MovieChat Forums > Contagion (2011) Discussion > despicable message, what we're supposed ...

despicable message, what we're supposed to understand


In this day and age, when alternative media are gaining ground and proving the hypocrisy of institutionalised media, the movie demonises alternative media. I know that the internet is a vast area where incorrectness is more prevalent than accuracy, but at least alternative news media do not purport to have the monopoly of truth. So I wonder if the movie wants us to think that what we see in news channels is more honest, more truthful than what bloggers, youtubers, twitters and facebookers, for example, show. It’s legitimate to ask why that should be so. Big news channels are the ones benefitting from large budgets, and people who allocate these budgets have the “right” to interfere with the message/ the news these channels broadcast, let alone other types of different agendas. Today, many important news channels are even incorporating programmes dedicated to what is going on in the net as a form of recognition of its importance and its appeal to viewers. The idea of denigrating alternative media works well for originality, but I think if presented seriously as a message it becomes less defendable.

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Lets be honest here, the film is showing that both sides can be stupid idiots at time.

CDC for covering up and it come bite them in the ass.

The crackpot for creating fake cures to make money which in turn makes the virus spread.

Overall of the story? don't blame anyone and get on to do what's right. no sides are righteous here, it is the fault of human nature.

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Ah, it's despicable to believe that scientist might be right and bloggers might be wrong. Lovely.
Look, you really need to consider Jude Law's character arc in this film. At the beginning where he gets hold of the video of the Japanese man's death and sees the potential for a pandemic, he's very perceptive, and he's right. He's obviously passionate about what he's doing, and concerned about the spreading disease. But passion and concern don't equal being correct. When he takes the alternative medicine treatment, I think he genuinely believes it will cure him. But then he start to become arrogant and corrupted by his own self-belief. Look at the television interview/debate: he'd already decided that all the scientists and pharmaceutical companies in the world were evil and only trying to make money and so had absolutely no interest in listening to what Fishburne's character had to say. And when the fact that he'd never had the disease is presented to him, he becomes more vehement in his beliefs and in his opposition to the vaccine. This last part is actually an excellent thing to include, because it's something that has been shown to be very common and is well studied in psychology. When an individual is shown that a belief they held as centrally important to them is in fact wrong, it can make them hold closer to that belief as it's psychologically easier to build a higher wall around that belief than to dismantle it and replace it with the truth. The fact that Jude Law's character does this is very true to life. The point of all this being that his character starts with a good concern, moves to an incorrect belief about it, and doubles down on that incorrect belief to the detriment of those who listen to him.

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All you need to know is that if something similar would take place, your life means nothing. It's that simple.

Anyways a virus/disease like that would be something sorely needed to cull the population of humans.

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They make it seem like CDC made a mistake by calling H1N1 a pandemic too early and urging everyone to take vaccine.

This time in the movie CDC/WHO got bashed for keeping it secret. The movie wanted to show that WHO is without fault and that whatever they do they get bashed even though they are heroes.

But the CDC/WHO wasnt bashed for simply calling H1N1 a dangerous pandemic they got bashed because they jumped the gun to help the pharmaceutical companies make billions. The scale of propaganda and scare during H1N1 season was really beyond crazy. They went so far as to say people who didnt take vaccine was a danger to the rest of society.

It also caused alot of controversies that politicians got a different brand of vaccine then the general public.

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It isn't presented as a message, it's about this one guy who happens to be an *beep* The thing is that us, the viewers, believe his crap with no evidence, for no reason other than BECAUSE it's alternative media. So really, it's only calling us out on rooting for the little man, even though they can be just as corrupted.

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I see the crackpots hate this movie because it show them for what they are and show the damage they can do.
The Mainstream Media is far from perfect, but the Alternative Media is even worse.

I'll Teach You To Laugh At Something's That's Funny
Homer Simpson

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Alternative media? You mean infowars, veterans today, beforeitsnews and all those other garbage conspiracy sites that think 9/11 was an inside job, Sandy Hook was a hoax, Monsanto is poisoning us and the elite are spraying chemtrails everywhere? Give me a break. Jude Law's character was the epitome of alternative media - arrogant fear mongering, snake oil salesmen.

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This is a pretty shortsighted view. Lots of people lie in this movie. It shows that in a crisis, people will protect their own self-interests. Some will strive for money or fame; others will do whatever it takes to protect their loved ones; some will simply save to save face and make it look as though they are still in control. You can't focus on a single person; you have to look at the whole movie.

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Most "alternative media" is absolute junk. Designed for tin foil hat-wearers and the poorly educated.

It usually pushes extreme views and allows people to stay on confirmation bias bubbles.

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