societal aspects in prisoners film (Movie Review Sample)

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Social Aspects of Prisoners Film
Introduction
The Prisoners is a film which revolves around a character named Keller, who is the quest for searching for his lost daughter. The daughter of Keller goes missing together with her friend which prompts Keller to take matters into his own hands, where he decides he will search for the children by himself because the police’s leads and pressure continues to bear no fruits according to him. In the film, it is evident how a parent in a community goes through in the event of such an occasion as that of Keller missing his daughter. The film demonstrates the lengths in which a human can go in order to protect the person or a thing they hold dear. More panic sets in as time goes, and the children are not yet found. In the efforts to try and locate the children, Keller had only one lead, which was a van parked across the street. The law enforcement through detective Loki take the investigation after being reported. Detective Loki arrests a first suspect, who was the van’s driver on the suspicion of kidnapping, but he is later released because of insufficient or lack of proof. Mr. Keller understands that pressure has mounted on the police to find the children but no significant progress has been made. He therefore decides to take matters to his own hands and search the children. How far will he go in order to protect his family? that is the questions viewers probably have in mind when watching the film.
As the film progresses, there are various societal aspects which are depicted in it. There are different aspects which repeat in the film, and this is what makes those societal aspects be picked out as themes of the film. Aspects of the society are the factors that affects the opinions, perceptions, interests, cognition, attitudes and they regard how members of the community or society functions, or the impacts they have on community services. There are many sociocultural regulations, and norms which regulate the society in terms of manners. In this film, there are various aspects of the society themed in it, and they include religion, which to be precise is Christianity, morality, guilt, sin, rule of law, vengeance and redemption. This essays analyses some of the aspects in relation to the film using various articles and other sources and give my opinion s from the information analyzed from those sources.
Nandra (2013) explores the concepts of morality and religion depicted in the film. He describes how a man with an honest character turns to do horrible acts because of his daughter's disappearance, leading to his violence and desperation. The clearest thematic essence here is the societal aspect of morality. This is shown through the actions of Keller torturing Dover in search of information regarding the disappearance of his daughter. From the author's perspective of morality in the film, I think humans are always pushed to the limits of their moral codes depending on what happens to the things they hold dearly, the most of the things they love most. If humans are to live in a world where their actions have no consequences, this would mean that everything that they do will not be wrong in any way (Nandra 2013). However, this is not the case because of how human beings do affect their fellow humans and the environments they are in. This means that humans need to be able to govern their behavior and actions to prevent harm to the community we live in. the ability to control movements and thoughts so that all the operations in a community are conducted in an organized manner is what can be termed as morality. The general perception of morals in society manifests in the things people should do and those they should not do. The things they should do are driven by the need to assist other community members, while the thoughts drive the things that should not be done and actions suppressed and censored.
Morality can either be absolute or relative in terms of principles. Absolute morals are based on the general facts about human nature. For example, torturing is wrong because it is against the order of natural things, and society wholly accepts them. They include respecting people's property and treating people in need the way we want to be treated in case of the same situation. Relative morals are based on opinions and circumstances that may change with time. The relative morals depend on people's belief in what they perceive as good or bad for themselves (Mason 2010). For example, some people may find it wrong to spend money on luxurious items, while others make it a hobby. Following morals can be difficult at times, but personal moral values are more valuable. Moral values are thus good for society because they assist people in how to live and cooperate well, and they teach us that human beings deserve equal rights. It is never okay to discriminate against others based on their race and ethnicity. In the film, there is a depiction of what is right and wrong in Keller's desperation to search for his daughter by torturing another fellow human instead of sticking to the established right channels of law enforcement.
Lambert (2015) explains the concept of spirituality and how humans tend to have complicated spiritual natures. Lambert questions how people make sense of bad things around them and how they manifest their faith and beliefs in times of need. My opinion on the characters in the film is that every one of the characters had issues with acceptance. When one achieves acceptance, it should be seen as a good thing and bad in some instances. This I can demonstrate where the character Grace completely becomes sad when the news of Anna's disappearance goes to her. She became very inactive and non-functional, which means that most people fail to accept loss, making them not accept their freedom. Spirituality has been one of the largest features of human life, where humans had not been opened up to reason and see the physical world's objective realities. The spiritual context tends to have a wider human significance than the religious context. Spirituality is the universal and significant aspect of human being experience. Spirituality has been seen to bring the best and worse out of human beings.
Spirituality also has an integral role in humans' mental well-being and physical health. It also serves as a guarding factor in adjusting the psychological nature of human beings in times of experiencing negative life experiences (Li and Berman 2019). The definition of a person's character strengths also lies within the spirituality of humans, which contributes to their functioning. The basic nature of humans to make sense of the world surrounding them, discover potential and calling, transform into their nature of existence, and seek out a larger relationship with themselves may show. They conceptualize themselves differently in the spirituality and character strength perspective but have similar central essence. All these aspects of spirituality discussed manifested in one way or another in the film. For instance, Holly's husband herself died because of their crusade instead of finding comfort in each other. Taylor is also another character who was deeply into trauma because of the abduction that happened to him. Loki and Keller keep their faith intact, and they accept their instincts which leads them to the hero part. The preparation of Keller in faith makes a sudden chain of events, which leads them to the kidnapped daughter. These two characters keep their faith and trust, leading to their salvation, which makes the film very beautiful in the end.
According to his article, Splash (2013) describes the use of Christianity as a symbol in the film. This symbolism of Christian faith is very clear at the onset of the film, where there is a scene with the main character reciting a bible verse while a boy shoots a deer. Christianity is the most practiced religion globally, and it centers its belief in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As one of the religions, Christianity has various purposes, such that every religion presents its followers with a basic foundation of beliefs. Religion gives meaning and explanation to the world in which we live, and it helps in informing, teaching, and helping to live positive lives. Using this theme as a social aspect in the film requires the movie's tone to be similar throughout the plot that the prisoner movie has employed. The coherence in transition between the narrations, dialogues between characters, and the physical description of locations makes the theme align itself to the film (Splash 2013).
Christianity has been used and compromised in the film as a symbol. Thus, symbolism furthered the central theme that involves taking justice by oneself. Religion has the purpose of giving meaning and explanation to the world in which we live, and it helps in informing, teaching, and helping to live positive lives. In Prisoners, everything is in bad shape, safe havens are no longer safe, a Christian man that no longer perceives Christian values, and the martyr is both hero and villain, which makes a compelling backdrop to a movie. From the film, I find how Christianity has been put with other religions in terms of relations, and conversations, in a very captivating way. This is because spirituality is shown and how the complicated nature of spirituality that we depict in our daily lives depends on what circumstances we face as humans. We are tested according to our faith.
In his article, Julia brings forward the use of mazes in the film as part of its thematic composition. Mazes have been employed symbolically better to understand the characters' experiences concerning real-life situations. The story structure in the...