Michael Winterbottom’s “Code 46″(2003)

 

“[T]he need to understand the effects of the extensions o f man becomes more urgent by the hour”(McLuhan:1964:11)

 Michael Winterbottom’s “Code 46” (2003) deals with many themes that are the headlines and debates of today‘s contemporary society, by its use of the genre sci-fi to give an outlook on the resulting factors of a global culture and its extensive obsession with a technological society.

 The global social dominance of technology is increasingly strengthened daily by the evolution of the average person’s lifestyle. For example Britain’s Identity cards would have created a database of the biographical and biometric fingerprint data of all U.K residents. Due to expense and the intrusive nature of the I.D card it was cancelled, however the same culture who found the I.D cards as a symbol of  invasion into their privacy and becoming heavily monitored by the government has an obsession with social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Taking Facebook as an example, the social networking site is a catalogue of people from over the world, with details of their date of birth, hometown, gender  and work and education (Not forgetting holiday, family and friends pictures).  Twitter and Facebook, both now have a” places”  or  a location monitor ,so the site publishes the whereabouts of individuals from their  input of information such as status updates.  Surveillance is also an issue of technology that the film deals with, as the camera angles would alternate to and from the footage of the surveillance camera. This is a common debate within today’s culture as British government claims the over active and over numbered amount of CCTV coverage  is for our own protection. It seems that where ever technology is concerned, so is the issue of individuals freedom, but also our dependence of technology. “Code 46” displays people of two classes; The city dwellers/ The Connected/Conformists and The outsiders/ Disconnected/Non-Conformists. It seems the Connected had a easier way of life, but their freedom was questionable, whereas the Outsiders seem to have a harder life but had true freedom.

 The more connected or reliant humans become towards technology , the less connected we become with the roots of our evolution and nature itself. It could be considered that evolution is no longer a natural or biological determinate, but  it has become culturally adapted and technologically  determined. “Code 46” embodies this concept, portraying a global cultural in an era of transhumanism. It seems the more technical we become, the less religion or spirituality has an impact or a hold of us. However when religion has shaped the code and morals of that particular society for centuries, the society has to find a new post religion code of living for a technological society.  Pro choice is a subject of strong debate due to religious frameworks that have been sustained in that culture.”Code 46” through the mandatory abortion under the act of Code 46, offers an outlook at how once controversial topics would become acceptable/normal.  If “Code 46”  offers any answer on the nature vs. Nurture, it could be presumed that nurture could win the battle as the global socio cultural aspects especially reproduction becomes more technical.  “Code 46” presents ‘Nurture parents’ as the familiar and natural parents as nothing more than a scientific process.

In “Code 46” the designer babies or human clones become nothing more than a product sold as an ideology of the perfect child, therefore not to mention the ethical and controversial issues surrounding this subject, the notion that under a consumerist culture, nothing is left sacred, everything has a price, even a human being.  A warning or a forecast of how the progression of our global culture can become nothing more than a materialistic world, where everything is a brand?  Some might argue that it already is and that “Code 46” is an extreme reflection of the current state of the consumer culture, with its establishing shots of the city being bombarded with brands and logos.

The question of what is the main undertone theme of “Code 64” is a difficult one and dependable on the individual viewing the text. My position as a researcher is within a feminist epistemology, therefore I usually analyse the medium of cinema and its relationship towards the female representation alongside gender roles or gender issues within the film. “Code 46” as I have deliberated, deals with many debates and themes however I felt more connected( or biased) with the issues of the female, Maria. The recurring dream on her birthday of her trying to find someone (or her fate as she interprets) before the train stops, and how every year the stops become less and less.  The constant reminder for the female to fulfil her biological job of motherhood, the body clock is working against her because she is a female.  Pregnancy/ reproduction and abortion concern the woman’s body. Love story’s are considered as feminine and is the dominate plot with the film .Even the idea of nature vs. Nurture, could be considered as Mother Nature v.s. Man made culture.  For myself, I interpret the film’s main theme as the gender issue concerning the woman and her placement with a patriarchal society.  McLuhan’s name of his book “Understanding Media: the extensions of man” (1964) is an example of how the consideration of the female is a technological context is considerable undermined.  Hence cyborg theory specifically looking at the gender issues of a post humanist society.

With Freudian subjects such as dreams and the Oedipus complex in “Code 46”, it is hard not to apply psychoanalysis as a method of interpretation or analysis, like the majority of feminist film theorists. However If one was to consider this exploration of the Oedipal theory, as the undertone of patriarchal existence,  considering that Freudian psychoanalysis itself is often criticised as outdated and prejudice. If evolution is in the form of a culturally global space that exists and culture is patriarchal then is the placement of the female to be forever subordinate still? “Code 46” leaves Maria in the Outside, disconnected, left only with memories of her love and loss, where as  William’s wife is in the inside, conforming. Is this suggesting the female will be outside of the technological global space , unless she accepts her place as the subordinate? It seems no matter how technical our global society progresses the same gender issues remain.