The other day, I watched I am Legend. It was a remake film based on a novel of the same title. In fact, there were two films before it with the same storyline. The infected became zombie-like characters. They wanted to kill the protagonist outright. The protagonist was immune to the pathogen that infected the world and was trying to find a cure.
This story didn't show any social distancing as the non-infected characters we're not concerned about getting the pathogen from each other but only from the zombies. Sure, social distancing was not a thing when it was made nor when the book was written you might say. I would argue it always has been a human reaction to any sick person to distance yourself from them. So, it wouldn't be a stretch to have the characters practice social distancing.
They didn't wear masks. From the story, you understood that the pathogen was airborne but when two people showed up to help the protagonist, no attempt was made to have them wear surgical masks. In fact, that is true in most movies, even ones involving diseases. I guess you have to see their faces at all times.
The characters didn't suffer present financial loss because they literally had the world at their disposal. They could take whatever they wanted. There was nobody around to stop them during the day since the zombies shunned the light. You might argue that the population might have suffered financial loss beforehand. While that is possible, we have no inkling of this occurring.
There was a sense of loss. This was right, and it rang true. The sense of thousands of people dying from the pandemic stung hard for me. In the story, we can immediately see the devastation and loneliness although it was in the past. In real life, we have yet to realize it in its full form. When we get back to opening up, then we will see. We will see whom we miss. Whom we have lost. We will also see what we have lost, in terms of business and jobs. This is very much our present and near future.
The sense of fear was real. For some people, you could call it dread. I know and we may all know someone who has died or has lost someone to COVID-19. Then the fear comes that says, "When is it my turn? When am I going to lose my breath? When am I going to choke? When is this disease going to take me?" That's in the back of the minds of many of us for one reason or another. That's fear talking. Fear never did anybody any good. Don't listen to it, but hang in there and keep your social distance. The movie embodies the fear in the zombies. We do not have the luxury of seeing the cause of fear.
What do you think? Did fiction get it right, or could it learn a thing or two with this pandemic crisis? I think it got down the sense of loss and majored in the fear. Then it ignored the social distancing and wearing masks. It also tends to gloss over the financial loss. What Stokes me is that these things don't happen all at 100% in a real pandemic. People get the disease, some businesses close but some remain. Some people lose their jobs but not all. Some people pass away but not all. While in fiction these things seem to happen more closer to 100%.
I think it's important to note that the responsibility response to this pandemic has been unique. Never before have we applied social distancing on such a grand scale. Never before have we shut down society worldwide. Never before have we recommended the use of facemasks for the health of the population worldwide.
