Today is the birthday of English actor Clive Owen. Among his films is the 2006 classic Children of Men, based on the dystopian novel by P.D. James. It imagines a grim world in which two decades of global human infertility have left humanity with less than a century to survive. The United Kingdom has the last functioning government and is overrun with refugees.
It's one of the most visually striking films I've ever seen. In particular, it features several lengthy single-shot sequences, including a six minute scene of Owen running through a raging battlefield.
The shot that is mentioned most often takes place earlier in the film. Owen and his estranged wife (played by Julianne Moore) lead an effort to help a young refugee escape when their car is ambushed.
Click the picture to see a clip of the scene. It doesn't do the shot justice, but Universal has removed longer clips from the web. Here's how David Dylan Thomas of Filmcritic.com described it:
Using a revolutionary camera rig that rides both atop and within a speeding car, [director Alfonso] Cuaron captures an attack on our heroes, only cutting (without looking like it) once they exit the car. The elaborate camerawork, rather than diluting the shocking violence of the sequence, augments it because the real-time nature of the scene and the proximity of the camera to the characters only makes it more intimate.
The shot spins around to show all the characters fighting off the assailants as they drive backwards, avoid bullets and spears etc. No effects were used to create the shot other than a specially rigged car which allowed the camera to hang suspended from the roof and spin and move to capture everyone's reactions. This shot is one of a series of long extended takes in the film
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