This is not a "thriller"...it's a statement

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2013)

Much of the criticism I've read about "The Purge" is due to viewers taking the film literally as a thriller/Sci-Fi piece. Despite the action being contained within a relatively confined space,this movie is not 'Panic Room'. In the fashion of The Hunger Games, The Purge is an illustration of the subtly horrifying means by which a malevolent government can manipulate the society which is dependent on it. The Hunger Games accomplishes the power of the government by fear, deprivation, and intimidation. The only way to gain more of life's necessities and comforts is by allowing our children to be entered multiple times in the horrific lottery for the equally horrifying "games" sanctioned by those in power as punishment for a previous rebellion.. The Purge establishes this same control in a more subtle, but just as repressive fashion by allowing the privileged and most resourceful to prey upon the weaker and poorer members of society in a Darwinian 12 hour stretch when almost all rules are abated. Notice the statement early on where the commentator reminds the citizenry that high-ranking politicians are exempt. The Purge is a small metaphor on where we may be headed without checks and balances in the hands of the populace at large. While the result is universally insidious,some of it is subtle, like the comments by the neighbors and the way in which the coming night of mayhem is accepted as routine, and some is rather 'ham-handed', like the speeches by the "polite stranger" in the prep school blazer. The Purge, like '1984' and 'Fahrenheit 451' before it, further shows what can happen when the line between government edicts and religion tenet is blurred to the point where political ideals take on a religious fervor. The sanctioned criminality takes on the cathartic form of a religious cleansing. The viewer is very effectively placed between the murderous zealots at the door and the homeless victim, making the same choices as the family. Do we ultimately choose what the government tells us we should do or what our humanity tells us what we should do. This is quite a cautionary tale, very effectively executed (no pun intended), with props to Ethan Hawke, who basically carried the film, and the viewer, on his back. Recommended.