Compliance

As a History Teacher of High School Students I am saddened by the lack of basic civic knowledge not afforded to the characters in this film and subsequently the real people who they portrayed. Ignorance is so depressing. Also this situation reminds us the the famous Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgrim Experiments of the 1960's, how easy it can be for authority figures to take control of unsuspecting or passive individuals. This film is important to see and the graphic nature is vital to its message. Look what the citizens of Germany allowed to happen the the 1930's and the tragedy of the followers of Jim Jones to name a few examples.

I was scam-called by someone pretending to be a cop once. He claimed my wife had skipped jury duty. It was quite convincing for about 10 minutes, and then I realized what he was asking me to do made no sense, so I told him they'd just have to come and put my wife in jail, as he had threatened to do. At that point he became angry and revealed himself for the scammer he was.

The point is, any one of even slightly below average intelligence would have questioned this 'cop' well before things got to where they did. Everyone involved in the incident was a complete moron. That being said, that's not on the actors and filmmakers, as they were just portraying what supposedly happened, and I think they did it well. But you will not be able to watch this without getting extremely ticked, especially at the manager.

This movie is simply unbearable to watch. Yes, it is well made and has great acting. But whats infuriating is that it highlights how truly stupid and uneducated most Americans are. Yes, I understand given the notion of authority, people will listen to what they are told, but these people act like they have never heard of due process of law, innocent until proved guilty, asking for an attorney to be present or even asking for a policeman's badge number when he demands strange things. Only at a fast food restaurant, staffed by the most uneducated idiots could something like this occur. Or rather, I would like to think so. It seems as if the caller banks of what the people may have seen in TV shows to get them to follow his orders, but likewise, wouldn't TV at least remind people that officers don't strip search and spank people over like 40 missing dollars? The moral of the story is to stay in school and know your rights. Or you might wind up like these morons someday.

I saw this today at the Traverse City Film Festival. About 1/4 of the audience walked out before the film ended. I do not disagree that the movie is difficult to watch, but I think you can hardly review a movie where you walked out without seeing the entire film. This film makes an important and real point... that many of us will, when listening to what we assume to be an authority figure, do things which we know are wrong. It also has two characters who say in one way or another "No, I will not do this." Bravo for them and may each of us feel empowered to do the same, if not by our own ethical standards, then by viewing this movie and realizing how devastating the consequences can be.

One would like to be able to say "No one could be so stupid" but the fact that this type of event (involving, reportedly, even more degrading assaultive behavior than portrayed in this film) has happened repeatedly in this country (over 70, according to the closing credits) shows that wish to be untrue. I hope every young person will view this film and be brave enough to refuse any authority figure who makes demands on them which seem to go beyond the bounds of the law and good sense.

And don't ever talk to a law officer in detail without your attorney being present (and no, I am not a lawyer.)

Compliance (2012)

*** (out of 4)

Based on a true story about a fast food manager (Ann Dowd) who receives a phone call from a police officer saying that one of the employees (Dreama Walker) has stolen some money from a customer. The officer then tells the manager to take the girl into her office, strip search her and then hold her there until the police can come get her. COMPLIANCE is a film that has made many people angry and the reports of walk-outs were rather shocking to see because you have to wonder why people would buy a ticket for a film like this and then get upset. I had the misfortune of living in Mount Washington, KY for a few years and this is where the original incident took place. It was at a McDonald's that I've eaten at and I even knew of the people involved in the case. Considering the "type" of town this place was it never really shocked me that something like this could happen but apparently it has happened all over the country. Yes, the subject matter is ugly and yes it's incredible that anyone could be so stupid to allow this to happen but it's all based on fact that people can check out. This film is a pretty ugly but I say that in a good way because with a subject like this there's really no way to paint it as something good so I admire the writer-director for just going strongly at the subject. Both Dowd and Walker turn in excellent performances as does the rest of the supporting cast. Again, the subject matter is just so crazy that it has to be true or else you'd start screaming at your television over the characters doing such stupid things. I still have a lot of questions over the actual case and especially consider the character of some involved. Having followed the case there were some major things that I felt were left out but this has little to do with this film. As a film I think it's very effective and ugly just as it should be. One could debate for years about what actually happened and what one would do if they were ever in a similar circumstance.