#LAW ABIDING CITIZEN SCENE MOVIE#
The movie is less effective when Nick starts playing Sherlock Holmes to figure out how Clyde is able to keep killing people in highly ingenious manner after he’s sitting in a prison cell. When Nick asks, “You think your wife and daughter would feel good about you killing in their name?” Clyde shoots back, “My wife and daughter can’t feel anything: They’re dead.” Tell me that exchange doesn’t make you feel like tuning in to Rush Limbaugh, at least for a little while. There was an attempt to make Clyde Shelton into a tragic figure who has declared war on what he perceived as corruption in the justice system itself, but he ultimately ends up being a one-dimensional villain with a bit of a sadistic streak.Law Abiding Citizen is best while making you contemplate those questions. Whereas the main character says in Death Wish went after the guys who really deserved their comeuppance, Clyde eventually starts to target individuals who really were just trying to do their job under the best circumstances. Unfortunately, you begin to lose sympathy for the main character Clyde while he carries out his wrath. Understandably, you want those who were responsible to be held accountable and pay for what they did. Lose your family in such an inhuman and vicious manner – it does not get ay more horrific than that. Gerard Butler puts forth a good effort as the grieving widower turned avenger. But, there are times when Nick Rice is not above violating one’s civil rights if it means protecting the community.
ADAs and police do not have carte blanche to just get whatever they want in order to secure a conviction – and for good reason. On the other hand, he has to abide by the rules of criminal procedure. On one hand, he wants those convictions not because they are victories for him, but because they serve as vindication for those who suffered. Foxx is convincing as the ADA who tries to do the right thing. The sword-friendly, table-turning rebel told us to turn the other cheek in some situations, but he never instructed men like Clyde Shelton to turn their children and women over to monsters, or nations over to barbarians. In fact, the violence exposes them, for all to see. Gary Gray, to be sure, is not shy when it comes to showing blood, but at the same time the red liquid stuff never masks real ethical questions. By way of example, what will feminists make of the fact that the prosecutor refers to his unborn child as his daughter, while maintaining a pro-death penalty position? Is he a hypocrite or a realist? Maybe he just understands the difference between guilt and innocence, as a pro-life dad. Furthermore, another character that raising ethical issue is Foxx’s character, Rice, we confront explosive pro-life issues. Sometimes they are innocent, many times they are probably guilty, but there are usually extenuating circumstances if the latter is the case.Īt the very least, the criminal justice system operates to ensure that both the police and the prosecutors/district attorneys are held to the highest ethical standards and do not take shortcuts in order to get a conviction. While we all must have compassion for victims of crime, at the same time, the criminal justice system operates to be fair to those accused of a crime. While pacifists like to say that violence begets violence, the ugly truth is that appeasement invites bloodshed. Shelton’s bloody crusade appears psychopathic, but he is often treating criminals and the criminal-friendly system with the same “respect” they gave him and many other victims of crime.
So instead of painless death, this child murderer is, essentially, tortured in his final moments. For example, the accomplice to the murder of Clyde’s kid is put to death by lethal injection – but through some bewildering infiltration of the Pennsylvania penal system Clyde has sabotaged the machine. So, the main problem with Citizen is that it tries to tackle the thorny issues of justice by pushing each ethical dilemma to an extreme conclusion.