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     Civilization is a fragile thing. Inside many of us, even if we don’t realize it, is a savage, brutal thug just waiting for a chance to claw its way out and run amok.  Go ahead and scoff, but one good shove, one wrench at the Jenga of our accustomed existence is all it’s gonna take for that personal berserker to bust out and go on a skull-busting, rapacious rampage down Main Street.  Sounds implausible? Don’t worry, friend.  That’s why we have authority figures and big government, to protect us from ourselves…unless they can’t or won’t. This is not your life anymore. This is an all-out crisis of pure panic.

            We can witness this by watching “Blindness”.  This film is as much a disaster movie as it is anything else. Not totally horror, not completely science fiction, but with elements of both.  It’s like the peculiar spawn of “1984”, “Lord of the Flies”, and even a smidge of “28 Days later”. The film puts the action into gear in its very first minutes.  There is a contagion, but instead of causing illness or death, it reduces vision to an inescapable white glare. Irritation and contempt for the victims turns into panic and loathing with little hesitation and not a heckuva lot of explanation.  Rabid dogs get more sympathy than these guys.

            Julianne Moore is a woman unaffected by the plague who opts to fake blindness in order to go into quarantine with her husband (Mark Ruffalo). She continues the charade to try to help others who have been afflicted.  Danny Glover does a stint as an oddly sage and idealistic homeless man who has also been infected, a character that seems entirely out of place in this film, but who became my personal favorite.

Ok…here’s the nitpicking: I found myself wondering if some of these people had common sense or if any of them had ever seen a crime drama.  Also, I’m pretty sure that blindness does not affect one’s ability to put some clothes on.   I am aware that the National Federation for the Blind is strongly against this film, and it is understandable, though I do not believe that it should be considered as a portrait of actual blind persons as much as a reflection of throngs of people in an unexpected catastrophe. If you approach it that way, then the criticisms tend to dwindle.

Despite its dreamlike atmosphere, it is not a pretty picture and does not show the bulk of humanity in a good light.  There are villains (as one character notes, being blind doesn’t make a person good or bad…just blind) and there are some unsettling scenarios. You’re not likely to get feel-good sensations from watching this movie, but it might make you contemplate how you could react in such a situation.  Also, your inner maniac will probably love it.