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Blindness (film)
Encyclopedia
Blindness is a 2008 English-language film that is an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name
by the Portuguese
writer José Saramago
about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. The film is written by Don McKellar
and directed by Fernando Meirelles
with Julianne Moore
and Mark Ruffalo
as the main characters. Saramago originally refused to sell the rights for a film adaptation, but the producers were able to acquire it with the condition that the film would be set in an unnamed and unrecognizable city. Blindness premiered as the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival
on May 14, 2008, and the film was released in the United States on October 3, 2008.
professional (Yusuke Iseya
) is suddenly struck blind for no apparent reason and blocks all the traffic behind his car. With the honking horns of the other frustrated drivers causing a commotion, the Japanese man is approached by a few concerned people, one of whom (Don McKellar
) offers to drive him home. As they proceed to drive away, the blinded man describes his sudden affliction: an expanse of dazzling white, as though he is "swimming in milk." Eventually they arrive at the Japanese man's upscale apartment, but as soon as he assures his rescuer that he'll be fine waiting there for his wife to come home, the "rescuer" departs with the car keys and steals the vehicle.
Upon arriving home later that evening and noticing her husband's blindness, the Japanese man's wife (Yoshino Kimura) takes him to a local ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo
) who, after testing the man's eyes, can identify nothing wrong with his sight and recommends further evaluation at a hospital. Among the doctor's patients are an old man with a black eye-patch (Danny Glover
), a woman with dark glasses (Alice Braga
), and a young boy (Mitchell Nye
). Later that same evening, the car thief is also struck blind, abandoning the Japanese man's car as he runs down the street.
During a dinner with his loving wife (Julianne Moore
), the doctor discusses the strange case of sudden blindness that hit the Japanese man. Elsewhere in the city, the woman with dark glasses - revealed to be a call-girl - becomes the third victim of the strange blindness after an appointment with a john in a luxury hotel.
The next day, the doctor wakes up to realize that he too has gone blind, which panics him all the more since he may have infected his wife in turn, but she refuses his attempts to keep her at arm's length and promises she will be safe. In various locations around the city, several more citizens are struck blind, causing widespread panic, and the government organizes a quarantine for the blind in a local derelict asylum. When a Hazmat crew arrives to pick up the doctor, his wife climbs into the van with him, lying she has also gone blind in order to accompany him into isolation.
In the asylum, the doctor and his wife are first to arrive and both agree they will keep her sight a secret. Several others arrive: the woman with dark glasses, the Japanese couple, the car thief, and the young boy. At first a fight breaks out between the Japanese man and the man who stole his car, but the doctor pulls them apart and effectively assumes leadership of the ward. The Japanese man is then reunited with his wife, who becomes all but catatonic as a result of her sudden disability. Then the doctor's wife - who continues to remain sighted - comes across the old man with the eye-patch, who describes the condition of the world outside. The sudden blindness, known only as the "White Sickness", is now international, with hundreds of cases being reported every day. Desperate by this point, the totalitarian government resorts to increasingly ruthless measures to try to staunch the epidemic.
In due course, as more and more blind people are crammed into the fetid prison, overcrowding and total lack of any outside support causes the hygiene and living conditions to degrade horrifically in a short time. Soon, the walls and floors are caked in filth and human feces. Anxiety over the availability of food, caused by irregular deliveries, undermine the morale inside. The lack of organization prevents the blind internees from fairly distributing food among each other. The soldiers who guard the asylum become increasingly hostile. The government refuses to allow in basic medicines, so that a simple infection becomes deadly. During one load of new inmates, a man wanders too far away from the group and is killed by the soldiers, along with two other people caught in the crossfire. A shovel is callously tossed over the wall for the corpses to be buried by the blind.
Living conditions degenerate even further when an armed clique of men, led by an ex-barman who declares himself the King of Ward 3 (Gael García Bernal
), gains control over the sparse deliveries of food. The rations are distributed only in exchange for valuables, solely as a humiliation. With the prospect of starvation and the hopelessness of being unable to take care of himself, the doctor turns to the woman with dark glasses in a moment of true weakness, and they have sex. Both regret it afterward and even more so once they hear the doctor's wife speak knowing they were not alone and that she had witnessed most of their tryst. Although the doctor's wife does not really trust her husband again, she still remains to help and in the end she forgives both the woman and her husband. The next day, the King of Ward 3 demands women in exchange for food. One by one, the desperate women volunteer to be sex slaves for the men in ward 3, and the King of Ward 3 rapes the doctor's wife. When the women get back, one of them has been brutally beaten to death by her rapist. Faced with starvation and hell-bent on revenge, the doctor's wife snaps and murders the King of Ward 3 with her scissors. His death initiates a chaotic war between the wards, which culminates with the asylum being burned down. Most of the inmates die in the fire. Only then do the few survivors discover that the military has abandoned their posts. They are free to venture into the city.
But all is squalor and chaos. The entire population is blind amid a city devastated and infested with vermin
and overrun with filth and dead bodies. The doctor's wife leads her husband, the Japanese couple, the old man, the woman with dark glasses and the young boy through the ruined streets in search of food and clean clothes. Everywhere she looks is grim as people squat in derelict buildings and society as she knew it no longer exists. Leaving her friends in the relative safety of an old cafe, she and her husband go to look for food. In a supermarket filled with stumbling blind people, she finds a storeroom stocked with food and packs it into bags. As she prepares to leave and meet her husband outside, she is attacked by the starving people who smell the food she is carrying. Her husband, now used to his blindness, saves her and they manage to return to their friends.
The doctor and his wife with their new "family" eventually make their way back to the house of the doctor, where they establish a permanent home. The doctor's wife has truly forgiven her husband for sleeping with the woman with dark glasses, and in turn makes love to him where he states that when they are together like this, he can really "see" her through his touch. Just as the "family" are becoming accustomed to their new way of life, the Japanese man recovers his sight one morning. This gives the other people hope that their blindness will lift as quickly and inexplicably as it came. As the friends all celebrate, the doctor's wife stands out on the porch, staring up into a white overcast sky and for a moment thinks to herself "I'm going blind", until the video camera shifts downwards, revealing the cityscape before her.
Secondary characters include:
Meirelles chose an international cast. Producer Niv Fichman explained Meirelles' intent: "He was inspired by [Saramago's] great masterwork to create a microcosm of the world. He wanted it cast in a way to represent all of humanity."
were closely guarded by author José Saramago
. Saramago explained, "I always resisted because it's a violent book about social degradation, rape, and I didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands." Director Fernando Meirelles
had wanted to direct a film adaptation in 1997, perceiving it as "an allegory about the fragility of civilization". Saramago originally refused to sell the rights to Meirelles, Whoopi Goldberg
, or Gael García Bernal
. In 1999, producer Niv Fichman and Canadian screenwriter Don McKellar
visited Saramago in the Canary Islands
; Saramago allowed their visit on condition that they not discuss buying the rights. McKellar explained the changes he intended to make from the novel and what the focus would be, and two days later he and Fichman left Saramago's home with the rights. McKellar believed they had succeeded where others had failed because they properly researched Saramago; he was suspicious of the film industry and had therefore resisted other studios' efforts to obtain the rights through large sums of money alone. Conditions set by Saramago were for the film to be set in a country that would not be recognizable to audiences, and that the canine in the novel, the Dog of Tears, should be a big dog.
Meirelles originally envisioned doing the film in Portuguese similar to the novel's original language, but instead directed the film in English, saying, "If you do it in English you can sell it to the whole world and have a bigger audience." Meirelles set the film in a contemporary large city, seemingly under a totalitarian government, as opposed to the novel that he believed took place in the 1940s (actually, the book is more likely to take place in the 60s or later, as evident by the fact that the characters stumble upon a store with modern appliances like microwave ovens and dishwashers). Meirelles chose to make a contemporary film so audiences could relate to the characters. The director also sought a different allegorical approach. He described the novel as "very allegorical, like a fantasy outside of space, outside the world", and he instead took a naturalistic direction in engaging audiences to make the film less "cold."
simplicity". The novel defines its characters by little more than their present actions; doing the same for the adaptation became "an interesting exercise" for McKellar.
McKellar attended a summer camp for the blind as part of his research. He wanted to observe how blind people interacted in groups. He discovered that excessive expositional dialogue, usually frowned upon by writers, was essential for the groups. McKellar cut one of the last lines in the novel from his screenplay: "I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind. Blind but seeing. Blind people who can see, but do not see." McKellar believed viewers would by that point have already have grasped the symbolism and didn't want the script to seem heavy-handed. He also toned down the visual cues in his screenplay, such as the "brilliant milky whiteness" of blindness described in the novel. McKellar knew he wanted a stylistically-adept director and didn't want to be too prescriptive, preferring only to hint at an approach.
as the primary backdrop for Blindness, though scenes were also filmed in Osasco
, Brazil; Guelph
, Ontario
, Canada; and Montevideo
, Uruguay. With all the characters aside from Julianne Moore's character being blind, the cast was trained to simulate blindness. The director also stylized the film to reflect the lack of point-of-view that the characters would experience. Meirelles said several actors he talked to were intimidated by the concept of playing characters without names: "I offered the film to some actors who said, 'I can't play a character with no name, with no history, with no past. With Gael (García Bernal), he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants.'"
By September 2006, Fernando Meirelles was attached to Blindness, with the script being adapted by Don McKellar. Blindness, budgeted at $25 million as part of a Brazilian and Canadian co-production, was slated to begin filming in summer 2007 in the towns of São Paulo
and Guelph
. Filming began in early July in São Paulo and Guelph. Filming also took place in Montevideo
, Uruguay
. São Paulo served as the primary backdrop for Blindness, being a city mostly unfamiliar to U.S. and European audiences. With its relative obscurity, the director sought São Paulo as the film's generic location. Filming continued through autumn of 2007.
The cast and crew included 700 extras who had to be trained to simulate blindness. Actor Christian Duurvoort from Meirelles' City of God led a series of workshops to coach the cast members. Duurvoort had researched the mannerisms of blind people to understand how they perceive the world and how they make their way through space. Duurvoort not only taught the extras mannerisms, but also to convey the emotional and psychological states of blind people. One technique was reacting differently to others as a blind person. Meirelles described, "When you're talking to someone, you see a reaction. When you're blind, the response is much flatter. What's the point [in reacting]?"
With only one character's point-of-view available, Meirelles sought to switch the points-of-view throughout the film, seeing three distinct stylistic sections. The director began with an omniscient vantage point, transited to the intact viewpoint of the Doctor's Wife, and changed again to the Man with the Black Eye Patch, who connects the quarantined to the outside world with stories. The director concluded the switching with the combination of the perspective of the Doctor's Wife and the narrative of the Man with the Black Eye Patch.
The film also contains visual cues, such as the 1568 painting The Parable of the Blind by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Allusions to other famous artworks are also made. Meirelles described the intent: "It's about image, the film, and vision, so I thought it makes sense to create, not a history of painting, because it's not, but having different ways of seeing things, from Rembrandt to these very contemporary artists. But it's a very subtle thing."
test screening expressed concern about a victim in the film failing to take revenge. Meirelles believed this concern to reflect what Americans have learned to expect in their cinema.
Focus Features
acquired the right to handle international sales for Blindness. Pathé
acquired U.K. and French rights to distribute the film, and Miramax Films
won U.S. distribution rights with its $5 million bid. Blindness premiered as the opening film at the 61st Cannes Film Festival
on May 14, 2008, where it received a "tepid reception." Straw polls of critics were "unkind" to the film.
Blindness was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
in September 2008 as a Special Presentation. The film also opened at the Atlantic Film Festival
on September 11, 2008, and had its North American theatrical release on October 3, 2008.
being positive Blindness is considered "rotten". The film has an average rating of 5.2 out of 10.
Screen International
s Cannes screen jury which annually polls a panel of international film critics gave the film a 1.3 average out of 4, placing the film on the lower-tier of all the films screened at competition in 2008. Of the film critics from the Screen International Cannes critics jury, Alberto Crespi of the Italian publication L'Unità
, Michel Ciment
of French film magazine Positif
and Dohoon Kim of South Korean film publication Cine21, all gave the film zero points (out of four).
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
described Blindness as "provocative but predictable cinema", startling but failing to surprise. Honeycutt criticized the film's two viewpoints: Julianne Moore's character, the only one who can see, is slow to act against atrocities (even though this was addressed in Saramago's novel), and the behavior of Danny Glover's character comes off as "slightly pompous". Honeycutt explained, "This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action." Justin Chang of Variety
described the film: "Blindness emerges onscreen both overdressed and undermotivated, scrupulously hitting the novel's beats yet barely approximating, so to speak, its vision." Chang thought that Julianne Moore gave a strong performance but did not feel that the film captured the impact of Saramago's novel. Roger Ebert
called Blindness "one of the most unpleasant, not to say unendurable, films I've ever seen." A. O. Scott
of The New York Times
stated that, although it "is not a great film, ... it is, nonetheless, full of examples of what good filmmaking looks like."
Stephen Garrett of Esquire
complimented Meirelles' unconventional style: "Meirelles [honors] the material by using elegant, artful camera compositions, beguiling sound design and deft touches of digital effects to accentuate the authenticity of his cataclysmic landscape." Despite the praise, Garrett wrote that Meirelles' talent at portraying real-life injustice in City of God and The Constant Gardener
did not suit him for directing the "heightened reality" of Saramago's social commentary.
Peter Bradshaw
of The Guardian
called it "an intelligent, tightly constructed, supremely confident adaptation": "Meirelles, along with screenwriter Don McKellar and cinematographer Cesar Charlone, have created an elegant, gripping and visually outstanding film. It responds to the novel's notes of apocalypse and dystopia, and its disclosure of a spiritual desert within the modern city, but also to its persistent qualities of fable, paradox and even whimsy." "Blindness is a drum-tight drama, with superb, hallucinatory, images of urban collapse. It has a real coil of horror at its centre, yet is lightened with gentleness and humour. It reminded me of George A Romero's Night Of The Living Dead, and Peter Shaffer's absurdist stage-play Black Comedy. This is bold, masterly, film-making."
The Boston Globe
s Wesley Morris
raved about the leading actress: "Julianne Moore is a star for these terrible times. She tends to be at her best when the world is at its worst. And things are pretty bad in "Blindness," a perversely enjoyable, occasionally harrowing adaptation of José Saramago's 1995 disaster allegory. [...] "Blindness" is a movie whose sense of crisis feels right on time, even if the happy ending feels like a gratuitous emotional bailout. Meirelles ensures that the obviousness of the symbolism (in the global village the blind need guidance!) doesn't negate the story's power, nor the power of Moore's performance. The more dehumanizing things get, the fiercer she becomes."
The film appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Bill White of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
named it the 5th best film of 2008, and Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle named it the 8th best film of 2008.
, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "The National Federation of the Blind condemns and deplores this film, which will do substantial harm to the blind of America and the world."
A press release from the American Council of the Blind
said "...it is quite obvious why blind people would be outraged over this movie. Blind people do not behave like uncivilized, animalized creatures."
The National Federation of the Blind announced plans to picket theaters in at least 21 states, in the largest protest in the organization's 68-year history.
José Saramago responded: "Stupidity doesn’t choose between the blind and the non-blind."
Blindness (novel)
Blindness is a novel by Portuguese author José Saramago. It was originally published in Portuguese and then translated into English. It is one of his most famous novels, along with The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Baltasar and Blimunda....
by the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
writer José Saramago
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. The film is written by Don McKellar
Don McKellar
-Personal life:McKellar was born in Toronto, Ontario to a lawyer father and teacher mother. He attended Glenview Senior Public School, Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute and later studied English at the University of Toronto's Victoria College...
and directed by Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
with Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
and Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
as the main characters. Saramago originally refused to sell the rights for a film adaptation, but the producers were able to acquire it with the condition that the film would be set in an unnamed and unrecognizable city. Blindness premiered as the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
on May 14, 2008, and the film was released in the United States on October 3, 2008.
Plot
The story of Blindness begins on a morning in an unnamed city during rush-hour traffic. As the traffic lights change, a young JapaneseJapanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
professional (Yusuke Iseya
Yusuke Iseya
is a Japanese actor.He was born in Tokyo, Japan. With his modeling career , Yūsuke is known for Loreal , Men's Nonno magazine, Prada , and Asahi Aqua Blue....
) is suddenly struck blind for no apparent reason and blocks all the traffic behind his car. With the honking horns of the other frustrated drivers causing a commotion, the Japanese man is approached by a few concerned people, one of whom (Don McKellar
Don McKellar
-Personal life:McKellar was born in Toronto, Ontario to a lawyer father and teacher mother. He attended Glenview Senior Public School, Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute and later studied English at the University of Toronto's Victoria College...
) offers to drive him home. As they proceed to drive away, the blinded man describes his sudden affliction: an expanse of dazzling white, as though he is "swimming in milk." Eventually they arrive at the Japanese man's upscale apartment, but as soon as he assures his rescuer that he'll be fine waiting there for his wife to come home, the "rescuer" departs with the car keys and steals the vehicle.
Upon arriving home later that evening and noticing her husband's blindness, the Japanese man's wife (Yoshino Kimura) takes him to a local ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
) who, after testing the man's eyes, can identify nothing wrong with his sight and recommends further evaluation at a hospital. Among the doctor's patients are an old man with a black eye-patch (Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
), a woman with dark glasses (Alice Braga
Alice Braga
Alice Braga Moraes is a Brazilian actress. She has appeared in several Brazilian films, most notably as Angélica in 2002's highly acclaimed City of God and as Karina in 2005's Lower City...
), and a young boy (Mitchell Nye
Mitchell Nye
Mitchell Nye is an American child actor. He is best known for his role as Dean Lipvanchuk in the 2005 film The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico.- Films :...
). Later that same evening, the car thief is also struck blind, abandoning the Japanese man's car as he runs down the street.
During a dinner with his loving wife (Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
), the doctor discusses the strange case of sudden blindness that hit the Japanese man. Elsewhere in the city, the woman with dark glasses - revealed to be a call-girl - becomes the third victim of the strange blindness after an appointment with a john in a luxury hotel.
The next day, the doctor wakes up to realize that he too has gone blind, which panics him all the more since he may have infected his wife in turn, but she refuses his attempts to keep her at arm's length and promises she will be safe. In various locations around the city, several more citizens are struck blind, causing widespread panic, and the government organizes a quarantine for the blind in a local derelict asylum. When a Hazmat crew arrives to pick up the doctor, his wife climbs into the van with him, lying she has also gone blind in order to accompany him into isolation.
In the asylum, the doctor and his wife are first to arrive and both agree they will keep her sight a secret. Several others arrive: the woman with dark glasses, the Japanese couple, the car thief, and the young boy. At first a fight breaks out between the Japanese man and the man who stole his car, but the doctor pulls them apart and effectively assumes leadership of the ward. The Japanese man is then reunited with his wife, who becomes all but catatonic as a result of her sudden disability. Then the doctor's wife - who continues to remain sighted - comes across the old man with the eye-patch, who describes the condition of the world outside. The sudden blindness, known only as the "White Sickness", is now international, with hundreds of cases being reported every day. Desperate by this point, the totalitarian government resorts to increasingly ruthless measures to try to staunch the epidemic.
In due course, as more and more blind people are crammed into the fetid prison, overcrowding and total lack of any outside support causes the hygiene and living conditions to degrade horrifically in a short time. Soon, the walls and floors are caked in filth and human feces. Anxiety over the availability of food, caused by irregular deliveries, undermine the morale inside. The lack of organization prevents the blind internees from fairly distributing food among each other. The soldiers who guard the asylum become increasingly hostile. The government refuses to allow in basic medicines, so that a simple infection becomes deadly. During one load of new inmates, a man wanders too far away from the group and is killed by the soldiers, along with two other people caught in the crossfire. A shovel is callously tossed over the wall for the corpses to be buried by the blind.
Living conditions degenerate even further when an armed clique of men, led by an ex-barman who declares himself the King of Ward 3 (Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal is a Mexican film actor and director.-Early life:García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was...
), gains control over the sparse deliveries of food. The rations are distributed only in exchange for valuables, solely as a humiliation. With the prospect of starvation and the hopelessness of being unable to take care of himself, the doctor turns to the woman with dark glasses in a moment of true weakness, and they have sex. Both regret it afterward and even more so once they hear the doctor's wife speak knowing they were not alone and that she had witnessed most of their tryst. Although the doctor's wife does not really trust her husband again, she still remains to help and in the end she forgives both the woman and her husband. The next day, the King of Ward 3 demands women in exchange for food. One by one, the desperate women volunteer to be sex slaves for the men in ward 3, and the King of Ward 3 rapes the doctor's wife. When the women get back, one of them has been brutally beaten to death by her rapist. Faced with starvation and hell-bent on revenge, the doctor's wife snaps and murders the King of Ward 3 with her scissors. His death initiates a chaotic war between the wards, which culminates with the asylum being burned down. Most of the inmates die in the fire. Only then do the few survivors discover that the military has abandoned their posts. They are free to venture into the city.
But all is squalor and chaos. The entire population is blind amid a city devastated and infested with vermin
Vermin
Vermin is a term applied to various animal species regarded by some as pests or nuisances and especially to those associated with the carrying of disease. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included will vary from area to area and even person to person...
and overrun with filth and dead bodies. The doctor's wife leads her husband, the Japanese couple, the old man, the woman with dark glasses and the young boy through the ruined streets in search of food and clean clothes. Everywhere she looks is grim as people squat in derelict buildings and society as she knew it no longer exists. Leaving her friends in the relative safety of an old cafe, she and her husband go to look for food. In a supermarket filled with stumbling blind people, she finds a storeroom stocked with food and packs it into bags. As she prepares to leave and meet her husband outside, she is attacked by the starving people who smell the food she is carrying. Her husband, now used to his blindness, saves her and they manage to return to their friends.
The doctor and his wife with their new "family" eventually make their way back to the house of the doctor, where they establish a permanent home. The doctor's wife has truly forgiven her husband for sleeping with the woman with dark glasses, and in turn makes love to him where he states that when they are together like this, he can really "see" her through his touch. Just as the "family" are becoming accustomed to their new way of life, the Japanese man recovers his sight one morning. This gives the other people hope that their blindness will lift as quickly and inexplicably as it came. As the friends all celebrate, the doctor's wife stands out on the porch, staring up into a white overcast sky and for a moment thinks to herself "I'm going blind", until the video camera shifts downwards, revealing the cityscape before her.
Cast
- Julianne MooreJulianne MooreJulianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
as Doctor's Wife, the only person immune to the epidemic of blindness. Her sight is kept a secret by her husband and others, though as time goes on, she feels isolated in being the only one with sight. Moore described her character's responsibility: "Her biggest concern in the beginning is simply her husband. But her ability to see ultimately both isolates her and makes her into a leader." The director also gave Moore's character a wardrobe that would match the actor's skin and dyed blond hair, giving her the appearance of a "pale angel". - Mark RuffaloMark RuffaloMark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
as Doctor. The doctor also becomes something of a leader; in an early scene, he reveals that he has been elected as his ward's official representative to the rest of the community. Meirelles originally sought to cast actor Daniel CraigDaniel CraigDaniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
as Doctor, but negotiations were not finalized. Ruffalo said that his character loses the illusion of his self-perspective and perceives his wife as being a person he could aspire to. Ruffalo said, "That's a very difficult moment for anybody, to have all their perceptions completely shattered, but I think the Doctor finally comes to a peace about his inabilities and his downfall, and admits to an admiration for his wife's strengths." The actor wore a layer of makeup to appear older and also wore contact lenses to be blind while having his eyes open. The actor said of the experience as a blind character, "At first it's terrifying and then it's frustrating and then it gets quiet... we're tormented by our eyesight... you don't know this until you go blind... As an actor I suddenly felt free." - Danny GloverDanny GloverDanny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
as Man with Black Eye Patch. Glover described his character: "The Man with the Black Eye Patch comes into this new world of blindness already half blind, so I think he understands where he is within his own truth, within himself. I did feel like this character was very much like Saramago because he is completely unapologetic — he is who he is and he accepts who he is." Glover explained his involvement with the role, "When you are blind you try to adopt another kind of sensitivity, so this role is definitely a challenge from a physical point of view." - Gael García BernalGael García BernalGael García Bernal is a Mexican film actor and director.-Early life:García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was...
as Bartender/King of Ward 3, one of the film's villains. In defiance of the doctor's democraticDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
election as leader of Ward 1, the bartender immediately declares himself "King of Ward 3" and gains immediate popularity from his "subjects" by prioritizing food over his ward's community responsibilities such as burying the dead. He somehow obtains a revolver (and more than six bullets) and uses it to bully the other wards by controlling the food supply. Meirelles followed the advice of BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian stage director Antunes Filho and changed the character from the novel by making him more ambiguous, explaining, "In the book, he is really a mean guy, terribly evil from the beginning... but I thought it was more interesting to have him be not evil but more like a child with a gun." Bernal described the result of his character, "I think the King is just very practical, very pragmatic. He appears cold because he is not an idealist and does not see hope, but he is a survivor, the same as all the others." The Doctor's Wife kills him with a pair of medical scissors to the neck. His death marks the point when Ward 1 takes back control, with the Doctor's Wife's threat to kill one of the men from Ward 3 for every day her ward goes without food. - Maury ChaykinMaury ChaykinMaury Alan Chaykin was an American-born Canadian actor. Best known for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe, he was also known for his work as a character actor in many films and on television programs.-Personal life:...
as Accountant, who helps the King of Ward 3 bully the members of the other wards. Because he has been blind since birth, the Accountant is much more used to relying on his other senses, which gives him a major advantage over the other prisoners; he assumes control over Ward 3 and the food supplies for the community after the King is murdered. - Alice BragaAlice BragaAlice Braga Moraes is a Brazilian actress. She has appeared in several Brazilian films, most notably as Angélica in 2002's highly acclaimed City of God and as Karina in 2005's Lower City...
as Woman with Dark Glasses. Braga described her character as mysterious, believing, "While she does sleep with men because it is easy money, I did not want to treat her purely as a prostitute. She starts out quite tough, but she develops very strong maternal feelings." Meirelles explained that the character's glasses and cascading hair gave her a cold appearance, but through her scenes with the orphaned Boy with the Squint, she develops warmth.
Secondary characters include:
- Don McKellarDon McKellar-Personal life:McKellar was born in Toronto, Ontario to a lawyer father and teacher mother. He attended Glenview Senior Public School, Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute and later studied English at the University of Toronto's Victoria College...
as Thief. McKellar, who wrote the screenplay for the film, had also acted in the past and was cast as the character. The screenwriter described the Thief, "I like the trick where you think the Thief is a bad guy. He's a pathetic character you first believe is the villain of the piece and then you realize that, no, he's not even close to that. There's something charming about his desperation because, after a point, you meet the King of Ward Three and learn what real desperation is." - Sandra OhSandra OhSandra Oh is a Canadian actress. She is best known for the role of Dr. Cristina Yang on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, for which she has won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award. She also played notable roles in the feature films Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways, and had a supporting role on the...
as Minister of Health. - Yusuke IseyaYusuke Iseyais a Japanese actor.He was born in Tokyo, Japan. With his modeling career , Yūsuke is known for Loreal , Men's Nonno magazine, Prada , and Asahi Aqua Blue....
as First Blind Man. - Yoshino Kimura as First Blind Man's Wife.
- Mitchell NyeMitchell NyeMitchell Nye is an American child actor. He is best known for his role as Dean Lipvanchuk in the 2005 film The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico.- Films :...
as Boy. - Susan CoyneSusan CoyneSusan Coyne is a Canadian writer and actress, best known as one of the co-creators and co-stars of the award-winning Slings and Arrows, a TV series which ran 2003–06 about a Canadian Shakespearean theatre company...
as Receptionist. - Martha BurnsMartha BurnsMartha Burns is an award-winning Canadian actress known for her stage work and youth outreach in Ontario and her leading role as Ellen Fanshaw in the TV dramedy series Slings and Arrows.Burns was born 1958 in Winnipeg, Manitoba...
as Woman with Insomnia. - Douglas SilvaDouglas SilvaDouglas Silva is a Brazilian Emmy-nominated actor whose most famous role is that of Dadinho in the 2002 Brazilian film, City of God. He also played Acerola in the spin-off series City of Men and the 2007 film based on it....
as Onlooker #1 in the opening scenes. Silva has previously acted in many Meirelles films: he starred in Meirelles' short film Golden Gate (Palace II) in 2000; the 2002 film City of God; its 2002 to 2005 spin-off television series Cidade dos Homens (English translation: City of Men); and the movie City of MenCity of MenCity of Men is a Brazilian television programme created by Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles, the directors of the film City of God....
in 2007.
Meirelles chose an international cast. Producer Niv Fichman explained Meirelles' intent: "He was inspired by [Saramago's] great masterwork to create a microcosm of the world. He wanted it cast in a way to represent all of humanity."
Development
The rights to the 1995 novel BlindnessBlindness (novel)
Blindness is a novel by Portuguese author José Saramago. It was originally published in Portuguese and then translated into English. It is one of his most famous novels, along with The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Baltasar and Blimunda....
were closely guarded by author José Saramago
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
. Saramago explained, "I always resisted because it's a violent book about social degradation, rape, and I didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands." Director Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
had wanted to direct a film adaptation in 1997, perceiving it as "an allegory about the fragility of civilization". Saramago originally refused to sell the rights to Meirelles, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, or Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal is a Mexican film actor and director.-Early life:García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was...
. In 1999, producer Niv Fichman and Canadian screenwriter Don McKellar
Don McKellar
-Personal life:McKellar was born in Toronto, Ontario to a lawyer father and teacher mother. He attended Glenview Senior Public School, Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute and later studied English at the University of Toronto's Victoria College...
visited Saramago in the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
; Saramago allowed their visit on condition that they not discuss buying the rights. McKellar explained the changes he intended to make from the novel and what the focus would be, and two days later he and Fichman left Saramago's home with the rights. McKellar believed they had succeeded where others had failed because they properly researched Saramago; he was suspicious of the film industry and had therefore resisted other studios' efforts to obtain the rights through large sums of money alone. Conditions set by Saramago were for the film to be set in a country that would not be recognizable to audiences, and that the canine in the novel, the Dog of Tears, should be a big dog.
Meirelles originally envisioned doing the film in Portuguese similar to the novel's original language, but instead directed the film in English, saying, "If you do it in English you can sell it to the whole world and have a bigger audience." Meirelles set the film in a contemporary large city, seemingly under a totalitarian government, as opposed to the novel that he believed took place in the 1940s (actually, the book is more likely to take place in the 60s or later, as evident by the fact that the characters stumble upon a store with modern appliances like microwave ovens and dishwashers). Meirelles chose to make a contemporary film so audiences could relate to the characters. The director also sought a different allegorical approach. He described the novel as "very allegorical, like a fantasy outside of space, outside the world", and he instead took a naturalistic direction in engaging audiences to make the film less "cold."
Writing
Don McKellar said about adapting the story, "None of the characters even have names or a history, which is very untraditional for a Hollywood story. The film, like the novel, directly addresses sight and point of view and asks you to see things from a different perspective." McKellar wrote the script so audiences would see the world through the eyes of the protagonist, the Doctor's Wife. He sought to have them question the humanity of how she observes but does not act in various situations, including a rape scene. He consulted Saramago about why the wife took so long to act. McKellar noted, "He said she became aware of the responsibility that comes with seeing gradually, first to herself, then to her husband, then to her small family, then her ward, and finally to the world where she has to create a new civilization." The screenwriter wrote out the "actions and circumstances" that would allow the wife to find her responsibility. While the completed script was mostly faithful to the novel, McKellar went through several drafts that were not. One such saw him veer away from the novel by creating names and backstories for all the characters. Another significantly changed the chronology. Only after these abortive attempts did McKellar decide to cut the backstories and focus primarily on the doctor and his wife. He attempted to reconnect with what originally drew him to the novel: what he called its "existentialExistentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
simplicity". The novel defines its characters by little more than their present actions; doing the same for the adaptation became "an interesting exercise" for McKellar.
McKellar attended a summer camp for the blind as part of his research. He wanted to observe how blind people interacted in groups. He discovered that excessive expositional dialogue, usually frowned upon by writers, was essential for the groups. McKellar cut one of the last lines in the novel from his screenplay: "I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind. Blind but seeing. Blind people who can see, but do not see." McKellar believed viewers would by that point have already have grasped the symbolism and didn't want the script to seem heavy-handed. He also toned down the visual cues in his screenplay, such as the "brilliant milky whiteness" of blindness described in the novel. McKellar knew he wanted a stylistically-adept director and didn't want to be too prescriptive, preferring only to hint at an approach.
Filming and casting
Meirelles chose São PauloSão Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
as the primary backdrop for Blindness, though scenes were also filmed in Osasco
Osasco
Osasco is a municipality and city in São Paulo State, Brazil, is located in the Greater São Paulo and ranking 5th in population among São Paulo municipalities. The current mayor is Emidio Pereira de Souza ....
, Brazil; Guelph
Guelph
Guelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada; and Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay. With all the characters aside from Julianne Moore's character being blind, the cast was trained to simulate blindness. The director also stylized the film to reflect the lack of point-of-view that the characters would experience. Meirelles said several actors he talked to were intimidated by the concept of playing characters without names: "I offered the film to some actors who said, 'I can't play a character with no name, with no history, with no past. With Gael (García Bernal), he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants.'"
By September 2006, Fernando Meirelles was attached to Blindness, with the script being adapted by Don McKellar. Blindness, budgeted at $25 million as part of a Brazilian and Canadian co-production, was slated to begin filming in summer 2007 in the towns of São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
and Guelph
Guelph
Guelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
. Filming began in early July in São Paulo and Guelph. Filming also took place in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
. São Paulo served as the primary backdrop for Blindness, being a city mostly unfamiliar to U.S. and European audiences. With its relative obscurity, the director sought São Paulo as the film's generic location. Filming continued through autumn of 2007.
The cast and crew included 700 extras who had to be trained to simulate blindness. Actor Christian Duurvoort from Meirelles' City of God led a series of workshops to coach the cast members. Duurvoort had researched the mannerisms of blind people to understand how they perceive the world and how they make their way through space. Duurvoort not only taught the extras mannerisms, but also to convey the emotional and psychological states of blind people. One technique was reacting differently to others as a blind person. Meirelles described, "When you're talking to someone, you see a reaction. When you're blind, the response is much flatter. What's the point [in reacting]?"
Filmmaking style
Meirelles acknowledged the challenge of making a film that would simulate the experience of blindness to the audience. He explained, "When you do a film, everything is related to point-of-view, to vision. When you have two characters in a dialogue, emotion is expressed by the way people look at each other, through the eyes. Especially in the cut, the edit. You usually cut when someone looks over. Film is all about point-of-view and in this film there is none." Similar to the book, blindness in the film serves as a metaphor for human nature's dark side: "prejudice, selfishness, violence and willful indifference."With only one character's point-of-view available, Meirelles sought to switch the points-of-view throughout the film, seeing three distinct stylistic sections. The director began with an omniscient vantage point, transited to the intact viewpoint of the Doctor's Wife, and changed again to the Man with the Black Eye Patch, who connects the quarantined to the outside world with stories. The director concluded the switching with the combination of the perspective of the Doctor's Wife and the narrative of the Man with the Black Eye Patch.
The film also contains visual cues, such as the 1568 painting The Parable of the Blind by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Allusions to other famous artworks are also made. Meirelles described the intent: "It's about image, the film, and vision, so I thought it makes sense to create, not a history of painting, because it's not, but having different ways of seeing things, from Rembrandt to these very contemporary artists. But it's a very subtle thing."
Theatrical run
Prior to public release, Meirelles screened Blindness to test audiences. He described the impact of test screenings: "If you know how to use it, how to ask the right questions, it can be really useful." A test screening of Meirelles' first cut in Toronto resulted in ten percent of the audience, nearly 50 people, walking out of the film early. Meirelles ascribed the problem to a rape scene that takes place partway through the film, and edited the scene to be much shorter in the final cut. Meirelles explained his goal, "When I shot and edited these scenes, I did it in a very technical way, I worried about how to light it and so on, and I lost the sense of their brutality. Some women were really angry with the film, and I thought, 'Wow, maybe I crossed the line.' I went back not to please the audience but so they would stay involved until the end of the story." He also found that a New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
test screening expressed concern about a victim in the film failing to take revenge. Meirelles believed this concern to reflect what Americans have learned to expect in their cinema.
Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....
acquired the right to handle international sales for Blindness. Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
acquired U.K. and French rights to distribute the film, and Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
won U.S. distribution rights with its $5 million bid. Blindness premiered as the opening film at the 61st Cannes Film Festival
2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 14 to May 25, 2008. In addition to films selected for competition this year, major Hollywood productions such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda had their world premieres at the festival.The British press...
on May 14, 2008, where it received a "tepid reception." Straw polls of critics were "unkind" to the film.
Blindness was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
in September 2008 as a Special Presentation. The film also opened at the Atlantic Film Festival
Atlantic Film Festival
The Atlantic Film Festival is an international film festival held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.Held annually, the ten-day celebration of film and video from Atlantic Canada and around the world is committed to screening an inspiring and engaging collection of films and videos from Canada and the...
on September 11, 2008, and had its North American theatrical release on October 3, 2008.
Critical reception
The film was on some critics' top ten lists of 2008 films but has received very mixed, predominantly negative reviews. With only 62 of 149 (42%) reviews on the film review site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
being positive Blindness is considered "rotten". The film has an average rating of 5.2 out of 10.
Screen International
Screen International
Screen International is a multimedia film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by EMAP, a British b2b media company.The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global movie business...
s Cannes screen jury which annually polls a panel of international film critics gave the film a 1.3 average out of 4, placing the film on the lower-tier of all the films screened at competition in 2008. Of the film critics from the Screen International Cannes critics jury, Alberto Crespi of the Italian publication L'Unità
L'Unità
l'Unità is an Italian left-wing newspaper, originally founded as official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party.-History:L'Unità was founded by Antonio Gramsci on 12 February 1924, as the newspaper of workers and peasants, the official newspaper of Italian Communist Party : it was printed in...
, Michel Ciment
Michel Ciment
Michel Ciment is a French film critic and the editor of the cinema magazine Positif. Ciment is a Chevalier of the Order of Merit, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, and the president of FIPRESCI...
of French film magazine Positif
Positif (magazine)
Positif is a French film magazine, founded in 1952 by Bernard Chardère. It was published by Eric Losfeld.It often acted as a counterpoint to Cahiers du cinéma, another well-known French film journal, notably with Gerard Gozlan's article sarcastically titled "In Praise of André Bazin."The current...
and Dohoon Kim of South Korean film publication Cine21, all gave the film zero points (out of four).
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
described Blindness as "provocative but predictable cinema", startling but failing to surprise. Honeycutt criticized the film's two viewpoints: Julianne Moore's character, the only one who can see, is slow to act against atrocities (even though this was addressed in Saramago's novel), and the behavior of Danny Glover's character comes off as "slightly pompous". Honeycutt explained, "This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action." Justin Chang of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
described the film: "Blindness emerges onscreen both overdressed and undermotivated, scrupulously hitting the novel's beats yet barely approximating, so to speak, its vision." Chang thought that Julianne Moore gave a strong performance but did not feel that the film captured the impact of Saramago's novel. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
called Blindness "one of the most unpleasant, not to say unendurable, films I've ever seen." A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
stated that, although it "is not a great film, ... it is, nonetheless, full of examples of what good filmmaking looks like."
Stephen Garrett of Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
complimented Meirelles' unconventional style: "Meirelles [honors] the material by using elegant, artful camera compositions, beguiling sound design and deft touches of digital effects to accentuate the authenticity of his cataclysmic landscape." Despite the praise, Garrett wrote that Meirelles' talent at portraying real-life injustice in City of God and The Constant Gardener
The Constant Gardener
The Constant Gardener is a 2001 novel by John le Carré. It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered...
did not suit him for directing the "heightened reality" of Saramago's social commentary.
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called it "an intelligent, tightly constructed, supremely confident adaptation": "Meirelles, along with screenwriter Don McKellar and cinematographer Cesar Charlone, have created an elegant, gripping and visually outstanding film. It responds to the novel's notes of apocalypse and dystopia, and its disclosure of a spiritual desert within the modern city, but also to its persistent qualities of fable, paradox and even whimsy." "Blindness is a drum-tight drama, with superb, hallucinatory, images of urban collapse. It has a real coil of horror at its centre, yet is lightened with gentleness and humour. It reminded me of George A Romero's Night Of The Living Dead, and Peter Shaffer's absurdist stage-play Black Comedy. This is bold, masterly, film-making."
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
s Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris is a film critic at The Boston Globe where he reviews films alongside Ty Burr. Morris and Burr also make regular appearances on NECN to discuss the latest films and do the weekly Take Two film review video series on Boston.com...
raved about the leading actress: "Julianne Moore is a star for these terrible times. She tends to be at her best when the world is at its worst. And things are pretty bad in "Blindness," a perversely enjoyable, occasionally harrowing adaptation of José Saramago's 1995 disaster allegory. [...] "Blindness" is a movie whose sense of crisis feels right on time, even if the happy ending feels like a gratuitous emotional bailout. Meirelles ensures that the obviousness of the symbolism (in the global village the blind need guidance!) doesn't negate the story's power, nor the power of Moore's performance. The more dehumanizing things get, the fiercer she becomes."
The film appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Bill White of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
named it the 5th best film of 2008, and Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle named it the 8th best film of 2008.
Controversy
The film has been strongly criticized by several organizations representing the blind community. Dr. Marc MaurerMarc Maurer
Marc Maurer is the president of the National Federation of the Blind , the oldest and largest membership organization of blind people in the U.S. He also works as an attorney specializing in civil rights law and issues related to blindness.- Early life :...
, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "The National Federation of the Blind condemns and deplores this film, which will do substantial harm to the blind of America and the world."
A press release from the American Council of the Blind
American Council of the Blind
The American Council of the Blind is a nationwide organization in the United States. It is an organization mainly made up of blind and visually impaired people who want to achieve independence and equality .-History:The American Council of the Blind was formed out of the dissolution of the...
said "...it is quite obvious why blind people would be outraged over this movie. Blind people do not behave like uncivilized, animalized creatures."
The National Federation of the Blind announced plans to picket theaters in at least 21 states, in the largest protest in the organization's 68-year history.
José Saramago responded: "Stupidity doesn’t choose between the blind and the non-blind."
External links
, including trailer- Blindness Official international press release and production information.