The Purge, directed by James DeMonaco. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
I think it’s actually smarter than some critics gave it credit for. How smart? Well, it earned nearly $90 million on a $3 million budget. And it does dig down into the strains of hatred and violence submerged in our culture, tethering them to the idea that in the United States authorities indulge the public’s bloodlust in the interest of maintaining order. We are already doing it every day; not in that people are allowed to be turned loose in the streets and shoot each other, but we love to watch people self-destruct on national television. We love it so much that a man ran for president who basically promised he would self-destruct not only himself but the entire nation. And 63 million people voted for him.
The movie also has something to say about class, about exploiting structural inequalities in society and creating conditions for the strong and the wealthy to prey upon the weak and the poor, and for the government to sanction it. It also has something to say about what will happen to a dad who doesn’t like his teenage daughter’s sex-crazed boyfriend, especially when said hornball sneaks inside your house on Purge night. Spoiler: he will shoot you.
This movie has become topical again, thanks to Universal cancelling The Hunt because it apparently was about liberal elites hunting Donald Trump supporters, which actually sounds more like a comedy, but given that it was written by Damon Lindelof, I am quite sure there was going to be more to the story, such as an unsolvable mystery having to do with Dr. Robotnik’s Evil Summertime Army being the true source of inequality in a neoliberal system.
This caused Grace Randolph, apparently a staunchly conservative film critic on Youtube, to declare on Twitter: “This is beyond politics, no movies about hunting ANYONE. And before you defend this movie, think if it was about hunting another group besides red-state people. Let’s not be hypocrites, HUNTING PEOPLE IS NOT APPROPRIATE ENTERTAINMENT which really shouldn’t have to be said.” She then went on to say that if you enjoyed watching people being hunted as entertainment, then you did not care about bettering society, which seems, I’ll be honest, like a bit of an overreaction.
It also conveniently ignores the fact that millions upon millions of people do enjoy that kind of stuff, as evidenced by The Hunger Games and about a hundred other movies about people being hunted for various reasons, which people on Twitter were quick to point out, even though it changed absolutely no one’s mind about anything and society is still awful. And it ignores The Purge. Which was, you know, not an endorsement of gun violence or anything, but rather a critique of the violent impulses we share as a society and which Donald Trump is happy to inflame and incite at all of his campaign rallies.
So, should The Purge have been made?
Of course.
