Friday, March 28, 2008

Murder

I thought it was interesting in Krzysztof Kieslowski's short film called "Thou shall not murder" that the two kill scenes were nearly identical. Both were acts of strangulation via rope; however, one murder was the crime, and the other murder was the punishment. Jacek (the criminal) committed a premeditated murder on the taxi driver. He was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death by hanging. His crime was very violent, but his execution was equally as violent. After the men struggled to drag him into the room where he would be hung, they violently shouted and tightened the noose around his neck. A man with a crazed look in his eye was furiously cranking the wheel to raise the rope. It was like they were hunting, and it was just as premeditated as the crime committed. They spent a lot of time to make sure that the room was perfect for his execution so that it could be as violent as possible. Both acts of violence were significant, because in the beginning of the film the young lawyer said that people would rather punish the criminal than prevent the crime. He clearly felt that capital punishment did not work. Nonetheless, the film was shocking on how capital punishment worked back then.

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