No Need To Binge On The Purge: Election Year
My friend Rob and I were escorted into our reserved seats for The Purge: Election Year by semi-armed security officers and then everyone there was told that using any cell phones, tablets or recording devices would be cause for our removal from the cinema. Already this was an ominous start to a movie that revolved around murdering people to make yourself feel better about the rest of your life.
Like the last two movies, Purge 3 is very simple in it’s incredibly safe plot points. Once a year, for twelve hours all crime is legal up to and including murder. In this sequel, Senator Charlene Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell – Once Upon A Time, Lost) is hellbent on ending the annual purge after her family’s murder at the hands of an unknown assailant. Her head of security, Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo – Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in the last two Captain America movies), was the main character in Purge 2 and is now seeking an end to the annual Purge as well. A group called the New Founding Fathers Association controls the government and helped to institute the annual Purge as a way to maintain economic control and lower violence. The idea being that people get all of their evil out in those twelve hours and then end up being law-abiding citizens the rest of the year. Clandestinely, the NFFA sent out hit squads to kill the homeless and destitute so there would be less of a financial burden on the country itself. The NFFA decides to rescind a restriction on the Purge by allowing any “level 10” government official — apparently, Senators — to no longer have protection.
Now, right off the bat the message the movie tries to impose on you is that classism is wrong and when the rich are allowed to do what they want then the poor suffer. The rich being NFFA and the power being anyone else who can’t afford private security, armored homes and a cache of weapons.
In the tradition of all movies with a similar idea, people from the disenfranchised come forward to combat the rich. In this case it’s a man called Dante Bishop who not only organizes protests and rallies but his own squads that attempt to hunt down any of the NFFA and their locations. You’re supposed to get the impression that Dante Bishop is just another face of the Purge and is using the same brutal methods as the NFFA to combat them. Instead, people are completely OK with what he’s doing so long as it’s against the NFFA with the exception of Sen. Roan who is morally opposed to his methods as much as the NFFA.
The movie moves swiftly through its dramatis personae and introduces you to several one-dimensional characters, including the ex-gang member known as Laney “Little Death” who bravely operates an ambulance during the Purge and is widely regarded as being hardcore. Then we have Joe the cynical store owner and Marcos his employee. Joe’s Purge insurance policy was increased the night before the Purge and not being able to pay it, he chooses to protect his store from its rooftop even though he’s run afoul of two young teenagers who are hellbent on murdering him on the night of the Purge. Marcos is the classic hopeful Latino born in Mexico who migrated to the U.S. to begin a new life. Periodically you’re given semi-cryptic words and toss-off sentences about his life in Juarez and the violence he had to deal with there.
Outside of these characters being in the plot to provide zippy one liners and to be the background cast, you learn barely anything about them. In fact, you learn next to nothing about anyone in the movie and you’re left with feeling that including them was more to add some sort of topical social message about minorities than actually approach the topic of how it affects them as a community. A few throwaway sentences are supposed to make you feel that the boot is truly on the neck of the poor.
Outside of the shock value of the attacks and the introduction of “murder tourists” who come to the U.S. purely to participate in the Purge, you seldom see anything happening in the streets that really conveys the Purge is happening. The occasional sociopath in a mask with his victims are shown, a guillotine decapitating people in an alley and the group of murder tourists in overly patriotic costumes (meant to show you how other countries have a severely limited and condensed view of America — guns, guns and killing). Oh, and a three-second visual of a tree filled with strange fruit surrounded by women in flowing outfits and flowers in their heads who stab the dead bodies in the crotches ( perhaps to present the visual that they are sexual assault survivors who have banded together to deal with their predators).
We see gladiator-type street battles and the one rare scene where you see Purgers engaging each other in a violent gun battle on a street corner. What you primarily see are the rich white Americans who represent all the controlling interests in the country looking to punish the poor who are mostly represented by African Americans. That is an issue that I personally dislike as it really just became about White America versus Black America and everyone caught up in the middle of it. I looked at all of the people in the NFFA’s group and saw no one of color or ethnic background which made it more of a focus than the story of class warfare.
It can be argued that in modern America this would be an accurate reflection of what’s been going on for decades, even centuries but again The Purge managed to play it safe and only focus on the conflict while avoiding a chance to truly incorporate a more rounded cast or really include anyone else for that matter. With the anti-Purge movement, you see white doctors and minority doctors working hand in hand in a hidden location to help treat the homeless and injured that are brought in. That was a rewarding experience that became overshadowed by the return of what seemed more of a race war than one of class. Toward the end of the movie we’re treated to the massacre of most of the NFFA by the anti-Purge group at a church service held for the Purge. The all-white NFFA gets gunned down by the predominately African American anti-Purge group which only stopped when asked by the senator (insert white savior trope).
At the end of the movie, you’re treated with the idea that Sen. Roan has been elected president and it turns out those who supported the NFFA are not rioting in the streets and assaulting police officers, which is in direct contrast to the idea of the Purge removing those negative/evil feelings that we supposedly all repress.
Afterwards, Rob and I discussed the movie in earnest and we both readily agree that it’s a movie we both might glance at if it were on cable but going to the movies to see it is not worth the cost of the ticket. It was weak in it’s storytelling, it’s sequences are nothing new or different and ultimately you’re left wondering if it couldn’t have benefited with a slightly slower pace and the addition of maybe some more storytelling components. Even though much of the exterior scenes were filmed locally in Providence, R.I., I definitely do not recommend this movie to those looking for a night out at the cinemas.
The Purge: Election Year (Universal Pictures – R) 2 out of 5 stars.
