13: Battle Royale

You'd be hard pressed to find a film like Battle Royale made in America. The subject matter, brutal violence done to children by children, is one of the few big taboos that American studios won't touch. Even in the age of Saw style torture movies, there are still lines that Film producers won't cross. There isn't a whole lot of demand for a movie like Battle Royale, and for good reason.

The story is very minimalist. The government fears that the younger generation will overthrow their regime, so to keep them in line they cart a busload of 13 and 14 year-olds to an island and have them kill each other. The last living person is free to go. If more than one person is alive after three days, they all die. “Exchange Students” who appear to have extensive combat training are constantly trying to cull the herd.

The film really tries to hammer home the wrongness of the events. There is an extremely perky assistant who enthusiastically explains how and why people are going to be killing each other. The children all look like children and act like children would act. They group together with their closest friends and try to wait it out. They all know they can't wait it out, they just try not to think about that. As the days go on, something's gotta give.

It is easy for a film with such over the top violence to appear campy, but it never crosses that line. This is a film that has massacre after massacre after massacre. The film is full of nameless people killing and being killed. Unlike in a slasher film, there is real weight behind it. It is a tragedy when a nameless character dies in this film, as it should be.

There is a surprisingly prolific genre of films that throw innocent people into arenas and force them to kill each other, but Battle Royale is my personal favorite because it emphasizes the political aspect. The film has 42 students as victims, an unusually high amount for this type of thing. It allows them to throw bloodbath after bloodbath at the audience, have deaths of real meaningful characters, and still have more to give. One of the film's most affecting scenes was a group of 8 students holed up in a lighthouse. One is convinced that her friend is a murderer, and she slowly becomes more and more paranoid about it. Eventually, she tries to poison her food. Once this is found out, everyone in the lighthouse starts butchering each other. Someone was trying to kill them, and they had to protect themselves. None survived.

Battle Royale hammers home the same points again and again. It never moves to far beyond its central concept, but it does that concept so well that I can't help but be impressed. After watching Funny Games, I am convinced that the best way to speak out against violence is to show the result of violence, and Battle Royale does that well. Check it out.