Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, its representation in Hollywood remains curiously absent. While literature has delved into the pandemic's enduring effects, film has largely sidestepped the topic, prompting questions about the reasons behind this disparity.
Five years have passed since COVID-19 emerged globally, triggering lockdowns, infecting communities, and claiming millions of lives. However, the pandemic's portrayal in culture has been remarkably varied, considering its scale. Major Hollywood blockbusters have largely avoided mentioning the pandemic, sidestepping the very event that halted numerous productions.In contrast, literature has grappled with the pandemic's enduring effects on our lives and relationships.
Madeleine Gray's novel, Green Dot, follows Hera, a young woman who embarks on an affair with her older, married colleague. Midway through the novel, Hera attempts to escape the consequences of her actions by relocating from Sydney to London, but stringent COVID-19 lockdowns disrupt her new life, forcing her back home. Gray penned the novel during her solitary lockdown experience in Sydney, a period when her mental health was struggling. She incorporated the pandemic into the narrative because Green Dot is a contemporary novel set before and during the pandemic era. Excluding the pandemic would have felt like rewriting history, Gray explained to ABC News. Green Dot explores themes of longing, love, and the inability to connect with loved ones, making the pandemic a compelling plot device to enhance these themes. The isolation experienced during the pandemic mirrors the lovelorn desperation and pathos felt by the protagonist. Initially, one of Gray's publishers suggested omitting the pandemic, fearing readers might be unwilling to relive it. While Gray empathizes with this perspective, she believes fiction provides a space to reflect upon our world, delve into others' minds, and understand how individual experiences of events can differ. She fought to retain the pandemic section, emphasizing the shared trauma that connects us all. The pandemic has also appeared in international films, including the Oscar-nominated Norwegian film The Worst Person In the World. Rian Johnson's sequel to Knives Out, Glass Onion, features the pandemic but solely through the lens of affluent individuals discarding face masks for a getaway on a tech billionaire's private Greek island. This film's acquisition by Netflix resulted in a direct-to-streaming release after a limited one-week theatrical run. Lauren Rosewarne, an expert in politics and pop culture at the University of Melbourne, points out the staggering loss of over 1 million lives in the United States due to COVID-19. While society rushes to move on, this immense number of lives lost should not be overlooked. Beyond the immeasurable grief, the pandemic devastated businesses, severely impacted livelihoods, and exacerbated existing political divisions. Rosewarne suggests that re-experiencing the pandemic might not be something audiences currently desire, particularly in entertainment media. This aversion to representing unfolding crises is not unprecedented. Both the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent anthrax attacks took several years to be depicted significantly in films. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Twin Towers were even digitally removed from several unreleased films to minimize potential re-traumatization. However, other factors may also contribute to the limited representation of COVID-19 in film. Lockdowns, coupled with the Hollywood writers' strike, have significantly impacted the film and television industries, causing production delays that literature has not faced as acutely. For authors like Madeleine Gray, incorporating the pandemic into novels poses less risk because, as she acknowledges, novels are less expensive to produce. As we approach the midpoint of the decade, it's natural to wonder what the future holds for film, television, and literature. Creators, driven by the desire to capture the spirit of the times, will continue exploring various facets of the pandemic's impact. While some works may directly address the pandemic, others will likely utilize metaphors and indirect representations to convey its enduring influence.
COVID-19 Pandemic Culture Literature Film Hollywood Representation
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