What do the movies "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "The Next Three Days" and "Law Abiding Citizen" have in common?
They are all about how the system is broken, and the only way to come to a moral conclusion at the end of the story is to break the rules. Lisbeth Salander had to hack into computers to expose the truth. Russel Crowe's character had to bust his innocent wife out of jail and flee to Venezuela. Gerard Butler's character had to kill off person after person in order to get those who are supposed to make the system work actually make it work, and even then Jamie Fox had to break the law to get results.
So whether you are on the side of angels or the side of demons, the agreement is that the system is broken. The problem with "the system", particularly a "justice system" is that it is inherently flawed by human activity. There is no way to introduce an all seeing, all knowing, arbiter of justice that produces a morally justified outcome each and every time.
So why do we keep reading books and watching movies about people who break the rules? Harry Potter has been described as "seven books about a boy who breaks all the rules and gets away with it." Why?
The answer is hope. That deep down we recognize that "the system" is broken, but still chugging along like the mindless machine that it is. We hope that when our time comes to face the beast that we will have the courage and wisdom to know when to obey the rules, and when to break them.
I do not believe that our legal system could be replaced by something better than what we have now, and that steals some of my hope for the future. I do believe that the 360,000 pages of Federal regulations that choke the opportunities out of our future can be simplified. But governments do not exist to simplify and assist.
About Me
- AM
- Raised by conservative Christian parents, enlisted in the Army at 18, used the GI Bill to finish college, and I'm back in the Army. Along the way I've encountered a huge cast of characters, some I got into trouble with, some that passed on skills that have helped me on my life journey.
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4 comments:
The last spate of movies like this was in the 70s, wasn't it? Dirty Harry, Deathwish, etc.
My theory is that a lot of us feel like our world is spinning out of our control, and the world at large is spinning out of the system's control.
People feel as if things have changed, but the rules haven't changed to match. You can't trust the system to handle things, because it's as confused as you are -- but much slower to adapt. There's a sense of helplessness: Everything's falling apart, and nobody knows what to do to fix any of it.
Symbolically, shooting a bad guy means having some control in your own little corner. It's extremely important to the mental health of the higher primates to retain some control over events. It's a lot easier to live with losing if you went down fighting. This is why people feel a need to avenge relatives and friends: You weren't there, so you were helpless. You need to replay the encounter between "us" and the perpetrator, but with "us" having some control over events this time around.
Incidentally, I saw the original Swedish versions of the Dragon-Tattoo movies, and with one exception, every single sympathetic character who used physical force was female, including non-speaking characters like cops. The male hero never once lifts a finger to defend himself or anybody else. There's a scene where he's attacked in a restaurant. He goes limp and helpless, and is rescued by female cops who easily subdue the bad guys.
The only exception is a boxer who's a pretty minor character, and ends up getting badly stomped and drifting out of the story.
They're enjoyable movies if you can suspend disbelief (the first in the series is really excellent IMHO), but it's also a weird look at modern Swedish obsessions with "gender". I wonder if the US remakes will follow their lead on that? I doubt it.
When you look at the characters it follows a growing string of strong female leads. Xena, Buffy, Willow, River, and it flies in the face of the traditional (yet utterly successful) Bella Swan character.
Right now the western world is struggling to embrace strong women (like Tam who could probably outshoot me with one hand) and weak, subservient characters like Bella.
I'd really like to see more strong female leads. However on the flip side it means that women can get hit, and treated like men. Double edged sword, women can't be both protector and protected at the same time. I guess that is the choice every woman has to make, to live life on her own terms or someone else's terms.
I can only hope our next real-life heroine is in the vein of Thomas Jefferson, or Guy Foxe...
And YES, it really IS getting that bad!
"...governments do not exist to simplify and assist."
Ours DID.
Or, at least it was SUPPOSED TO!
This was what made America DIFFERENT!
All that stuff about "...regulate commerce...between the several states..." didn't mean "BURY EVERYONE IN HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PAGES OF 'regulations"!
Its job was to "make it REGULAR!" -- to SIMPLIFY AND STANDARDIZE!
In other words,to "ASSIST"!
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