The Film Elysium
The film Elysium strategically constructs theories of social inequality through an abundance of ways. That is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. You can also argue that through the ideologies of social status, immigration and health care, Elysium in fact does closely relate to the context of our modern day society as well. Social conditions in the time and place of the movie “Elysium” vary from the wealthy who isolates themselves in a space station above planet earth from the poor in the Diseased City in Los Angeles on the diseased planet earth.
The wealthy live at a high status of life on that planet while everyone else in the city of los Angeles have very limited access to money and almost nobody can afford to get themselves to the City of Elysium where they have pretty much unlimited access to everything. The social conditions depicted in the movie are much different than the social condition in which we live in today. In todays society if an illegal immigrant comes to the US in critical condition, help is still appointed for them in our hospitals where as in the movie Elysium, the wealthy did not want to give access of complete rehabilitation to anyone who was not a legal citizen of Elysium.
Elysium had the power to rehabilitate anyone from any sickness where as the young girl is healed of her critical leukemia at the close of the movie. We can relate this to the same problems in which we encounter in our society today where illegal immigrants are being separated from their families in warehouses with caged in fences as they are treated like prisoners, even though that is not the image they want individuals to have in their heads. Children are being separated from their parents because just like in today’s modern day prisons, they cannot mix the adults with the adolescents. This is an enormous global issue as we try to figure out how to accompany all these people without having any widespread global issue.
The ideas of social mobility are immensely noticed throughout the entire film, as we see the homeless and diseases people of Earth try to achieve this upward social mobility to a better life on Elysium. The predominant driving factor in Elysium to achieve a higher social status is access to improve medical facilities. This is the main driving force in the entire movie as everyone on the diseased planet earth must try to seek help to get themselves in a better social status in means of recovery and not remain peasants in a place with literally no opportunity.
The only opportunities given to people on earth are extremely demanding factory jobs working for the higher-class individuals who are given access to the space station of Elysium and are in fact considered legal citizens. As Max is granted his society on Earth for much better living conditions for the future, in the end of the film he winds up sacrificing his own life in order for all individuals not granted legal citizenship on Elysium to be finally granted the legal citizenship they have been waiting for and they can finally fulfill there lives of being part of the higher social status they have been denied for decades.
There are multiple reasons that individuals or whole societies choose to immigrate, although leading to one ultimate goal, the search for a better life for themselves. Immigration involves the process of moving to another country and can be done either legally or illegally. The entire film individuals are seeking ways to try to become legal citizens of Elysium but because of the way social statuses are split up which is exactly the same scenarios we see going on here in the united states, the social statuses they try to become scribed to are near impossible until someone takes initiative to try and make things right which is exactly what Max does at the close of the film.
These wishes in which the lower status try to reach can be referred to as push factors. Push factors are those which make the person want or have to leave such as to get away from poverty, receive higher income or an attempt to help one’s family. This brings us to another point with pull factors, which, can relate to push factors in a number of ways. Pull factors are the opportunities, which draw people including increased education opportunities, better jobs and a promising future for their children.
Nobody wants to be a part of the society where there living in constant struggle and have to watch other individuals who don’t have to go through any struggles in order to reach a certain level of happiness in life. This brings us back to the main point of the entire film, which resolves around immigration and laws inhibiting people to immigrate to places in which they will be able to achieve happiness not only for themselves but for their families as well.
Immigration is seen as a major problem to most citizens in the United States. As seen in Elysium, societies, typically of higher class, may feel threatened by the arrival of immigrants into their culture. Opportunities may be tarnished such as employment, education and access to health services. Most of the United States feels as if they are being challenged and threatened in a sense by these new ways of diversity along with the feeling of multiculturalism. A huge part of our country revolves around multiculturalism and accepting all races and religions, which I agree with in every aspect. I myself have a friend group. Which is made up of many different races and cultures and if I were to be like the higher-class individuals of Elysium, I would just simply not be accepted socially in any way and would definitely looked down upon by mostly everyone I’m associated with.
Asylum seekers are continually arriving in the United States, searching for an improved holistic life. This is relatable to the ambitions of Max who attempts to force his way into the society that is Elysium. Throughout the film we see Max’s determination to achieve social mobility not only for himself, but also for all the lower class citizens living on Earth. Still in the modern day the contingency to live an extensive and healthy life remains thoroughly uneven.
Differences in socioeconomic status and an individual’s social class, among other things, will decide their access to health care services. This associates with severe issues such as increased risk of disease, disability and premature death, which is much of what the city of Los Angelo’s in the film is made up of. Maintaining a control over health care will enable and provide political and social power not only to what was going on in the film Elysium, but this also pertains to the United States as well.
In conclusion, this film set out to demonstrate most of the common problems in which we deal within society today. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to watch this movie and draw a conclusion on life to where everything and everyone should be treated equal. It’s a lot easier said than done but someone in the near future will have to be capable of granting everyone similar social statuses. The wealthy are always going to be isolated as these individuals make up an immensely small part of our population but these individuals must come to an agreement to share the wealth in order to help those individuals in duress and who are absolutely 100% in need of help in every way possible.
I myself have learned a whole lot from watching this movie and it has already changed my outlook on life. Many important messages were illustrated through the multiple themes of social status in this film and I almost feel as if everyone should come to a conclusion on the multiple points I’ve made in this paper. We as a society can make things better with just a positive outlook on life and being accepting of all individuals, not just the ones we grew up around and are accustomed too.
