Film Analysis Essay: Deadly Monkey Lies

Natalie Calico

nat_cal@msn.com

English 102 034W

Film Analysis Final Draft

October 20, 2011

Deadly Monkey Lies

Imagine a death mortality rate of 100% due to a deadly virus in a beloved hometown. Imagine children wailing between their dead parents as they await their own fatal death. Imagine an entire society infected by a disease which should never have been spread in the first place. This is the catastrophe illustrated in the film Outbreak. Fear is the most powerful human emotion. It has power to remove all compassion from a human until only survival instincts are left.  Fear in human’s results in anger because of things or events humans cannot control. Then anger leads to chaos. Chaos can only spread so far before it cannot be contained anymore. Fear can result in government and the people losing sight of what compassion and justice truly means.

To understand the movie Outbreak, one must first understand the plot. The movie takes place in an African jungle in 1967 where a deadly disease has wiped out an entire village (Outbreak). The American government orders the entire village to be destroyed in order to kill the disease. However, this does not work and the disease comes back years later. It finds its way to America through the host of an African monkey, and begins to spread in a small town in California. Once discovered military doctors begin to search for a cure (the monkey is the host and the cure to the disease). While they are in the process of searching for the cure the military general and government decide to have the town blown up, just as they did in the African village (Outbreak).

The characters play major roles in the interpretation of the film. Sam Daniels is a military coronal and doctor who represents the compassionate individuals of the world. He plays an important role with his determination to overtake the government and do what is right. Robby is Sam’s ex-wife and she represents the innocent lives that make fighting for what is right worth the battle. General Ford is Sam’s boss. Ford represents the idea of compassion conquering fear. This is proved in the film by Ford when he denies his own boss General McClintock, and assists Sam in saving the town in California. Finally, General McClintock represents the selfish and fearful part of human nature.

The final and most important character who must be analyzed to understand the interpretation of Outbreak is the host, the monkey. The monkey represents the government. The monkey like the government can be a source of death, or a cure. The monkey feeds off fear; its victims are the ones who fear what it is capable of. The little girl in the movie who befriends the monkey is the only victim the monkey never harms. The little girl doesn’t fear the monkey because she is naive and sheltered, she does not understand the harm the monkey could cause her. The government wants its people to be sheltered and naive like the little girl in the movie. If a nation is sheltered then the government can control the fear of the nation. The town in California is a source of fear and the government wants to alleviate the nation of that fear. Therefore, it is their reasoning that the right thing to do is end the source of fear by blowing up the town, and acting like nothing ever happened. The monkey represents how the government can be fatal (by blowing up towns), but a cure of fear at the same time (by keeping their people safe and sheltered).

Lies are created to prevent fear in order for individuals to continue living protected lives. In the film General Ford and McClintock blow up the village in Africa to prevent fear. They keep it a secret and lie in order to keep others protected. In the film when this is happening there are jungle noises beating loudly. Monkeys are screeching, drums are beating, and this creates suspense as the helicopter of the General’s “help” hover above the village. When the bomb is dropped the feeling of suspense becomes a feeling of dread. Devastated realization slowly seeps upon the villagers faces as they watch the bomb float down from the bright blue sky in its path to incinerate them all. As the helicopters fly away from the destroyed village they do so against a bright brilliant blue sky, a sky where everything seems normal and humane. The screeching jungle noises and drums continue on though, as to not let the blue sky’s lie go unnoticed. Throughout the film, the lighting always stays consistent with the appropriate time of day. Even with the horrific and gloomy gruesome things happening, the lighting always matches the time of day. Therefore, even the lighting is supporting the lies being told to America everything is okay, even though there is a town full of dying or dead people the government will fix it and there will be nothing to fear anymore. As the military helicopters fly out yet again to destroy another town, the sky is again a bright brilliant blue. Just like in Africa the sky is lying by telling the world even though thousands of lives are about to be eradicated, everything will continue to be normal and America will be able to remain in their sheltered lives.

Not only do lies help the government prevent fear, but lies also help the government spread fear. In the film Sam Daniels is trying to tell America he has found the host and the town in California does not have to be blown up. General McClintock lies to America on the news and says Sam Daniels is infected with the disease. Although Daniels succeeds in telling the nation that he has found the host, Gen McClintock still used lying as a power to control fear by making Daniels seem dangerous and infected. General McClintock refers to the civilians in the town in California as “casualties of war”, just like he did for the village in Africa (Outbreak). He does not think of them as innocent lives. His fear of not being able to control the nation and his fear of his lies being found out makes him incapable of compassion.

Outbreak illustrates the importance of government power, and disease control. A movie review put it in perfect words by stating, ““Outbreak" is the ultimate government-paranoia flick” (Hicks). This film should make individuals question their government and what it is capable of and what it might be hiding. More so than that it should make individuals curious of what would happen if this movie actually happened, and what steps their government would actually take. The film also proves the importance of disease control. It is important for individuals to be protected from harmful diseases in order for the odds of something like this film actually happening. A journal entry discussed the term “herd immunity”. It described herd immunity as the state at which every individual has their immunizations (B Trollfors). In other words, when everyone is immunized a nation will be able to prevail against any viruses that come their way. The journal states, “The more contagious the disease, the more immune individuals are needed to induce herd immunity” (B Trollfors).This is why it is important for disease to be controlled so when a very contagious disease comes along it is difficult for it to penetrate the immune barrier. The journal goes on to explain:

Higher effectiveness than efficacy is usually ascribed to indirect protection at group level (herd immunity) and depends on the fact that a person who remains uninfected will not transmit disease to others. In other words, the more people who are immune, the less chance that others will be exposed to the infection and finally the disease stops circulating in the community even though susceptible individuals remain. (B Trollfors)

If every nation could succeed in herd immunity the odds of a disease like the one in the movie actually occurring would diminish extremely.  The movie Outbreak makes it very clear that disease control and prevention is vital in every nation. It also illustrated lies and being naïve of harmful diseases will negatively affect a nation in the end.

Anyone and everyone living in country with a structured government designed to protect its people and nation should watch this film. It is important to never let justice and compassion be ignored due to fear or lies. Child mortality and mortality in general, can only be helped if people are willing to step out of their sheltered lives and open their eyes to what is real. If each individual in the world could find the Sam Daniels inside of them and muster the determination to do what is right then no innocent child would go to sleep hungry, or die from a preventable virus. In order to help child mortality worldwide individuals must ignore their fearful selfish human nature and truly have a sense of compassion and justice.
                                                       

                                                    Works Cited
B Trollfors, et al. "Vaccination of children – a systematic review." Acta Paediatrica 99. (2010): 1-192. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.

Hicks, Chris. "Outbreak | Deseret News." Salt Lake City and Utah Breaking News, Sports, Entertainment and News Headlines - Deseret News. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.

Outbreak. Dir. Wolfgang Petersen. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman. 1995. DVD.