This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Purgathon
Plot Overview
The Purge was introduced to
America in the near future when her New Founding Fathers (NFFA) instituted their scary
solution to an epidemic of crime. Their answer was a godforsaken
holiday on which all sanctions against crime (including murder)
are suspended for a half-day from 7 pm till 7 am, in order to let the criminally inclined get it out
of their systems—lots of luck. Now after an unspecified hiatus,
the NFFA have brought
back this devilish holiday.
Wetbacks Juan (Tenoch Huerta) and his
wife Adela (Ana de la Reguera) are welcomed by Texas rancher
Mr. Tucker (Will Patton) to hunker down with his family in their
hardened ranch house for purge protection. Unfortunately, the stressful
but manageable night goes into extra innings the way a ho-hum
hurricane can turn into a superstorm catching unwary Floridians
off guard. Viz Michael Lister:
“Be a while 'fore they gather all their data and crunch all their numbers,” he says, “but I can tell you standing right here right now that if that wasn't a Category 5 it was right at it.”I think that's like saying, “this isn't the end of the world but you can see it from here,” I say.
“Ah, yep. Most certainly is. If that's not one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the US, I'll eat my hard hat.” (230)
“We went from quaint little towns to war-torn third world country in the course of a couple of hours. Everybody wanderin' around stunned, dazed, in shock, vacant, thousand-yard stare in their sad eyes. Can't communicate with the outside world—or each other 'cept in person. Can't go anywhere. Cut off from any help. Supplies limited and dwindling fast. Shelters overrun. People who lost everything with no place to go, no way to get there, and couldn't get out even if there was.”
“It's hard to take in, to fathom that as bad as the storm was, the aftermath might be worse.”
“I'm tellin' you …” he adds, “the recovery not gonna take months but years. And it'll never be the same again—not in our lifetime, maybe ever.” (241-2)
Ideology
This movie of an apocalypse
behooves us to look at the prototypical one, the flood of Noah.
One of the first things in its aftermath was, (Gen. 9:1) “And God blessed Noah
and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth.” Mr. Tucker's daughter-in-law Cassidy (Cassidy
Freeman) is pregnant and due to be delivered any time.
(Gen. 9:2) “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.” The movie starts out with Mr. Tucker's son Dylan (Josh Lucas) trying to break in a horse that doesn't want to be ridden and suffering injury for his trouble (“Too much horse for you.”) Next to have a go at it is Mexican, new hire Juan who turns out to be a horse-whisperer (“Juan, good job.”)
(Gen. 9:3-4) “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Adela works in a meat-packing plant where we see the cuts of meat drained of blood. Steak is served for meals with other Texas fare.
(Gen. 9:5) “And surely your blood of
your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require
it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will
I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”
To keep violence in check after the flood, God instituted capital
punishment. In primitive societies without sophisticated implements
wild beasts were used, e.g.
lions den, snake pit, ant hill. A man's brother was expected to carry
out retribution, before they had a developed legal system. Here we
see a canine (“chinga”) gnawing on a fresh corpse. In this movie a
man defends his relatives, Purge or no Purge. As for America's inalienable
right to life, due capital punishment is the just exception.
For that
matter God also limited our pursuit of happiness when he confused our
tongues at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:5-9)
so we'd have a harder time defining our goals to each other.
In this movie it was discussed among the alien arrivals that (“When
in Rome—”) they should now start speaking English.
There was a restart after the flood of Noah, to wit, (Gen. 9:18-19) “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.” From Shem come the Semites, of course. Writer Bodie Hodge holds forth that: “Generally, from the Middle East in the land of Shinar (modern-day Iraq, where Babel was), Japheth's descendants went north toward Europe and Asia, Ham's went toward Africa, and Shem's remained in the Middle East” (183). Hodge reiterates that “As a general trend, Ham is the father of many peoples in Africa” (122). Dr. Ide adds, “Ham sired four sons: Cush (translates as ‘black’) … and Canaan the youngest” (62).
This movie starts with Tucker's working cowboy son Dylan (Josh Lucas) & Tucker's hired hand Juan putting the horse to rest. Noah's father Lamech named his son with the Hebrew word for rest or comfort, (Gen. 5:29) “And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.” After the flood one day, Noah took some leisure time in his tent, stripped down, and got drunk where he was discovered by his youngest son Ham who complained about it to his two older brothers (Gen. 9:20-23). Ham was perturbed that his father had gotten naked without setting about to procreate as God commanded—Yes, Noah sired no more children after the flood. Ham also didn't like his father taking a recess from rebuilding the wrecked world. Noah's rejoinder was along the lines of, “Oy vey! You want we should have children and work harder? Okay, your little ones can be slaves to your brothers'. Oy vey!” (Gen. 9:24-27). This is the exception to the inalienable right to liberty.
When Noah said, (Gen. 9:27) “God shall enlarge Japheth,
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his
servant,” he was envisioning a worldwide culture inclusive of
Shem and Japheth's descendants (with Ham's including Canaan in a servant
class.) Our movie starts with a Negro Darius (Sammi
Rotibi)—descendent of servant class Ham—in the role of
ranch overseer. This does not bode well for Purge night according
to (Prov. 30:21-22) “For
… the earth is disquieted, and … it cannot bear: For
a servant when he reigneth.” As the story unfolds Darius comes
to the rescue of other ranchers in trouble, and then he absents
himself so he can go look after his own family. With Darius's
clan now segregated, the Anglos, Mexicans, and Indians who had been
somewhat at odds with each other now coalesce together under
a single metaphorical tent, or actual school bus, to drive to a long
term refuge, trying to find a mini Noah-blessed world while the rest
of the USA goes
to hell in a hand basket.
Production Values
The Purge series boasts: “The Purge” (2013,) “The Purge: Anarchy” (2014,) “The Purge: Election Year” (2016,) “The First Purge” (2018,) and currently. “” (2021.) This last one was directed by Everardo Gout. Its characters were developed by James DeMonaco. It stars Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Josh Lucas, and Will Patton. The acting was not the best I've ever seen, but it sure beats what's found in most horror flicks.
MPAA rated it R for strong/bloody violence, and language throughout. The horse-breaking scene looked like it was trying to be a bullfighting scene where a lot of horse turned into a lot of bull. The Newton Brothers deserve credit for an above average music score. The action is plenteous. The horror scenes hold water. The cinematography is passable.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This is a horrific Purge where a sprint turns into a marathon. What'll they think of next?
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Hodge, Bodie. Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Pub., 2013. Print.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
Lister, Michael. And the Sea Became Blood. Copyright © 2019 by Michael Lister. Panama City: Pulpwood Press. Print.
Lions den picture is copyright © Sweet Publishing. Licensed by
FreeBibleimages.
This
work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
bibles.n7nz.org