by Thomas Ferguson

In 1996, I saw a movie that made a lasting impression. I remember it being one of the worst movies of that decade for me…12 Monkeys. I haven’t seen a more depressing, boring, and visually unappealing movie since…until now!

Blindness tells the story of a city infected with a mysterious disease called “white blindness”.  People are instantly stricken with blindness, passing it along to anyone who comes in contact. Instead of seeing darkness, the victim sees a bright white light.
As the cases begin to grow, a government ordered quarantine is set up and the victims are dumped in there with no rules, help, or much food.

Before long, it becomes anarchy as groups section off and start to turn on one another. One group headed by an optometrist (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife (Julianne Moore), the only one who can actually see, are pitted in a battle for food that is being rationed by another group led by a tyrannous…bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal). I know, sounds ridiculous right? You have no idea.

Screenwriter Don McKeller and director Fernando Meirelles have taken the novel by Jose Saramago and made one of the most dismal, bleak, and disturbing movies I’ve seen this year. From scenes of gang rapes, unnecessary racial slurs, and flesh eating dogs, this movie was an orgy of bad taste.

I don’t recall seeing a movie that actually drained my energy like this movie did. There were instances where I couldn’t bring myself to watch the screen. The sounds were enough to turn me off. Words can not describe my distain for this movie or better yet none that can do this movie justice.  Wait, I spoke to soon. How about misogynistic…sadistic…pornographic. Look, three good words.