The Purge: A Run-of-the-Mill Thriller Masquerading as Originality
In a not-so-distant future, the U.S. government has discovered a seemingly effective solution to societal woes: one night a year, all crime, including murder, is legal. Citizens enthusiastically unleash their pent-up aggression with firearms and baseball bats, emerging refreshed and ready for a new year of work. In one exemplary bourgeois family, however, this year’s Purge Night begins with an act of mercy that threatens to spiral into disaster.
This marks the third collaboration between director James DeMonaco and Ethan Hawke.
A spoiled son from a wealthy family takes pity on a fleeing black stranger and lets him into his parents’ well-secured mansion. A group of bloodthirsty young aristocrats politely requests that the family hand over the refugee, promising to kill everyone inside if they refuse. Meanwhile, the stranger has found a secure hiding place.
Young actor Max Burkholder, who plays the Sandin family’s son, is no stranger to the industry, having voiced cartoons for eight years.
At first glance, “The Purge” appears to be a multi-layered work, offering social commentary, a critique of humanity’s primal nature, and even overt biblical symbolism. For the first half-hour, director and screenwriter James DeMonaco genuinely raises questions and even pretends to seek answers. However, as is often the case, these anthropological experiments crumble under the weight of the genre’s established mechanics. The characters abruptly abandon their personalities and begin to rationalize instead of panicking, philosophizing when they should be fighting tooth and nail. Of course, Ethan Hawke, with his intellectual demeanor, is undeniably captivating as he plunges a fire ax into the backs of intruders, and Lena Headey sensually digs a screwdriver into the wound of an enemy tied to a chair. However, it didn’t require building an entire dystopia and populating it with young maniacs reminiscent of Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” to make this kind of movie.
The story unfolds in 2022.
Missed Opportunities and Mixed Messages
What’s even more unsettling is the film’s moral compass. Instead of confronting the idiotic offspring who started the whole mess, the respectable family accepts his actions as if they were normal.
As a result, the authors’ carefully broadcasted message of “Thou shalt not kill” is overshadowed by a different commandment: “Discipline your children strictly, or they will devour everything that grows in your garden.”