The Purge (2013)

The Purge (2013)

The Purge is a kind of out of nowhere film focusing on the idea of human rage and the different outlets we use to vent, such as crime.  Moreover, it comments on the widening gap between the upper and lower classes, once again depicting the lower class as violent criminals and the upper class as delusional snobs.  I missed it in theatres, but I was very intrigued by the premise so I made sure to catch it as soon as it came out.

The Plot

This film takes place in the year 2022 where crime and unemployment are at an all time low and the economy is flourishing, thanks to a law implemented by the New Founding Fathers.  The new law, called The Purge, is a 12 hour period each year in which crimes such as assault, murder and vandalism are made legal.  The idea behind this is that people will use the time window as an outlet through which to vent their rage and aggression that builds up each year, reducing their need to act out throughout the rest of the year.  The main selling point of this idea; the rich get to kill poor people with no consequences!  I know it sounds fucking stupid, but bear with me. 

The poor take advantage of this rule and kill the shit out of each other, which helps lower unemployment by getting rid of the economies dead weight and providing numerous job openings.  The rich, however, require protection from underprivileged and their savagery.  They use high tech security systems that essentially put the house under lockdown behind concrete walls during the Purge. 

Enter the Sandin family.  James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) is the highest grossing salesman of these security systems, making himself quite wealthy in the process.  He, his beautiful wife (Lena Headey) and their two children now occupy the very same wealthy neighbourhood as those to whom he sells the systems.  Some of the neighbours even say that they are the ones who paid for the Sandin Mansion #foreshadowing.

First world problems

The very wealthy Sandins eat a very wealthy looking supper, discuss being wealthy, and retire to separate rooms to find wealthy ways to do things.  Finally the purge begins.  The Sandin family gathers in the safe room to arm the defenses and watch some poor people kill each other.  Obviously the entire film can’t just be about them just chilling behind their barricade wealthily right.

Did I mention they are wealthy?

Some displacement of power needs to occur.  This displacement arrives in the form of an injured looking black dude wandering the streets outside.  James’ son does the sensible thing and disarms the security system, allowing the stranger inside the formerly safe confines of their fine, fine mansion.  While this is happening, James’ daughter Zoe’s boyfriend, who apparently never left the mansion earlier that day when he was supposed to, attacks James with a gun.  The kerfuffle creates time for  the intruder to disappear into the never-ending series of rooms within the Sandin mansion.

Seriously this family is on so many different pages, they’re more like a George R. R. Martin novel.

HA HA!

Within moments of unintentionally sheltering the injured vagrant, the Sandin’s  home is approached by a large group of wealthy, psychotically violent masked teens who appear quite intent on getting their target back to “unleash the beast” and “cleanse their souls”.  Part of me thinks they want to kill him, part of me thinks they want to rape him.  James Sandin and his family now face a difficult choice; should they return the injured man to the group of psychos who are pursuing him, or do they attempt to protect the stranger and in doing so, put their own lives at risk.

My Take

This movie is pretty well done, albeit somewhat predictable.  There is a good blend of suspense and I’ll even say horror (though I wouldn’t consider this a horror movie).  The idea of a home invasion is always terrifying, mainly because it can, and does happen more often than we would like.  Even though the Sandin’s take all the precautions in the world to avoid this very scenario, it falls upon them anyway.

Because fuck you that's why

There are tons of ethical dilemmas presented in this film.  Do you risk your family to do what’s right?  Do you side with the wealthy or the commoners?  Would you kill a stranger if you knew you could get away with it?  The exploration of these questions is what makes this movie so interesting.  That coupled with a pretty excellent action sequence at the end, and several twists along the way make this movie stand out.

Questionable decisions by protagonists and the lack of any real character development do manage to set this movie back somewhat.  Who is the wife?  I love Lena Headey as an actress, and I know she is a much more capable actress than this.  I believe she is the victim of a flat character and she can’t do anything about it.  The daughter seems to only be included in the film to mess things up for the family, first having a psychotic boyfriend, running off alone numerous times throughout the film forcing the family to split up and look for her, then getting captured by the vagrant.  She’s just not smart.

The ending of this movie (don’t worry I’m not going to spoil it) is fairly satisfying, but after watching will leave you wondering what happens next?  How could this possibly be a viable solution to anything?  And it’s going to happen every single year.

I thought the idea behind The Purge was stupid in itself.  I mean surely there are much better ways of venting your frustration than killing homeless people.  Sure humans by nature are a tad mean spirited, but by admitting we must succumb to our animal like rage is basically saying we are unfit to live in a society.  I think that eating healthy, getting some form of serotonin and maybe signing up for a jiu-jitsu class would be sufficient in working out the “rage” these poor people are unable to find any way of getting rid of.  Honestly we’ve all been at that point, where you just lose it and want to destroy something, but if you really need to act out your emotions and can’t sort them out like a civilised adult, go work at a wrecking yard and hulk smash all day long.

The Verdict

The very thing that enticed me about this movie also managed to piss me off about it.  The Purge is a silly idea that would never work out.  Looking past that, this is an enjoyable movie with somewhat hollow characters that you barely cheer for, but there is plenty of gratuitous violence for us savages to enjoy.

6.6/10