The Purge

Dustin: 1.5/5 stars Nick: 1.5/5 stars Average: 1.5/5 stars (Canary on life support)

Dustin: For today’s review I caught up with Nick Keith at his villa in Tuscany.

Love the view, Nick.

Nick: Grazie! Come sta?

Dustin: The Chianti is excellent—2006 was a good year.

Nick: Yes, it was a beautiful time. Italy won the World Cup, everyone was happy, and everything benefited.

Dustin: I hope your villa is secure. I would hate for a mindless mob from the outside to try to break in here and slaughter whoever you’re protecting along with you and your family like in that movie, Hotel Rwanda.

By the way, what did you think of The Purge?

Nick: While a fun B-movie premise, The Purge never attempted anything that would be entertaining on any level.

Dustin: I liked the premise too, and the movie really had me going for the first 25 minutes or so. But yeah, it was disappointing after that.

Nick: I thought the movie would have excelled if it went outside of the house. Why just explore one house, in one neighborhood, rather than an entire country where the Purge is happening?

Dustin: I prefer a narrow focus, but I agree the movie needed to set up the world a little better, which was the same complaint we had last week with After Earf. We’re just told everyone except some pussies in academia think the Purge is good for society, and the characters, except the boy, never really question that, not even when their lives are in danger. The movie needed to set up the George Orwellian society better.

Nick: When I say country, I mean show me some scenes of families in their living rooms, huddled together, enjoying some popcorn, surrounded by weapons, watching the Purge on their TVs. We do get a scene that shows the Purge is televised for everyone at home.

Dustin: I think that is part of my overall complaint about this movie—that it’s simply lazy. Especially in character development.

The action really starts when the stupid boy lets a stranger who is the target of the Purge into their house for no good reason. The family plans to turn him over to the mob to protect themselves. We’re never given a reason to sympathize with the stranger up to this point. Or ever, really. He is prepared to cut down the mother with a machete and he later holds a gun to the sister’s head in order to save himself. At no point would I have reconsidered turning him over. After he’s all tied up, he says, “Turn me over. Save your family.” Of course the family can’t turn him over after he’s said that. It was out of character for the stranger. I think the stranger was either trying to manipulate the family into protecting him, which would be in character, or the screenwriter was lazy and just needed a reason for the mob to invade the house.

Nick: What a rant! Now when you say stupid, I assume you mean naïve. I also feel that you are supposed to feel for the kids and the stranger solely based on the fact that they had nothing to do with the induction of the Purge, while the parents are well-off and probably aligned themselves with the faction pushing for the Purge.

Dustin: The family supports the Purge. The father became wealthy selling security equipment, and he says at one point the Purge is a good thing. He tells the boy about how bad society was before the Purge. I never got the impression the parents challenged that belief in the movie. The action was too fast to slow down and spend time on pointless things like character development.

Nick: The whole family doesn't support the Purge. The dad does, and the mother goes along with it, but she only says the Purge is good for society too calm her children. The kids never act as if they support this system of violence.

Dustin: I felt like this movie tried to add some social commentary, but in a half-hearted way that fell flat. Did you get that impression?

Nick: It was definitely created with the idea of attacking society, but, like you said, nothing really follows through. Lazy writing.

Dustin: I really liked the setup, and I think this could have been an excellent movie in the right hands. What with a brainwashed society cleansing itself of a certain class of people, while a family hid an innocent victim, there was an obvious parallel with the Holocaust that was never explored. The movie could have also brought up ethical questions about whether it’s right to put your family in obvious danger to protect only one person, and whether legalizing violence for one night is right if it leads to a safe society. The movie only barely touched on the latter question. The material needed someone like Stanley Kubrick or the Coen brothers.

THE FOLLOWING SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS—NOT THAT IT MATTERS

Nick: Ethan Hawke (the dad) tried to kick the stranger out in order to protect his family, and the family supported him until they saw how psychotic he was becoming. Do you not remember Ethan Hawke trying to get the stranger out of his house?

Dustin: I remembered that scene. I thought he was acting logically considering the stranger had just held a gun to his daughter's head. I was actually wondering why the family was showing any sympathy to the stranger right then. I thought that was lazy writing. But the writer needed a reason for the stranger to save the family at the end, which is what I predicted from that moment.

Nick: Well the stranger was only trying to protect himself from people who were freaking out that he was in their house. He also did not go after the family. The parents kept coming after him to try to get him out of the house. I also feel the wife’s U-turn was justified as she was just sticking a letter opener into an open wound on the stranger’s stomach while being yelled at by her husband. Then the husband saw the way his whole family looked at him and changed his mind.

END OF SPOILERS

Nick: I do agree though there is lazy writing. The twist, the bad guys, and the world are so thin.

Dustin: Did you think this needed to play like a horror film? It really wasn't a horror film. No ghosts, no ghouls, no “paranormal activity.” But it had a creepy atmosphere, cut in a way that made the mob look supernatural. There were moments that made you jump for no reason. Like when the girl leaned over in front of the boy’s roving camera thingy and there was a loud Dun! that made you jump. I was like “Whoa! Oh, it was only the girl. Phew. ...wait, what? Fuck this movie.”

Nick: I thought it played itself as a thriller with some horror elements thrown in. You don’t need a ghost to make a horror film, just an antagonist that you don’t quite understand and is unrelenting, such as the Purge in general or the creepy, yuppie kids. I enjoyed the casting of the main yuppie. He looked just like his mask with the creepy smile.

Dustin: I liked him too. Totally a future Bond villain.

Nick: I thought his character wasn't given much to do besides being intimidating for 10 minutes.

I thought this film would have benefited if there were better twists with less jerking of the camera and quick editing. I would've liked the twists to be more B-moviesque. Like, way after the boyfriend tried to kill the dad you would learn that the daughter coaxed him into doing that. Then when the neighbors come you find out that the daughter was having a seedy relationship with one of the husbands. Then the adulterous husband kills his wife and he and the daughter make out in front of her freaked-out family. Then her little brother kills her, as she is taunting the dying wife, and the stranger kills the husband. You like? I think it sounds way more fun.

Dustin: You could write your own Purge fan fiction. It’s definitely more believable than what actually happened, and would give actual motives for the characters’ actions. The movie expects us to believe society is less than 10 years from devolving into a Utopian dystopia, and that our neighbors are petty enough to kill us because we have a slightly bigger house. It's a very ugly and mean-spirited movie in that sense.

The movie was only an hour and 20 minutes. It could have built up the plot in a smarter way and had the home invasion just be the final act of a two-hour movie.

Nick: The Purge suffered from having a B-movie premise while trying to be a heart-wrenching thriller, which it never came close to accomplishing.