Law Abiding Citizen (Essay Sample)

Law Abiding citizen
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Course
College
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September 02, 2014
Law Abiding Citizen
"Law Abiding Citizen" stands out for its ability to keep the viewers guessing, being a two-handed performance-driven thriller its characters are more involved than the typical protagonist-antagonist conflict which culminates after the climatic scene. In the storyline rugs are pulled out from both the antagonist and the protagonist ensuring that viewers are strapped in suspense unable to predict the next twist of the tale. The scenes of the story changes at a spiraling spate, one minute the story moves to courtroom drama and the next it’s the revenge thriller as the main character seeks to settle scores with the warped up criminal and justice system. Ensconced in the whole tale is indistinctness about the motivation of the two lead characters, the viewers are not in position to guess the many twists that may play out (Dan, 2009).
When the viewer’s are broached by Gerard Butler's Clyde, at first he appears to be sober and good enough like any other regular family man. He is fiddling with a gadget as his innocent daughter looks on. All of a sudden two men appear and murder both his wife and daughter before his eyes leaving Gerard bitter and vicious like a wounded lioness. From then on, Gerard is a changed man; he is determined to punish the criminals and the unfair criminal justice to take vengeance for the demise of his little family (F. Gary, 2009). A few months down the line, the criminal implicated with the murder of his wife and daughter is accorded a light sentence for turning in his less-involved associate and this makes Clyde a bitter man. Although at first the play may just appear as a mere story of a man trying to avenge for the death of his wife and daughter nothing after the unfair sentencing is standard or predictable. Clyde goes as far as getting himself arrested so that he could have revenge on the convicted murderers; this plot is unknown to Jamie Foxx's prosecutor Nick Rice (F. Gary, 2009).
Gradually, colors are changing as the plot unfolds hastily the viewers get to learn that there was more to Clyde apart from his cool demeanor. Now the viewer begins to see Clyde the devious strategist who has the benefit of being always one step ahead of the prosecutor; this revelation gives the movie a dreadful twist and this revelation creates a room for the movie veer far off away from the traditional plot line which the audience can always predict(The Film Stage,2014). In Clyde, Gerard Butler plays an interesting role; he is equally as plausible victim as when he transforms into-anti-hero. At one point, the audience has to pause and wonder whether they are rooting for the “bad guy” As Clyde doles out his own brand of justice he often crosses causing the story line to become so incredibly interesting making the audience question whether they are supporting the right side of the story conflict. Since the story protagonist has to come out as the good guy, extra time is spend in effort to flesh out the character of Jamie Foxx so that he does not come out as a corrupt lawyer. This is demonstrated through his social life where the story depicts him as the perfect family man with his daug...