I’ll be honest. I went to see The Purge: Anarchy because I felt like ranting about how Americans don’t have any idea what the word anarchy really means. I kind of hoped it would turn out to be a tollerable B-film, but was prepared for the worst. But it surprised me. It’s actually quite a good little B-film, one which (within the limits of its genera) has fairly interesting and sympathetic characters,  decent dialog, an intriguing and passably realistic story, a reasonably restrained visual approach to violence, and a surprising amount of (albeit heavy-handed) sociopolitical content. Plus, the word “anarchy” is never uttered once in the film, making me think that title was a tack-on, an attempt to market the film to a people (Americans) who think anarchy means a “political system” where everybody rides around on motorcycles wearing goalie masks and carrying machetes or AK47s, killing everyone they come in contact with.

In The Purge, a futuristic American government has set aside 12 hours each year when all crime is legal. The government is clearly an extreme oligarchy of super-rich fuckers, and the explicit purpose of the purge is to encourage all the poor people to slaughter each other. This annual bloodbath is supplemented by the rich (through their government), who also take advantage of the purge by sending armies into the poor areas to get rid of even more “worthless people”. There is a black revolutionary movement trying to rally people via the internet, telling them that the purge is all about making the super-rich even richer, and the poor need to rise up and turn the tables on the rich. It is within this context that four normal (i.e. poor and nonviolent) people are stuck outside on purge night, and accidentally hook up with a “sergeant” who is out participating, planning to off someone who “took something from him”. The five of them attempt to survive the night together.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie that so had it in for rich people. At one point in the movie, a black revolutionary in the heat of battle yells “Come on you rich bitches! Time to die!“, and it’s meant seriously! When was the last time you heard a line like that in a mainstream movie? And for their part, the rich people in the film have a palpable bloodlust for the poor trash, despising them to their very core. In our society, which is pathologically in love with the super-rich – their privilege, power and excess – and wedded to the notion that they “like us”, “need us” and “exist to help us”, the film’s much more accurate portrayal of rich and poor is remarkably subversive. The Purge does not follow this narrative path to any conclusion – ultimately, it’s a survival film and a character drama, not a political film – but the impact of the film’s political context is pretty remarkable.

This political context may to some seem way over-the-top. But today’s super-rich are, in a way, systematically killing off the poor; it’s just done very indirectly and obliquely. Part of it is off-shoring all our jobs, so we earn much less, have no health care, no benefits, no safety net, and can be more easily exploited by our employers. Part of it is using the “drug war” as an excuse to put all the young black men in jail (notice no rich corporate type or Hollywood star ever goes to jail for drug possession – why isn’t Robert Downey Jr. serving 20-to-life in some hell hole, and getting ass-raped?). Part of it is the endless pressure to destroy the very concept of things like medicare, medicaid, welfare, food stamps, social security, pensions, and unions. And isn’t their manipulation of our society so average people feel all alone, isolated and hostile toward one another, a kind of death for us all? Honestly, in a way I am more impressed with the implicit sociopolitical content of The Purge than I was with the explicit political content of the much more lauded A Most Wanted Man (a film which, to my mind, really missed the salient point vis-à-vis terrorism).

As a survival film, The Purge reminds me of how films of this genera used to be made in the 80’s and before – fairly low-tech, and equal parts action and character development, with a lot of dialog-based scenes. The character development is of course not super-deep, but it’s decent enough to give the film some texture, texture that makes it pleasant to watch and encourages you to bond with the protagonists and truly want them to live (think how many similar films these days feature protagonists that you couldn’t give a damn about). The film is paced well, and I must say, the performances, even from the supporting and incidental players, are quite solid.

I’m very happy I went to see The Purge: Anarchy – I never thought I’d be saying that. The night before I saw Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight, and I can tell you The Purge wound up being a way better movie: more entertaining, more interesting, and better performances! If you like survival films, or if you are interested in class politics, you should definitely check it out The Purge.