Cargo (2017)
Bit late on the bandwagon, but I watched Cargo recently, the zombie movie with Martin Freeman.
The zombie theme was quite well done, understated and practical. I really appreciated the detail with the zombie emergency packages. In a lot of other zombie stories society collapses much faster, so it was interesting that in this one there had been a sort of government response before the collapse. This was some years before Covid-19, but I could probably relate a lot more to this aspect of Cargo than if I’d have watched it pre-corona times.
Now, one of the main themes of the story was kind of frustrating: a man being the asshole that men very often are, causing the death of his wife by lying to her (claiming the sailing boat was “safe” because apparently he didn’t trust her with the truth or felt like he needed to reassure her with a lie), and also the death of himself, which would likely result in the death of their child, by not respecting his wife’s choices and understanding of her own body and illness and her commitment to protect her family. In the end it takes him being on the brink of death several times and in several ways, and then for real in finality, to kind of redeem himself and manage to ensure his daughter’s safety. Having to watch this unfold from the man’s own perspective felt really sad, especially when his final moment kind of revealed that he really loved his wife ... but just couldn’t get over his assholery while she was still alive, I guess.
The other, actually fundamental, main theme was mentioned by Simone Landers, who plays Thoomi: “'Cargo' isn't really a zombie film. 'The Virals' are symbolic of the Western pollution ... the film promotes the Indigenous respect for the land, and I am proud to be a part of that.” Cargo is a full-length feature remake of a short film with the same name by writer and co-director Yolanda Ramke, but
“An extensive consultation process was conducted with members of the Australian Indigenous community throughout development. Indigenous writer Jon Bell came on board as script advisor, assisting Ramke in understanding specific cultural practices, avoiding stereotypes and delivering authentic contemporary dialogue. This process also greatly informed what would become a central theme of 'Cargo', a disconnect between the modern western world and Indigenous traditional culture.” x
While the white characters struggle to survive after the “collapse of civilization”, pretty much all of them dying and/or killing each other within the short time frame of the film, the Indigenous people have “gone back to the old ways” and found strategies to both curb the zombies and survive off the land like people used to do before colonialism and imposed “Western civilization”.
This was a very nice and refreshing take. Possibly uncomfortable, or hard to understand, for white viewers lol.
In conclusion, I didn’t love it, but only because Martin Freeman’s character was so irritating and the story was told mainly from his perspective. Had it been told from Thoomi’s perspective, I would probably have been ecstatic about it ^^
And of course as a former (?!) BBC Sherlock blog, I had perplexing emotional responses to the baby daughter being named Rosie ... *ping flashbacks from Sherlock 2016 fandom* ...
