Review: The Purge: Election Year (Or: What if "The Purge" movies were real?)

[Jeb Stuart Thurmond]

I've watched the second two movies in The Purge series, and I found them thought provoking.

I often find terrible movies thought provoking.

Don't get me wrong, The Purge: Election Year has some great visual moments. I should also forgive it for not making much sense, since it's a horror movie and one of the tricks that horror movies use is by being subtly surreal.

It even achieves the feat of having multiple attractive negresses. I don't mean mulattoes, I mean actual full-blown negresses, who are attractive. They are also among the first characters to die.

But it takes something close to a great idea, turns it into a "meh" idea, and then uses that idea to make a "meh" movie (with enough great moments to make a great trailer - I've not seen the trailer, but I'll assume it's totally stunning).

The premise of The Purge series

The premise of the series - as described by the movie itself - is that false-Christian government has decided to deal with overpopulation by suspending all law and order for a single night each year, allowing anyone to commit any crime and get away with it.

Now just stop for a moment and think about this. It's not a science-fiction premise, it's actually something that happens quite often. Police get overwhelmed by natural disasters (Watch: American Blackout, and When The Levees broke), large-scale riots (The L.A. Riots of 1992), or the collapse of a government (Baghdad after the fall of Saddam). One time in Montreal Canada, the police actually went on strike.

Sorry for the factualness, we now return to your regularly scheduled mental temper tantrum

The Purge betrays its creators as left-wing bubble-dwellers right from the start, where it assumes that the only system of human organization possible is big government. There is no chamber of commerce: a shopkeeper plans to spend purge night standing guard over his shop alone. The only church in the movie is used by the government, and they only manage to fill a couple of pews. There are no unions. The only groups of people larger than 10 are the government, and political parties. It is a world where people go bowling alone.

I actually think a Purge night would be a good idea, it would force people to meet their neighbors, and realize that there are possible forms of human co-operation that don't involve force of government.

How a pre-SJW liberal would have written/directed The Purge series

First, the movie really needs to explain why the purge night is not a night of boring looting. In this version of the story, murder would be legal, but all property crimes would be severely punished - the police are allowed to commit murder too, remember. The old left would have made that commentary - "See how the system values property over human life". Cue a scene where police are guarding a bank and a Gucci store while a screaming victim gets slowly and clumsily hacked to death right in front of them - and they do nothing.

If I had written/Directed The Purge series

I would not touch some of the earlier scenes the ones that are very sympathetic to a male small businessman. We see him have to deal with a female shoplifter who treats him with total contempt, and threatens to accuse him of rape. His property rights end up being rescued by a female friend, who has a reputation as a brutal criminal.

[MitzaLizalor]

Re: Review: The Purge: Election Year (Or: What if "The Purge" movies were real?)

Your review reminded me of a similar collapse of order, when Satan decided to challenge the order of God. For a short time, an individual's lifetime, here in the world rules were stripped away. We had to manage as best we could and the circumstances were much as you've described. When Eve took notice of what the serpent was telling her mayhem sprang up in humanity but there was a policeman standing there, watching and willing to save. In order to do that certain rules, a form of the manorialism you mentioned, were established but people chose to ignore those rules most of the time.

Yet over this purge a word had gone out, to keep certain things safe. Not human lives obviously. They were there to understand the need for Salvation and to accept or reject God's Wonderful Gift as they saw fit. But the Gospel has been preserved intact and the offer of Redemption stands through all this turmoil. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us but still we need to ask Jesus for help, and to love Him, so that He will help us. Otherwise why should He do any more that your policeman? He is not there to take our freedom of choice away but to safeguard God's Plan for Salvation.

Cue a scene where police are guarding a bank and a Gucci store while a screaming victim gets slowly and clumsily hacked to death right in front of them - and they do nothing.

Satan hacks away at all of humanity and although Jesus watches and is willing to save us, first of all we do need to tell Him we love Him and to reject all the trappings of falsehood which in many cases the victims have been brought up with. Hideous goblin idols encrusting every building, indoctrination to grovel like a grovelling thing, every form of evil during this purge surrounding the victim from infancy and preventing Jesus from assisting. So they reject His Perfect Love and go for imperfection instead. There are many examples. Some pretend to be "religions" which would start off like the street gangs, exploiting happenstance to broaden their base. Others are less subtle: do this or I'll chop your head off. Not unknown as a strategy among warlords and clearly having nothing to do with protection.

God knew in that situation there'd be plenty of people just pretending to follow the rules. They would as readily say "I love Jesus, now help me," as they'd claim to love Warlord or False Prophet or Idol. And within their bubble some help may be available, a few extorted resources diverted, but there'd be a price to pay later when Warlord needed some grunt. How does God deal with such a situation?

He needs to know whether you belong to the facility being guarded or whether you should just continue to be murdered while He watches, waiting for you to accept His love. That means really accept, not just mouthing some formula as let's face it He's had to put up with for thousands of years, and this is what He said:

Zechariah 13:7-9 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

[Jeb Stuart Thurmond]

Re: Review: The Purge: Election Year (Or: What if "The Purge" movies were real?)

I predict that in the future there will be a booming business for female mercenaries, whose whole job will be to defend men from contemptuous women who got used to beating men with impunity.

For all of those who asked, yes I HAVE already trademarked Bitchslap Incorporated(tm)

[Social Construct]

Re: Review: The Purge: Election Year (Or: What if "The Purge" movies were real?)

suspending all law and order....allowing anyone to commit any crime and get away with it.

Now just stop for a moment and think about this. It's not a science-fiction premise, it's actually something that happens quite often. Police get overwhelmed by natural disasters (Watch: American Blackout, and When The Levees broke), large-scale riots (The L.A. Riots of 1992), or the collapse of a government (Baghdad after the fall of Saddam). One time in Montreal Canada, the police actually went on strike.

What happened in these situations? It did not involve people forming groups of 5, putting on masks, and hunting people down.

Stop whitewashng history and committing erasure of the brave POC who are doing exactly that, and have created great works of performance art like this:

ON YOUR KNEES, WHITEY.

If the disorder continues for long enough, other organizations take the place of the government, or new organizations are created. Street gangs, warlords, manorialism....These are well-known things, not science-fiction concepts.

The term warlords is offensive, we prefer to be called Peacelords.

[Jeb Stuart Thurmond]

Re: Review: The Purge: Election Year (Or: What if "The Purge" movies were real?)

When it comes to civil disorder, Americans have an absurd interest-to-ignorance ratio. We are fascinated by civil disorder, yet we never learn anything about it.

Liberals: "I'm frustrated that, after 50 years of burning our own liberal-run cities, we have still failed to end racism."

Also liberals: "Sure, thanks to our mobs, uncountable thousands of black grandmothers will catch COVID and die in agonizing pain, drowning in their own bloody froth, but it's worth it because we're going to solve racism by doing THE EXACT SAME THING that we just said did nothing to solve the problem."