Wednesday, April 2, 2008

A Short Film about Killing

Krzystof Kieslowski's film shows that outlawing of death penalty is still a tall order. As unjust as death penalty seems, only new lawyers are advocating against the capital punishment. Eventually, the fight against the capital punishment becomes a useless attempt. Kieslowski portrays the sadness of the whole situation by showing contrasting emotions between the ones carrying out the death penalty, and the one defending and the one being executed. It is shown as just another job for the ones carrying out the execution, and they are smoking cigarettes like everyday.

It is interesting to note that the director tries to pose a question about the fairness of capital punishment. Is death penalty fair even for one of the worst killings? Jacek is shown to respond to actions that many people ignore. He strangles the taxi driver and kills the driver after several blows to the head. Later, Jacek is executed for his crime. Many argue that one killing, execution, does not justify the other killing, crime. Aside from that argument, Jacek does not physically suffer as much as the taxi driver before death.

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