Clyde just turns things around with Law Abiding Citizen opening with the violent murder of his wife and daughter. The relationship of closeness and empathy is cleverly established from the moment the film starts.
But then, we see the victim, our very own man whom we suffered with, turning into a criminal himself. It is then our minds who play the trick. The most primeval reaction is to seek revenge and be glad when the "bad guy" - Darby is punished. But then years of socialising and ethics rules tells us that what he is doing is wrong, especially when the directors show the brutal way of punishment - our rational being is screaming with dislike, yet the caveman is banging its bat in pleasure.
So, we are there, in front of the epic battle, finding it hard to pick sides.
How can you hate the same character you have just empathised with? Moreover, he seems to be already caught and imprisoned by the rules that tell us he is doing something wrong - he is behind prison bars.
I really love this trick of mind the film is raising - cognitive dissonance at its essence. The mind, the instinct, the emotional are all put together and made to fight each other.
There is one particular scene that I think is the best - not the dialogue nor the acting, but just the way it's been put on camera. When Clyde goes into solitary and Nick comes to visit for the first time, after Clyde has killed his cell mate. The scene shows Nick in focus talking behind the big, black, steel prison bars and Clyde with a serenity on his face, just like a free man would have.
Nick is supposedly the free man, the "cop", yet he is so caught in his own little world with rules and laws that he just cannot see behind it. He keeps insisting how the deal made with Darby (the intrigue of the film) was, indeed, the right thing to do, in spite of all of his colleagues starting to doubt themselves. The fine line between right and wrong starts to fade once Clyde's actions unravel themselves. Nick gets less and less mingled in the wires of law.
In the end we see how Clyde and Nick were never Right nor Wrong themselves. They were never opponents, but there was always a line. Both Nick and Clyde crossed it, but on different sides. Clyde chose evil and got the only thing that could have come from that - karma coming back to haunt him. Or, in this case, I like to believe that was Clyde's free ticket to redemption.
So, we are there, in front of the epic battle, finding it hard to pick sides.
How can you hate the same character you have just empathised with? Moreover, he seems to be already caught and imprisoned by the rules that tell us he is doing something wrong - he is behind prison bars.
I really love this trick of mind the film is raising - cognitive dissonance at its essence. The mind, the instinct, the emotional are all put together and made to fight each other.
There is one particular scene that I think is the best - not the dialogue nor the acting, but just the way it's been put on camera. When Clyde goes into solitary and Nick comes to visit for the first time, after Clyde has killed his cell mate. The scene shows Nick in focus talking behind the big, black, steel prison bars and Clyde with a serenity on his face, just like a free man would have.
Nick is supposedly the free man, the "cop", yet he is so caught in his own little world with rules and laws that he just cannot see behind it. He keeps insisting how the deal made with Darby (the intrigue of the film) was, indeed, the right thing to do, in spite of all of his colleagues starting to doubt themselves. The fine line between right and wrong starts to fade once Clyde's actions unravel themselves. Nick gets less and less mingled in the wires of law.
In the end we see how Clyde and Nick were never Right nor Wrong themselves. They were never opponents, but there was always a line. Both Nick and Clyde crossed it, but on different sides. Clyde chose evil and got the only thing that could have come from that - karma coming back to haunt him. Or, in this case, I like to believe that was Clyde's free ticket to redemption.
He didn't get what he deserved in a punitive way, but he received what was rightful his - absolution. Absolution from his own nightmare, eating him inside out, absolution for the crimes committed as he didn't receive any punishment and even absolution from Nick, who got to see his daughter playing in a concerto - which is one thing more than Clyde had.
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