Virus,
dreaded disease and Cinema ~ some lighter moments away !!
We heard Kamal talk
about synthetic bio-weapons in Dasavatharam – Anu, a lab monkey escaping from
its cage would devour a negligently placed vial containing bio-virus and would
die of blood splashing out from it. The
‘kirumi’ trail leads to Kirumi kanda Chozhan and Chidambaram ! - I was really impressed by this Dustin
Hoffman film, that I saw in Satyagowri theatre in Kakinada in 1995. It was about an infection having its roots in
Zaire but spreading to epidemic proportions in a small town called ‘Cedar
Greek’ and the Govt initiating plan to erase that place from its map by bombing
!
As the Globe deals with the spread of the coronavirus, now
infecting more than 267103 confirmed cases, 11201 deaths in 185 countries, a
film depicting the Hollywood big budget version of the lengths scared
audience. Heroes Dustin Hoffman and Rene
Russo fought against the spread of a
fictional, Ebola-like virus known as Motaba, brought to America by an African
monkey, and villainous military leaders played by Donald Sutherland and Morgan
Freeman. The film, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, was a smash hit.
Monkeys may show
off their physical flexibility as they clamber over tangled tree branches, but
the animals also display impressive "cognitive flexibility," or the
ability to quickly change how they think about, and work to solve, a problem. Among the best known monkeys, the Panamanian
white-faced capuchin is popular in North
American media, particularly in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. It is
a highly intelligent monkey and has been trained to assist paraplegic persons.
Before
we read on the movie, some history too – ever heard of Belgian Congo or
Kisangani Mutinies ?
The Belgian
Congo was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in
1960. The former colony adopted its present-day name, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
The
Union Minière du Haut-Katanga or UMHK, was an Anglo-Belgian mining company
which operated in the copperbelt in the modern-day Democratic Republic of the
Congo between 1906 and 1966. Created in
1906, the UMHK was founded as a joint venture by the Société Générale de
Belgique, the Comité Spécial du Katanga and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd. With
the support of the colonial state, the company was allocated a 7,700 square
miles (20,000 km2) concession in Katanga. UMHK was part of a powerful group of
global copper producers. The State of
Katanga was a breakaway state that
proclaimed its independence from Congo-Léopoldville on 11 July 1960 under Moise
Tshombe, leader of the local Confédération.
The new Katangese state did not enjoy full support throughout the
province and was constantly plagued by ethnic strife in its northernmost
region. It was dissolved in 1963 following an invasion by United Nations
Operation in the Congo (ONUC) forces, and reintegrated with the rest of the
country as Katanga Province. The Katangese secession was made with the support
of Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a Belgian mining company. Moïse Kapend Tshombe was a Congolese
businessman who served as the president of the secessionist State of Katanga
from 1960 to 1963 and as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
from 1964 to 1965. Amid rumours that the ousted Prime Minister Moise Tshombe
was plotting a comeback from his exile in Spain, some 2,000 of Tshombe's former
Katangan gendarmes, led by mercenaries, mutinied in Kisangani (formerly
Stanleyville) in July 1966. The mutiny was unsuccessful and was crushed.
Outbreak
released in 1995 was about the dreaded
virus spreading .. film directed by
Wolfgang Petersen was based on Richard
Preston's nonfiction book The Hot Zone. It starred Dustin Hoffman, focussing
on an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus, Motaba, in Zaire and
later in a small town in the United States. It is primarily set in the United
States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and the fictional town of Cedar Creek,
California. Outbreak's plot speculates how far military and civilian agencies
might go to contain the spread of a deadly, contagious disease.
In
1967, during the Kisangani Mutinies a virus called Motaba, which causes a
deadly fever, is discovered in the African jungle. To keep the virus a secret,
U.S. Army officers Donald McClintock and Billy Ford destroy the camp where
soldiers were infected. Twenty-eight years later, Colonel Sam Daniels, a
USAMRIID virologist, is sent to investigate an outbreak in Zaire. He and his
crew—Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schuler and new recruit Major Salt—gather
information and return to the United States. Ford, now a brigadier general and
Daniels' superior officer, dismisses the latter's fears that the virus will
spread.
Betsy,
a white-headed capuchin monkey that is host to the virus, is smuggled into the
country. James "Jimbo" Scott, a worker at an animal testing
laboratory, is infected when he steals Betsy to sell on the black market. Jimbo
fails to sell Betsy to Rudy Alvarez (who also becomes infected), a pet-store
owner in the coastal-California village of Cedar Creek. After releasing the
monkey in the woods outside of the nearby community of Palisades, he develops
symptoms on a flight to Boston and infects his girlfriend, Alice. Some deaths
follow but Keough determines that no one
else in Boston was infected.
A
hospital technician in Cedar Creek is infected when he accidentally breaks the
vial of Rudy's blood. The virus quickly mutates into a strain capable of
spreading like influenza, becoming airborne and causing a number of people to
be infected in a movie theater. Daniels flies to Cedar Creek against Ford's
orders, joining Keough's team with Schuler and Salt. As they begin a search for
the monkey, the Army quarantines the town and imposes martial law. Schuler is
infected when his suit tears, and Keough accidentally sticks herself with a
contaminated needle while treating him.
When
Ford provides an experimental serum which cures the original strain, Daniels
realizes that he was aware of the virus before the outbreak. Daniels learns
about Operation Clean Sweep, a plan for the military to contain the virus
by bombing Cedar Creek, incinerating the town and its residents, ostensibly to
prevent Motaba's expansion to pandemic proportions. However, McClintock, now a major general, plans to use the
operation to conceal the virus's existence so it can be preserved for use as a
biological weapon.
The
movie winds differently with subvert moves to prevent finding a cure – a
picture of the monkey getting released and subsequently Betsy traced,
tranquilized, bombing delayed .. .. and helicopter feared crashed. Back in Cedar Creek, Salt mixes Betsy's antibodies
with Ford's serum to create an antiserum; although Schuler has died, they save
Keough. The flying bomber flight is persuaded to detonate the bomb over water and spare the
town. .. thrilling climax !
The
film was a box-office success and Spacey
won two awards for his performance. A real-life outbreak of the Ebola virus was
occurring in Zaire when the film was released.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
22.3.2020.
Monkey
pic credit : Etienne Delorieux on Unsplash
No comments:
Post a Comment