ONE NOT TO MISS

Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Angelina Jolie unrecognisable as an anguished mother whose son has disappeared.  This film is hard hitting in its denunciation of Police corruption in prohibition era Los Angeles. Yes, okay, nothing new there, everyone knows the Police were worse than the gangsters at that time, but what we don't generally know is the way women were treated by the cops - yes, yes, it's my same old crusade, but who can help feeling revolt at all the injustices?

In this case, a mother who would not accept that the Police had given her the wrong boy back was slandered, reviled and eventually incarcerated in a mental hospital for not accepting that the boy wasn't hers.  This is a true story and she wasn't the only one to be locked up arbitrarily and have the key thrown away for having rocked the authorities' boat.  With the help of a crusading Pastor, she was eventually freed, but while the Police were spending their time and resources trying to shut her up, her son, along with twenty other boys, was being brutally murdered by a serial axe murderer at a remote farm.

Violent, harrowing, frightening, this film provokes a feeling of revolt; even the scene where the murderer is hanged is uncomfortable and begs the question:  Is capital punishment admissible in a civilised society? whatever the crime? I don't know, everything I am cries NO, but then I try to imagine what I would feel like if someone I loved was murdered...murderous is the answer.  What do you think? 

Comments

[fils indigne]

t'as du pleurer à fond!!!
je suis allé boire quelque chose de fort pour m'en remettre!!!
poignant

[Baby Sis]

I have no problem with capital punishment. I have a list of possible candidates and will be first in the queue if ever I have a chance to nominate them!