relics from a bygone era. Predictably, Preston becomes intrigued by his victims and that which they die to cherish; he stops taking his mandatory, mood-flattening drug and is even aroused by a doomed prisoner (Emily Watson). Wimmer's wrongheaded martial arts/dueling guns motif is sheer silliness (a battle over a puppy doesn't help), but Equilibrium should be seen for Bale's moving performance as a man shocked back to human feeling. --Tom Keogh
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