Pages

Friday, April 8, 2016

Faith in Humanity?


I will admit, when the movie first started, and even well past the halfway point, I was counting off the flaws in my head that I saw with the plot. Maybe its my faith in humanity, but I found I difficult to believe that there were people who just filmed brutal murders, and felt nothing over it. What threw me even more off was the concept of the hunters. I assumed they were self proclaimed, considering there probably wasn’t an official to declare them or anything. This seemed completely flawed to me too. What reasonable human being would let others hunt them? Not that they had a choice in the matter but they could have always pretended to be transfixed on the phone too. Or even joined the hunters, if it meant it would save their own lives. Even more so, I could not stand the lack of character development with the girl following along the main character. But of course, all these problems and loose ends I had with the film were solved and tied together with the ending. I kicked myself for doubting the development of the storyline and the characters. Honestly, this was the best way to draw out the plot. Most all of the issues including the hunters and the questions on the characters were answered. They could not answer and solve all these problems I saw without spoiling the entire film. In regard to the tourists visiting the park and participating in this punishment, it seemed there was one issue I had at the beginning that remained through the end which is the faith in humanity. I like to think humans have more empathy for one another and can provide more dignity to others, even when one has committed a crime as terrible as the one in this film. The way it seemed, the punishment stooped just as low as the crime did. Trying to correct a wrong with another wrong isn’t a good method and sends the wrong message on how to handle wrongs. Even though each day was wiped from her memory, she still had to endure it. And even worse, humanity made an entertainment out of it. Once again, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and say there is no way this would ever take off, but then again, we do punish some murder with killing the murderer. Seems like a parallel I’m afraid.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with you. For human beings to have such a lack of empathy that they would watch others be brutally killed and hunted, humanity must have gone to an all time low. But that was the point, I think. It's what Victoria, our main character, did; it;s what the park actors and volunteers did! It's what we do today in our own society! These actions, or lack thereof, go beyond that of the Bystander Effect. Taking on the mindset of those directly involved, they think this is totally okay. In their minds, she is no longer human! She can't be if she's so willing to allow such horrible things! That's how they justify being able to separate themselves from such a torturous process. You're right, the punishment did stoop as low as the crime. You can't fight fire with fire; you can't kill people who kill people; none of this was really right.

Anonymous said...

I know how you may feel when certain actions and situations can cause you to have doubts in humanity. The actions that occurred in the film are a testimate to that. That "punishment" was only meant for entertainment, and the facility was more of a theme park than justice park. The video kind of showed me that some people will be entertained by anything even if it's at someone else's suspense.

Anonymous said...

At the beginning of your post I thought, "Lack of character development?!?!" But your final few sentences I wholly agree with. A wrong cannot correct another and especially because she had to endure the same wrong everyday. Moreover, even though she forgets everything the physical damage is still there.

Anonymous said...

At the beginning of your post I thought, "Lack of character development?!?!" But your final few sentences I wholly agree with. A wrong cannot correct another and especially because she had to endure the same wrong everyday. Moreover, even though she forgets everything the physical damage is still there.