In the prequel film “The First Purge,” it’s shown that even during the initial test of Purge night on Long Island, citizens immediately saw through the propaganda peddled by the New Founding Fathers of America (they’re dangerous MAGA-types through the lens of Margaret Atwood) and called out the Purge for what it really is: A way for the government to legally rid the country of poor, marginalized people (predominantly Black and brown people) as a cheap, quick, and justified form of genocide. They even refer to the act of purging as a “cleansing” — you know, as in ethnic cleansing.
At the same time, Purge films inspire endless thought experiments for the viewers at home. How would we react on our own Purge night? Would we participate, seek safety within a shelter, or fight back against the very notion of Purging? Given the proximity the series has to our current landscape of cultural unrest, these thoughts are becoming less and less hypothetical with every passing day. There is no cognitive dissonance that exists while watching a Purge movie that allows the viewer an out. The message is clear: Don’t trust the government, and don’t do their dirty work for them. We recently ranked all five Purge films, and I joined Ben Pearson and Jacob Hall on today’s edition of the /Film Daily podcast to explain how the films ended up in their ranking placement and expand a bit more on our feelings about each film, which you can listen to below:
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