Idiocracy

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Movie
German title Idiocracy
Original title Idiocracy
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Mike Judge
script Mike Judge
Etan Cohen
production Mike Judge
Elysa Koplovitz
music Theodore Shapiro
camera Tim Suhrstedt
cut David Rennie
occupation

Idiocracy is a science fiction - Comedy of American director Mike Judge from 2006. The film shows a dystopia of the world of the year 2505, in which a mentally degenerate society is facing its end.

Luke Wilson

action

The film starts with the thesis that in modern society, intelligence and education do not have to be selective advantages. A narrator illustrates this using the example of an academic couple: Over the course of 15 years, they keep finding new reasons why children do not fit into their current life situation, until the husband finally dies. This picture is contrasted by a chaotic lower-class family that is expanding rapidly and unplanned. The future vision of the film therefore shows a country where critical thinking and education have almost died out.

The plot begins with the US Army carrying out a top secret cold sleep experiment. The subjects in charge, Officer Collins, were Army Librarian Joe Bauers - the "most average American" with an average IQ of 100 - and the prostitute Rita because they were without family and would not be missed by anyone. The attempt is said to take a year, but shortly after it begins, Collins is arrested for a prostitution scandal. The entire base will be demolished and the cold sleeping chambers will be shipped with the rubble to a landfill.

In the centuries that followed, society became dumbfounded until even basic infrastructures like garbage collection could no longer be maintained. In the year 2505 there was an avalanche of rubbish on a huge landfill, which exposed and damaged the cold sleeping chambers. Joe wakes up in a completely strange world. The avalanche flushed his cold sleeping chamber into Frito Pendejo's apartment, who, however, barely understands his questions and forcibly drives him away. In a hospital, Joe finds out how much time has actually passed. However, he is arrested because he cannot pay his bill and does not have a valid ID (a tattooed barcode ). Meanwhile, Rita has also woken up and realizes that she can dup almost anyone through the targeted use of seduction. In the criminal trial, Joe is assigned as defense attorney Frito, who is unable to provide an effective defense and even contributes to Joe's conviction.

In prison, a machine mistakenly gives Joe a new identity called "Not Sure". In a subsequent intelligence test to find out what work he can do in prison, it turns out that in the year 2505 he is by far the most intelligent person on earth. Joe escapes and returns to Frito's apartment. He assumes that there must be a time machine in the future that could bring him back to 2005. Frito claims to know where to find such a time machine. When Joe promises to open an account for Frito in the past that would make him rich because of the interest income in 2505, Frito agrees to help Joe. On the way they meet Rita; Finally, however, Joe is arrested again: Because of his high IQ, the President of the USA, Camacho, a former rapper, wrestler and porn star, appoints him as Minister of the Interior. He expects Joe to solve all the problems of ailing society. Because the people are starving, Joe is supposed to clean up the ailing agriculture first.

During an on- site visit, he notices that all the fields are not watered with water, but with the green soft drink Brawndo. By 2505, Brawndo had replaced conventional water everywhere except for flushing toilets. The fields are irrigated with it because, according to the advertising slogan, "Brawndo contains what plants taste - it contains electrolytes !". Apparently nobody knows anymore that electrolytes are salt solutions that dry up the soil over the long term. Joe barely manages to convince his stupid cabinet colleagues to give water a try. As a result, however, the influential Brawndo group went bankrupt overnight and then laid off all employees, at least 50 percent of the total population. The resulting riots lead to a “rehabilitation” of Joe, which is actually nothing more than a public execution in the style of an unfair demolition derby gladiatorial fight.

However, Rita can avert the worst by getting Frito to broadcast images of the sprouting fields to the venue during the rehabilitation process. President Camacho pardoned Joe and named him vice president. The promised time machine turns out to be a mere attraction in an amusement park. In the epilogue Joe finally becomes president, marries Rita and with her they have the "three smartest children in the world". However, Frito, who is appointed vice-president, fathered 32 children with eight women, "one more stupid than the other".

In the post-credit scene , you see Upgrayedd, Rita's former pimp, who was also frozen, waking up from his container and mingling with the crowd to look for Rita.

Brief summary

The film shows a future in which people are stupid. An average man who, together with a prostitute from the present, enters this future by cold sleep becomes a hero: he saves the population from starvation, but has to fight for his life. His companion saves him and they become a couple.

background

The film premiered in German cinemas on January 25, 2007, and the film was shown on free TV for the first time on March 7, 2010 on RTL . In the country of production, the United States , the film opened in cinemas on September 1, 2006.

reception

John Patterson lamented the bad marketing in the Guardian . Although not a masterpiece, Idiocracy has what it takes to become a cult hit. Since the dystopia, under the influence of the corporations, is only interested in insubstantial superficialities and the immediate satisfaction of needs, there is a dramatic loss of culture and values. At the end of this dumbing down, a society emerges that cannot even maintain basic infrastructure because individuals willingly give themselves up to satisfying needs and are no longer able to solve problems in order to improve the general situation.

Sheri Linden also saw the potential of a cult hit in the specialist magazine The Hollywood Reporter , but criticized the script's weaknesses, which presented the same jokes over the course of the film and thus increasingly aroused boredom.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Idiocracy. Entry in the. Online film database , accessed June 18, 2020 .
  2. ↑ John Patterson: Stupid Fox. The Guardian , September 8, 2006, accessed June 18, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Sheri Linden: Idiocracy. The Hollywood Reporter , September 6, 2006, archived from the original on October 1, 2007 ; accessed on June 18, 2020 .