Thursday, November 7, 2013
The Purge (2013)
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max
Burkholder, Adelaide Kane
Director:
James DeMonaco
Synposis:
In the near future, America
thrives on the annual purge, a twelve-hour period where emergency services are
suspended and all crime is legal. James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) is a developer of
security systems made to protect people during the purge. His family lives in a
large house in a wealthy neighborhood as a result. As the purge begins, the
house is locked down. Prior to this, Zoey (Adelaide Kane), James' daughter,
sneaks her boyfriend into the house. Charlie (Max Burkholder), James' son,
witnesses a bleeding man running down the street asking for help. Charlie
unlocks the security system and lets the man into the house. As the family
looks for a solution to handle this situation, Zoey's boyfriend attempts to
murder James. The boyfriend is fatally wounded by James, and the stranger runs
away to hide in the house. Meanwhile a group of young people participating in
the purge come looking for the stranger, and demand that they give him up. The
group cuts the power to their home and gives them time to give up the stranger
before they enter the house and kill everyone. The family debates back and
forth, and eventually the group breaks in and begins to hunt them down. James
successfully kills a number of them but is eventually stabbed to death by their
leader. Zoey witnesses this and shoots him. Meanwhile, the Sandin's jealous
neighbors come in and kill the remainder of the purging group, with the intent
to finish the Sandins off themselves. The stranger comes out of nowhere and
kills one of the neighbors, while threatening the same on all the others. The
neighbors let the Sandins go and they spend the rest of the night sitting at
the kitchen table. Mary (Lena Headley), James' wife, decides to spare the
neighbors rather than take revenge. One of them tries to take the upper hand
and steal Mary's gun. Mary deflects the attack and smashes her face into the
table. The alarms begin to sound that the purge is over, and the neighbors
leave. The film ends as television reviews describe this year's purge as the
most successful, and announcing the date of the next purge.
Reviewer's
Rating: 3.5/5 Reels
Review:
The concept of this film is
brilliant. Everyone can relate because we have all imagined what life would be
like without negative consequences. It says much about our human condition, in
that we are much less forgiving in our deepest thoughts than we seem to be on
the surface. It also shows that as a culture we are on a depraved social
decline. This film serves as a natural extrapolation if we continue on the
trends of self-indulgence we currently have.
The cast does a great job
bringing the characters to life and creating a family tailored for the purge. Max
Burkholder displays the depth of a child's compassion with his character's
helpful attitude towards the stranger. He is the voice of innocence in this
film and conveys this very well. Lena Headley Is able to quickly display sorrow
without totally shutting down. Mary is capable of working through her emotions
while still outwardly displaying them. Ethan Hawke gives James a strong
leadership role that brings the family together to stay alive. He causes James
to be a character of action who can and will do what is necessary to protect
the oppressed even when it means killing another human. When his character is
murdered, his absence is felt heavily for the rest of the film.
James DeMonaco could have
easily created a film with greater suspense. The attackers were not as
intimidating as they could have been, and the dark scenes in the house did not
surprise nearly as much. Almost all the attackers were only citizens, with the
exception of the stranger, who was a veteran. It would seem that these average
citizens would be much more brutal after surviving the previous purges. There
is also little to no activity seen outside. It would have been interesting to
say the least to see what the purge would look like in a crowded city. Even in
suburbs, the purge was relatively quiet, despite all of the footage displayed
in the film of past purges. As a horror/thriller, this film does not hold up to
other titles of the same genre this year, such as The Conjuring or Insidious:
Chapter Two.
By Logan Collier
