{"id":145,"date":"2016-09-17T20:49:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T20:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/?p=145"},"modified":"2016-09-17T20:51:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-17T20:51:41","slug":"purge-election-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/horror\/purge-election-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Purge: Election Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RXMp9fBomJw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Purge series has become quite interesting as it has developed. It started with a fairly ludicrous idea, as the frame for some straightforward violence and redemption. In the second, and arguably best, instalment, it developed its own aesthetic. The idea of the Purge as a Holiday, with all the attendant outfits, language, customs and paraphernalia developed. We got a Purge look &#8211; macabre masks and make-up with a dose of creepy violence. <\/p>\n<p>Rather than retread the same night of survival and personal discovery theme, Election Year takes a bold step to up the allegory and make it full on commentary on American gun fetishism, treatment of the poor, white privilege, and role of religion in politics. Elizabeth Mitchell&#8217;s Presidential hopeful is making the removal of The Purge the central theme in her campaign, and the heavily religious NFFA portray it as central to American identity. I mean, it&#8217;s no Animal Farm, but you&#8217;ll get the message here.<\/p>\n<p>Such political allegory in horror used to be quite commonplace (all hail They Live!). But <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4094724\/reviews?start=0\">reading the comments on IMDB<\/a> one is struck by how unaccustomed to it people are, and also how worthwhile it is. The complaints are all of &#8220;white stereotyping&#8221;. No, I&#8217;m serious, people think this is a thing to be upset about, eg:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It would be okay if the director were able to make it more subtle, but since the movie is dumb proof, the persistent displays of &#8220;LOOK HOW WHITE PEOPLE ARE CORRUPT AND BAAAAD! LOOK HOW GOOOOOOD THESE POOR IMMIGRANTS AND DARK-SKINEED PEOPLE AAAAARE! LOOK HOW EVERYONE WHO COMMITS MURDER IS CRAZY &#8211; EXCEPT THE ONLY SANE, GOOD GUYS WHO KILL THEM.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;White men are stereotyped to a new level. The hero is a white blonde who cares about &#8220;poor people&#8221; and uses terms like &#8220;over represented&#8221;. More poor people are heroes talk. A room full of rich people say that they need to stop the poor from destroying them- all white men, no one Jewish, no one black, no one middle eastern- just those evil white men&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Too much of a social message in The Purge 3. I would have liked to see more of the actual purge\/sci-fi itself. The film could be interpreted as a G O P vs Dem social messages.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You get the idea. This is probably the same people who complained that casting women as Ghostbusters in the remake &#8220;ruined my childhood&#8221;. While Purge: Election Year is very far from a great film, (it is cliched, not that well acted and in the end doesn&#8217;t ask complicated questions), the absence of other popular films taking on a similar role in the current situation in the US makes it worthwhile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Purge series has become quite interesting as it has developed. It started with a fairly ludicrous idea, as the frame for some straightforward violence and redemption. In the second, and arguably best, instalment, it developed its own aesthetic. The idea of the Purge as a Holiday, with all the&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/horror\/purge-election-year\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horror","category-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechie.net\/barracuda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}