Decalogue: Joy Brackett

Decalogue one:

This short film was based on the commandment "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The young boy is very fascinated and curious why people die. He is beginning to think and realize that a lot of things do not matter if he is just going to die anyway. This is a questions many people struggle with and use as an excuse not to live a fulfilling life or try and discover a deeper meaning. This route is easy and can cause a lack of love and a disastrous end. This is a dangerous perspective to have.

The father and the son both love making calculations and that is the most important thing in their life. Just as the commandment says, they were making gods before God by holding this to such a high importance. They (especially the dad) put technology before God. They both did this but the son was actually seeking while the dad knowingly put technology first and had no regrets about it. A series of things then go wrong and the son eventually dies. This displays the point that we think we can control the outcome but we cannot and must depend on God. The dad realized this within his son's death because he was hopeless and there was nothing that could be done. The dad goes to the chapel at the end and seeks redemption. This displays how we many times disobeys but God still loves and wants us. This is also applicable to everyday life. We as humans seek control and we ultimately do not have that. We feel as if we have a right to control and deserve to plan our own lives as we wish. The realization that it is out of our hands is vital and we must first do this by having NOTHING else before God in our lives. If we do that, we will become selfish and neglect His love.

Decalogue five:

This film was based on the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." The first film was depressing, but this film proved to be a little more dark and disturbing. The film occurs in the same apartment building which I found interesting. The main character (Jacek) is planning to kill the whole time just for the sake of killing. Although he was an evil man, something that stuck out to me was when Jacek jokes around with the little girls and actually smiles. You see his humanity and that every person is fully human, some are just lacking love. To sum it up quickly, he ends up killing someone and receives the death sentence which is where I would like to focus the rest of this blog. Is the death sentence preventing crimes from happening or revenge? Is this just? There is no right or wrong answer but it is very interesting to think about. It may seem right to kill someone who killed someone else, but what are our motives? It should be to stop this evil from happening but I believe many are seeking revenge which takes the justness away from the situation. Ultimately God is the judge and He will do to those as He wishes accordingly.