MovieChat Forums > The Rover (2014) Discussion > This is not a post-apocalyptic story.

This is not a post-apocalyptic story.

posted 10 years ago by janus_keinaerts
47 replies | jump to latest

This is not a post-apocalyptic story.
The world didn't end.
There's still a semi-functioning national coin and a valued American Dollar.It's suggested that China is still going strong.
Most thriving local shops are in the hands of Chinese/Asians. As is the case in a lot of developing countries in Asia and Africa.

So, globally, capitalism is still thriving.
What's shocking for (our) caucasian/Northern/North-American/European eyes is that the collapse, mentioned in the intro, happened in Australia, a "developed" country.
In fact, the Rover's anarchic backdrop is an everyday reality in developing countries.
You have these so-called soft states, great at targeted repression and clientelism, where there's only order in the capital. The rest is chaos.
Like The Rover's Australia, these states get their quick revenue from mining. Tyical warlord-cleptocracies: farming or service industries are too long-term to care for.

This is just a white man's Third World country. Like some Afrikaner nightmare.
I'm thinking of present-day Liberia, where ebola ravages the population and its (weak) institutions. Or Somalia where Al-Shabaab knocks on Mogadishu's door.

The only thing missing was a reference to UN-refugeecamps or some bags of UNAID lying around to prove my point.
Not trying to start a discussion here. Just -erm- giving my point of view.

[–] pater-tenebrarum 8 years ago

Strictly speaking we no longer have capitalism. So what collapsed, or is still "working" somewhere as you contend, is regulatory crony socialism. We should not sully the perfectly good term capitalism by pretending that it is the system currently in operation.

[–] mobocracy (855) 4 years ago

While I think some elements of this can be seen as similar to the situation on the ground in a developing country, what's different here isn't just the dilapidated infrastructure but the absence of any sign of rational social structure. Even in war zones and the poorest developing nations, there's some kind of social structure. Markets, some level of trade, some kind of village engaged in the ongoing struggle against nature and starvation.

What's missing in The Rover is that social structure. I mean it's kind of there, but its so broken down as to be barely recognizable. It feels post-apocalyptic, mostly because it doesn't seem like there has been any adaptation to whatever the larger economic/political situation is.

What's kind of missing is how these people survive -- the arid, semi-desert outback is really only populated to the extent that there is an economic system able to supply areas like this with food and other necessities. There doesn't seem to be enough economic activity/structure in the Rover's universe for these people to be where they are, especially for as long as they've been there.