| N O T E S |
While in production, this film was originally called Librium, after Librium®, an actual drug that is used to treat anxiety, panic, tension and alcohol withdrawal disorders, but was changed to avoid trademark infringement. In some ways, the story is reminiscent of the Bradbury classic "Fahrenheit 451" or Orwell's "1984." Clerick John Preston (Christian Bale) is a top government agent in a totalitarian future society called Libria where uncontrolled thought is forbidden and anyone who rebels is executed. A daily dose of a government-mandated naroctic called Prozium is used to suppress the population, which is led by a sinister political leader known as Father and his Jedi Knight-like fighters called the Grammaton Clerics. Since human feeling has been judged to be the root of all suffering including war, emotions are sacrificed for the greater good, but the downside is that everything else that comes from passion—art, sports, even pets—is sacrificed also. However a group of rebels known as the "sense offenders" have sprung up, with the enigmatic Jurgen (William Fichtner) as their leader. Preston follows orders as usual, until he meets Mary O'Brian (Emily Watson), who induces him to reconsider his mindset, leading him to fall in love with her after he stops taking his dosage. As he goes from a person who has never felt anything at all, to feeling all that can be felt, Preston decides to free the world of its fascist dictatorship. The film contains some intense action sequences including gunplay as well as kendo and samurai swordplay. Production started on a budget of $20+ million on September 19, 2000 at various locations in Europe, including at an abandoned Nazi-era concert venue in Berlin, and wrapped later in the year.
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