Contagion (2011)

8 March 2020

Contagion (2011) is a suspense drama about a highly contagious disease that works its way through the global population. It's directed by Steven Soderbergh, and stars among others Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, and Kate Winslet. With Caronavirus all over the news and Seattle at it's center in the US, I wanted to look at something that took a clinical view of it. And not something more in horror, like Quarantine or 28 Days Later.

I appreciated that it felt like a case study. It didn't feel like a Hollywood ending (where the heroes always win and villains always lose), and any poetic justice in the film was through the characters; the virus wasn't a character, but a catalyst for the drama that ensued. There was a callousness through the entire film though that really stood out through this film though: through mob mentalities, government coldness or cluelessness, or one man's disbelief (Damon) over the destruction of his former way of life after the death of his loved ones.

Some thoughts on it relating to the current world we're in:

• media was on top of Coronavirus much better than what was depicted in the film. Guess that shows how the newspaper industry has gotten better in 9 years, instead of just a dying shell of a business.
• in the movie it was a serious under-reaction, vs. here where it's less so (businesses are telling employees not to come in to prevent the spread of disease.
• this isn't as popular a time of year. The backdrop of Thanksgiving is a much worse time than early March.
• Blogging (Law) is still a powerful tool; thankfully people seem less deceptive and opportunistic in reality than in the film.
• This isn't a death virus. Contagion amped up crazy fast compared to COVID-19, and Coronavirus mostly impacted the older population more than everyone.

All in all, it's an interesting perspective on the reality of responsiveness to deadly viruses and diseases. 7/10