Blindness (2008)

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of ... See full summary »

Director:

Fernando Meirelles

Writers:

José Saramago (novel), Don McKellar (screenplay)

Stars:

Yûsuke Iseya, Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore

12 wins & 17 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yûsuke Iseya	...	First Blind Man
Jason Bermingham	...	Driver #1
Eduardo Semerjian	...	Concerned Pedestrian #1
Don McKellar	...	Thief
Ciça Meirelles	...	Driver #2
Antônio Fragoso	...	Concerned Pedestrian #2
Lilian Blanc	...	Concerned Pedestrian #3
Douglas Silva	...	Onlooker #1
Daniel Zettel	...	Onlooker #2
Yoshino Kimura	...	First Blind Man's Wife
Joe Pingue	...	Taxi Driver
Susan Coyne	...	Receptionist
Fabiana Guglielmetti	...	Mother of the Boy (as Fabiana Gugli)
Mitchell Nye	...	Boy
Danny Glover	...	Man with Black Eye Patch

Storyline

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of the blind" quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hoarding the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. There is, however, one eyewitness to the nightmare. A woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague follows her afflicted husband to quarantine. There, keeping her sight a secret, she guides seven strangers who have become, in essence, a family. She leads them out of quarantine and onto the ravaged streets of the city, which has seen all vestiges of civilization crumble.

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Plot Keywords:

blindness | quarantine | food | hospital | plague | 

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Taglines:

Love is blind.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence including sexual assaults, language and sexuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Ensaio Official site [Brazil] Miramax [United States]

Country:

Canada Brazil Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ceguera

Filming Locations:

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,950,260 (USA) (3 October 2008)

Gross:

$3,073,392 (USA) (10 October 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rhombus Media, O2 Filmes, Bee Vine Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Producer Niv Fichman became interested in the project back in 1999 when he and Don McKellar, who would write the script, flew to the Canary Islands to talk to the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author José Saramago about giving them the film rights to his book. One of Saramago's conditions was that the film must not be set in any recognizable countries.

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Goofs

When the first blind man arrives home, he says he lives on the 14th floor. After his wife arrives you can see some trees through the kitchen window. Those trees should not be there.

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Quotes

[first lines]
First Blind Man: I'm blind.

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Connections

Referenced in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Episode #8.30 (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Céu de Santo Amaro"
Written by Flávio Venturini
Performed by Marco Antônio Guimarães (as Uakti)

User Reviews

If there was a point to this movie, I completely missed it

I assume that "absolutely no point" won't be considered a spoiler. "Blindness" is essentially a 2 hour long "shaggy dog story". (See Wikipedia.)

Wasting 2 hours watching this steaming pile of junk should make me remember to check IMDb before watching a movie I never heard of. Sat there for 2 hours wondering "where is this going?", only to get to the end to find out that the answer is "nowhere." What I'd like to find out is where the program guide shown on TiVo came up with 2.5 stars (out of possible 4) for this. I hope that whoever green-lighted this movie has left the film industry.

This might have been tolerable as a half-hour short, but stretching it to 2 hours was inexcusable.

After further thought, it now occurs to me that maybe the point was to make the viewer suffer in order to have empathy for the characters. It succeeded at the suffering part. Yet it doesn't generate empathy for the characters. For an example of a downer concept done right, generating empathy for the characters, see the excellent "Testament" (1983).