comment #1

T. S. Idiot says ...

Newcomers may not be aware of Wells' strong aversion to people of either sex, but especially males, exposing their feet in public. I agree wholeheartedly. Men's dignity is reduced drastically by wearing sandals. Flip-flops indicate that they have given up all hope of being functioning human beings. As much as I admire Clive and Cuaron, my interest in this film has all but vanished.

comment #2

ArchiveGuy says ...

In all fairness, we are talking about a film dealing with the collapse of civilization and people wallowing in the deepest recesses of despair, so flip-flops seem perfectly suitable, from a psychological point-of-view.

comment #3

MattyC says ...

T.S.-
C'mon, man, are you actually saying that because of an offhanded comment about the hero's footwear, knowing nothing about the context in which he wears flip-flops, or any circumstances surrounding said flip-flops, you now have no interest in seeing the film?? That seems a bit extreme, donchathink?

I mean, Bruce Willis was barefoot for 95% of Die Hard, and they made it a factor in the movie multiple times. It became part of everything, and had consequences. I trust Cuaron enough to believe that they're not making some sort of flip, aesthetic choice. I'm still in for this one.

comment #4

nemo says ...

Hey, a little respect for flip-flops, please. The mighty U.S. of A. got its ass kicked in Vietnam by guys wearing flip-flops.

(Everybody duck while we hear from a bunch of Rambo-at-the-keyboard revisionists about how the US really won the Vietnam war, just like we're winning the current war, if it weren't for all those negative back-stabbing nay-saying the-glass-is-half-empty tyrant-appeasing Neville Chamberlain peaceniks.)

But maybe we should make a manliness exception for Southeast Asian guys who made their own flip-flops from old tires.

comment #5

nemo says ...

The American male aversion for sandals was a bizarro cultural taboo I once tried to explain to some Israelis I knew in graduate school, without much success.

They wanted to know why Americans insisted on wearing heavy athletic shoes with heavy athletic socks in the hottest part of the summer. Obviously Americans are willing to strip down to shorts and T-shirts and even wife-beater tank-tops when the temperatures soared into the 90s. So why do Americans, especially men, insist on encasing their feet in these hot sweaty tombs?

It was obvious to the Israelis that it was lot smarter and more comfortable to wear sandals.

I tried to explain it at first in terms of American admiration for sports, especially basketball, but the Israelis weren't buying it.

So I finally I broke down and admitted that American males had a deep-seated fear that sandals would make them appear effeminate. I said that only a handful of despised out-groups such as beatniks in the 50s and hippies in the 60s ever dared to buck this taboo, and were reviled for it. I told them that no American male would be caught dead wearing sandals for fear of being taken for some kind of homo girly-man.

The Israelis found this completely baffling. As baffling as we would find some of the cultural taboos in Saudi Arabia or Japan. And make no mistake about it, Israelis are as macho as they come. Hell, the Israeli women are more macho than any American action hero.

They especially didn't buy my original sports explanation. They told me there was a vast sandals industry in Israel that turned out sandals for every occasion, including playing sports such as basketball.

They then turned to reminiscing nostalgically about their favorite brand of Israeli sandals called, I kid you not, Nimrods. The name, for all you giggling Americans out there, comes from the name of a mighty hunter mentioned in several books in the Bible.

I didn't have the heart to tell them what "nimrod" means in American high schools.

comment #6

Reint says ...

I saw 'Children of Men' yesterday. It's, dare I say it, a masterpiece, or at least very close to that. It's technically brilliant (multiple times, I found myself wondering, "How the hell did they do that?") and extremely engaging. An adrenaline rush of a film, it has everything: high-stakes drama, well placed comedy and brutal yet exhilarating action. Extremely highly recommended.

Oh, and the flip-flops make sense in context. And it's funny. Really.