Hateful and Insulting

Rating: 1/10 (18 February 2010)

I always root for the little guy, whether it is the character or the filmmaker. It's why I love independent film. It's why I applaud Charles Bronson and Bruce Willis and all the films where they stand up to some half-baked criminal scum. It's why I wanted to like TAKEN, this scrappy little picture that took on big money titles and thumped them at the box office.
But TAKEN is a troubling case. As much as it pretends to be a "revenge" picture – and it is as predictable as the worst of them – TAKEN is a movie filled with dangerous, racist ideas. It makes troubling statements about America values, the exploitation of our fears, and the way we vilify sex but glorify violence. What does it say about us as a society that TAKEN, easily one of the most violently offensive movies I've viewed in years, became a box office sensation? Or that it remains so highly rated by IMDb users?
Liam Neeson stars as an ex-CIA agent whose daughter is kidnapped by sex traders in France, now the most dangerous country in the European Union(?). He immediately vows to kill these scum; you've got to see his ridiculous negotiation scenes to believe it. And then he proceeds to follow through in a manner that would make Charles Bronson blush. He tracks hordes of these foreign devils down and breaks their necks or shoots them or guts them or chases them into oncoming traffic. He shows no mercy. He's so busy smashing skulls open twenty at a time, that he can't be bothered to rescue other teenage victims of the sex trade.
Apparently only his daughter, a pony loving virgin (I kid you not), is worth saving. The rest of the kidnapped girls, dozens of them, are left in drug-induced stupors to be continually raped by bearded Albanians. Not only is TAKEN absolute rubbish, it is absolutely insulting to women, the French, and most intelligent life on this planet.
I've never done this before, but shame on all you who found entertainment in this vile excuse for an action film. And shame on Liam Neeson for having participated in this misogynistic excuse for entertainment. It really is that bad, an externalization of the fear of the foreigner, written by Frenchman Luc Besson at a time when his country is attempting to outlaw Muslim attire.
The fact that this movie received a PG-13 rating, despite scene after scene of violence and teenage rape is incomprehensible. Way to go, America.