By never denying or masking the terrible realities of their characters' situations, these comedies succeed in showing humanity against a backdrop of inhumanity They never diminished the unfolding tragedy, but highlighted it.
It reminded me of George A Romero's Night of the Living Dead, John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids and Peter Schaffer's absurdist stage-play Black Comedy, showing humanity groping in the darkness.
From Spartacus's battles with the Romans to Maximus Decimus Meridius's ruthless destruction of the Teutonic hordes in Gladiator, Hollywood has always been obsessed with showing humanity in monumental, monstrous conflict.
"We must not shy away from showing humanity, even in terrorists," he insists.
It does, I believe, demonstrate our own humanity to those who have not or are incapable of showing humanity to others.
Supporters of this view see the painting as a sequential narrative, with the left hand panel showing humanity's innocence in Eden, the central panel the corruption of that innocence, and finally humanity's punishment in Hell.
