1995 satirical black comedy film
"You left-wingers make me wanna puke. You never take a real stand. A stand that you'd be willing to [die for]…No, boy. Dying's easy. Ain't nothing heroic about dying. But if you can take a stand for something you'd kill for, that's something. Something special."
—Zachary Cody, one of the 'guests'
Just thinking about this film still makes me shudder. I saw it with a group of friends at the cinema and we spent hours dissecting it and our views and feelings. It concerns a group of liberal arts students who, having invited Zack, a Good Samaritan who helps one of the household, to stay for dinner, become appalled by his politiwzcal views and he ends up being accidentally killed After they bury him in the vegetable garden, they decide that in order to make the world a better place, they could repeat the experiment, inviting to dinner people whose extreme ethics don't align with theirs deciding that if a would-be victim can recant or change their mind before dessert, they will grant a reprieve, otherwise death will ensue.
The film (directed by Oscar nominee Stacy Title) explores the theme of whether their actions are moral or ethical, even though they may be for "the greater good". The members of the household are themselves at odds and conflicted from time to time. We the audience are occasionally appalled at their actions even as we no doubt wrestle with our own political demons. This is not a film for the squeamish in any arena. Certainly the group I watched with had a vry deep discussion well into the morning, and it we did not have any consensus after most of a bottle of Scotch.
It's a hard film to watch, what with characters who are racist, misogynistic, religious bigots, anti-gay, rape apologists and everything in between. Just hearing their arguments made my flesh crawl. Really, the film is an expansion of the "should one kill Hitler?" discussion, and as there, we really cannot come up with an ethically acceptable solution, because there simply cannot be one.
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