Taken movie discussion.
Introduction: I loved first Taken movie. Like a lot. When it came out I was 21, and I felled for it, felled for its politics. I was unaware of its hateful rhetoric, I agreed with its Islamophobic, racist views of the world. I was a product of the propaganda at the time, and I am extremely ashamed of it.
After some time, my process of transformation, de-radicalization, and de-programming in terms of politics, but also my personal perception of the world began. I read Fromm, Lacan, Deleuze, Foucalt, Zizek, Roudinesco, Baudrillard and at the same time, I started psychoanalysis with lacanian psychoanalyst, which lasted for several years.
Fast forward to present day, I have a wife, two children, son and daughter. I was commuting from work, 1-hour ride, and felt, yeah I’d watch something. Started watching Taken and I was shocked.
Before we go forward, there is something to say about this kind of movies. Taken re-started and perfected the genre of angry middle age (white, but not only, as Equalizer shown us), divorced dads who are phantasizing about violence, as a sign of powerlessness and frustration that has no way out. Revenge flicks where always present, but Taken gave it another spin.
The way this kind of movies work, are as follows, first part is the boring setup before the action begins. It’s mostly based on reality, people sees injustice, threats of violence, someone close to main character is being hurt/abducted/killed. It’s just a cover to unleash the violence on the screen.
The second act, is where the phantasy begins. It’s so different than act 1, that is almost ridiculous. In Taken, the first act is about Bryan/Liam Neeson who is trying to reconnect with his daughter. He fails, because he doesn’t care, he has an emotional burden with his daughter that has not been resolved by him in any way. In this part, he’s shown the way he is in reality, a pathetic loser. The way he speaks, the way he looks, acts around his family. He thinks he’s badass, but he’s not. It’s so cringe it’s hard to watch. He feels underestimated, he would like to show what he can do, but his ex-wife and her new husband look down on him as if he were a loser. And he is, but this is just a build up to act 2. Second part is just pure Fox News propaganda. I mean it’s so over the top, that it’s ridiculous. You know, Europe, France and Paris especially is where the rapist are. There are no real men, they’re being cucked by the Muslims. Our poor Bryan warned everyone that her daughter shouldn’t go to Paris, he knows how the world looks like you know. He’s badass CIA or some other operator. A preventer. Nobody listened to him, so as soon as his daughter left the plane with her friend, she was harassed by some Muslim trafficker. You know, like in real life. Women are being literally snatched from the airport by Muslim gangs in Paris, and the cucked French police can do nothing about it. I mean come on, it’s so manipulative, racist and stupid. But sadly, it works. Bryan confronts his ex-wife and her rich husband, he’s so agitated and visibly happy to show everybody that – A-ha I was right, look I will save my daughter, I will show you that you were wrong about me. It’s pathetic. After his daughter is TAKEN, Bryan flies to Paris to investigate the crime scene. When he found out a picture of the trafficker from the airport, he did what every professional CIA operator would do. Beat him up and throw under a truck. You know, the classic, standard procedure. When he confronted the Albanian kidnappers, posing as his friend from French intelligence (speaking in English, nothing suspicious of that), the ideology of the movie spilled out from the screen:
“You come to our country, take advantage of our system, and think because we are tolerant, we are weak, and helpless. Your arrogance offends me. And for that, the rate just went up another ten percent”.
I mean damn. What the fuck is going on here? You’re trying to find your daughter or are you on a personal mission trying to defeat the evil that you identify with immigrants for some reason. It's very convenient and fits in with the right-wing rhetoric. And of course the torture scene, it’s basically porn, scene is shown in a way to give a sense of pleasure. For some, maybe even sexual pleasure. This guy (lazy, breaking the law, snatching our precious women, of course Muslim) is being tortured, he got what he deserved. So that’s the way to deal with this kind of issues. No systemic reforms, no integration into society. You coerce them with violence. That’s the ideology of this movie. If you haven’t got any strong opinions about immigration etc, after watching Taken you will have ready-made answers. And of course his daughters friend is fucking dead. Why? Because she’s a whore. She’s not as pure as his daughter. She deserved it. I mean it’s sickening. The whole narration, its psycho-sexual undertones. His daughter is alive because she’s precious on the human trafficking market, because she’s a virgin. There are no virgins in Europe you know, only God blessed Americans are pure.
Beside the racist, fascist ideology, the psyche of Bryan is conflicted, it is unable to cope with the fact that his daughter is maturing and she wants to decide for herself who should be her sexual partner. It is this conflict that is the cause of his outbreak of violence. In his mind, even the slightest chance that his daughter is going away alone and she will have an intimate relationship with someone causes enormous stress. So we can say that what is shown after act 1 is a product of his phantasies. The fact that she was kidnapped and someone could take her virginity, it's too much for him, he must save her. Not to save her life, but to protect her virginity.
Well that’s Taken for you. What the fuck is wrong with Luc Besson.
You could say, b-but wouldn’t you do anything for your daughter? Wouldn’t you go for a murdering rampage to save her? No. As a parent, when something happens to your kids, you have to do anything to keep them safe and to look after them. Look after their mental health, do everything so that the inflicted wound heals. There is no room for revenge, rampage and violence. It’s just in your head. You fucking moron.
