In the latest Star Trek film, the villain kills someone the hero loves, so the hero goes after the villain. The desire for revenge is strong, and the hero is tempted to become nothing better than that which he seeks to stop.
In this respect, the story is timely. As Americans, we face a constant stream of rhetoric justifying evil as the only way to combat evil (e.g., terrorism is justified in the name of fighting terrorism, etc.). It would serve us well to reflect on the contradictions of such thinking, and a film which helps us to do so could be applauded.
In the Star Trek film, the critical question is whether the hero will simply kill the villain or bring him to earth to face trial. At first, the hero decides to capture him. Shortly after taking him into custody, the hero succumbs to revenge and beats him in anger. This vacillation continues throughout the film: will the hero ultimately choose the good or himself give in to evil?
At the end of the film, the hero admonishes, "There will always be those men who mean to do us harm. To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil within ourselves. Our first instinct is to seek revenge when those we love are taken from us. But that's not who we are."
So what happened to the villain? He was arrested, returned to earth, given a trial by a jury of his peers, and either justly sentenced or released, right?
Nope. He was beaten, then placed in detention indefinitely, without any trial or due process.
Sound familiar?
No comments:
Post a Comment