Narrative: Children of Men

Last week we focused on narrative, looking at both narrative patterns and narrative theory. We learnt the meaning and difference between both protagonist and antagonistic roles, enigma and action codes, linear pattern and multi-strand narrative, learnt Tzevtan Todorov's theory on equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium, lastly learning Vladmir Propps theory of the seven spheres of action.

We watched the openings to three contrasting films, Children of Men, Battle For Haditha and The Dark Knight.

The first film, Children of men started with a news report, however the screen is blank. It then changes to a view of a cafe, where a group of people are watching the same starting news report on the death of 'Baby Diego' the youngest person alive, who was murdered. A man, who the camera follows, showing he is a probable main character, orders a cup of coffee and seems uninterested in the news report unlike the mass of people watching. He then leaves with his coffee, and the date is produced in the corner showing it's London, November the 16th in 2027. We see the buses and the people, it's visibly central London, just a much dustier and run down version. We see the man with the coffee place it somewhere and pour an alcoholic beverage into it, and in the background you can see people walking, hugging, and then suddenly you see and hear an explosion, and loud screaming. You see an armless woman waddling out of the exploded building.

The action codes indicate impending development of the narrative, and in the introduction to Children of Men, this is the Death of Diego, and similarly, a bomb exploding, both showing violence and a seemingly corrupt society. The enigma codes are again the death of Diego, we learn he was the youngest person on the planet, giving us an idea of the strange futuristic world. We also learn it is a time where there is terrorism, there's deportation of immigrants and the army is occupying mosques. It holds your interest because you want to know why and what is happening to the country.

The protagonist is not obvious, but the man that the camera is following could mean that he is a lead in the story, or even some sort of hero. There is no antagonist shown.

The Equilibrium in the beginning is the usual hubble of people and cars and bikes walking through london, it seems like a relatively normal day, apart from the murder of Diego. This doesn't seem to effect many people, as the coffee guy is distant, not really interested in the news.
The Disequilibrium is the bomb that goes off, causing panic and fear. There is no seen equilibrium.

The linear pattern is unclear, we don't know if there is more to the story then there seems to be, or if that is the actual beginning. The viewer is unclear of why and who set the bomb off, and whether it impacts anything after the title is shown.