Urban Planning in the Movie Children of Heaven, Movie Review Example

Urban planning or the manner by which a city’s landscape is planned has been used in the movie Children of Heaven in line with the desire of showing specific elements of thematic presentations in the film. The assumption of the planning of the urban setting that was shown in the movie was an essential key to defining the meaning of the theme not only for the Iranian community but also for its worldwide viewers. This is the reason why in the movie of the Children of Heaven, it was not only the characters who gave life to the story, instead, the cityscape provided much depth to the meaning of the theme through initiating a sense of realism that the viewers would be able to relate to.

There are three particular aspects of enhancement that the presentation of the city’s urban planning contributed to the overall theme of the film. These aspects include improving thematic condition, setting social distinction and finally, defining overall social status. These three concepts of thematic enhancement that urban planning has contributed to the film shall be discussed in the paragraphs that follow.

First to note is the thematic condition. It should be taken into consideration that the story aims to deal with the presentation of how poverty plays a great role in setting the grounds for the conditioning of the viewers’ understanding of the message that the movie hopes to portray. Hoping to make an impact on how the viewers see the importance of the said foundation of the film’s story, poverty is seen in the setup of the sceneries that were used in the entire plot of the movie. The Iranian community is most commonly known for uniquely designed stone-homes that protect the people well away from the harsh conditions of the desert. Showing that the characters in the story had little of this matter intends to provide an understanding to the viewers that the characters did not enjoy so much material provisions as expected from a regular Iranian family.

Another aspect to take into consideration is the manner by which urban planning creates a presentation of social distinction in the movie. Social distinction has been used to show how separate the lifestyle of the main characters were from the rest of the society. Poor as they are, as mentioned in the first aspect discussed in the previous paragraph, the characters were placed in a poorly defined community. They would have to pass a properly define community towards their own home hence showing that the bigger homes belong to the more fortunate ones in the society, while the main characters lived their lives beyond the possession of such luxury. Hoping to create an appeal on the viewers, this specific condition in the movie hopes to manifest a sense of separation between the fortunate and not fortunate individuals in the society hence bringing in more force to the theme of the movie. Observably, the overtly rich has also been given focus in the story’s plot as Ali and his father [the main characters] started to travel a bit farther from their home to complete a specific job. Showing how different the landscape of the houses were in the subdivision where the mansion was situated imposed a sense of social division between the characters. Nevertheless, this also provided a strong impact on showing how a person’s status in life could define his being and his character. Relatively, the owner of the mansion was expected to be mean, proud and somewhat indifferent with the poor ones who work for them as “slaves” or in a way, as workers who seek for monetary payment. However, contrary to the said expectation, the owner of the mansion did not behave badly around Ali and his father. Instead, he was represented to be a good man and someone who feels for the needs of those who may not have been as fortunate as he is.

The third aspect is that of the setting of social status. Iran is known for it being the neighboring country of an excessively chaotic nation, Iraq. Being a neighbor, the country also suffers from whatever happens in the nation just nearby their territory. In short, Iraq’s condition has a lot to do with what Iran has become at present. Several ruins were shown in the film as part of the urban setting’s presentation. Relatively though, there are other areas in the city that were shown to be somewhat developed and could be considered modern in several aspects of interpretation. Nevertheless, it could not be denied that because of the situation that Iran has to contend with especially in relation to their “sister” country, Iraq, overall development like that of the possibly rich cities in the western side of the world cannot be fully implemented in the country. In this case, the urban planning that has been utilized as a base setting in the movie created a sense of awakening among the viewers as they see how different their situation is with those living in Iran. This way, the movie hopes to appeal to the thinking of the viewers from all over the world to reassess how they live their lives and how much they have been extending their hands to the needy.

Urban planning, the arrangement of homes, the appeal of the buildings and the creation of city landscapes often define the being of the people living within a certain community. For this particular film, urban planning has been used effectively to enhance the meaning of the film and the appeal that it is going to leave with its viewers. The desire of impacting the minds of the people from all over the globe and somewhat appealing to their emotions is what made this movie more compelling, allowing it to be nominated for best film in several international movie award-giving bodies. True, with the instantiation of the setting through enhanced representation of the city’s urban planning, the movie was successful enough to show the world how Iran survives, how its people live and how inspiring the children of Iran really are.