The film’s concept uses the postmodern idea of the flattening of affect to create a future false utopian society in which people ‘purge’ their hatred through murdering the less fortunate.
Irony plays
a large part in establishing the world in which the film is set. The film
begins with a montage sequence, in which, shots of ‘the purge’ are presented to
the audience. The non-diegetic classical music alongside this creates a sense
of irony, as the soothing and calm orchestral sound juxtaposes the violent images
edited to look like grainy security camera footage.
Following
this, the audience are presented with a man driving through an idyllic
neighbourhood, reminiscent of Stepford Wives (2004). Through the radio in his
car, the flattening of affect is established through the media. Again, there is
a sense of irony in the way the radio presenter talks about the poor being in
danger during ‘the purge’ with such an upbeat tone of voice. In fact,
everything from the weather to the setting is of an ironically positive nature.
For example, the frequent use of the phrase “have a safe night”.
The family
the film follows is stereotypical, with a husband, wife and two teenage
children, a boy and girl. When the boy disarms the house’s security system and
lets in a man off the street, the film opens up a political debate and suggests
there is an element of postmodern paranoia.
The man is
found to be homeless and being chased by a group of over-privileged teenagers.
This represents the political issue raised by the film; that ‘the purge’ is the
government’s way of eradicating the poor and boosting the economy. This gives
the film a paranoid message, particularly as it is set in the future, in the
year 2022. The film suggests ‘the purge’ is a reaction to the current rates of
crime and poverty in the US, for example the parents tell their children “you
don’t know what it was like”. The paranoid message is implicit, as the more
prominent explanation for ‘the purge’ is to rid people of the hatred and anger
that they hold onto during the rest of the year.
The
over-privileged teenagers create the strongest sense of irony in the film. The
costumes are smart and conservative; the boys wearing suits and the girls
wearing long, white, flowing dresses. Furthermore, the teenagers wear smiling
masks and only one of them removes it. However, the boy’s face is just as happy
as the masks the others wear. This juxtaposes their keen desire for violence,
something that has much more horrific and serious connotations. This chilling
and sadistic portrayal helps to support the film’s paranoid message.
Overall, The
Purge is a paranoid portrayal of the future that presents the emptiness of it
through the flattening of affect. The film is extremely ironic, compounding
this sense of emptiness through juxtaposing the violence of ‘the purge’ with
the supposed utopia in which it is set.
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