Blindness
When an unexplained epidemic turns an unnamed city white-blind, one secretly sighted woman becomes the moral guide for a fragile band of survivors.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Extreme
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Brutal
- oppressive
- harrowing
- philosophical
- serious movie night
- literary adaptation viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly found the film provocative and visually accomplished but overly grim, predictable, and less powerful than José Saramago's novel.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Authorities quarantine the newly blind in an abandoned mental hospital, where order and protection rapidly give way to predation.
The Doctor's Wife retains her vision while everyone around her becomes blind, forcing her to conceal the advantage as she guides the quarantined group.
The film uses blinding white imagery, disorienting compositions, and ravaged urban spaces to make the epidemic's subjective experience visually pervasive.
Mass blindness serves as an allegorical pressure test for authority, selfishness, solidarity, and the fragility of civilization.
Films like Blindness, and why
Children of Men
shares dystopian social collapse, institutional cruelty, and bleak allegorical drama
The Crazies
shares epidemic-driven societal breakdown, moral terror, and oppressive disaster atmosphere
The Road
shares austere speculative fiction, existential themes, and civilization under extreme pressure
Movie Details
- Director
- Fernando Meirelles
- Release Date
- 2008-05-14
- Runtime
- 121 min
- Rating
- 6.5 / 10 (1424)
Cast
- Julianne Moore
- Mark Ruffalo
- Danny Glover
- Gael García Bernal
- Maury Chaykin
- Alice Braga
- Don McKellar
- Sandra Oh
- Yusuke Iseya
- Yoshino Kimura
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Blindness about?
- When an unexplained epidemic turns an unnamed city white-blind, one secretly sighted woman becomes the moral guide for a fragile band of survivors.
- What is Blindness like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Blindness as measured, its intensity as extreme and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Blindness violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Blindness as brutal.
- What did critics think of Blindness?
- Critics broadly found the film provocative and visually accomplished but overly grim, predictable, and less powerful than José Saramago's novel.
- Which films are like Blindness?
- Films with a similar feel include Children of Men, The Crazies, and The Road.
- How long is Blindness?
- Blindness runs 121 minutes.
- Where can I watch Blindness?
- In United States, Blindness streams on fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel.
