3/30/2019 2 Comments Analysis IX: The Young SavagesWhat is justice? That is the question asked in the 1961 film, The Young Savages directed by John Frankenheimer. The film follows Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) a district attorney, as he tries to get a death sentence verdict for three members of the Thunder Birds gang who have murdered a blind teen who is around their age. Conflict arises when Hank discovers that one of the gang members is the son of his former girlfriend and thus, he questions his decision to get him killed. By the end of the film, Hank winds up not achieving the death sentence for any of the three gang members and this is met with hostility all-around. The governor is unhappy, the thug's mom is unhappy, as is the mother of the murdered boy. Everyone in the story has a different idea of what justice truly is and this will ensure that atleast one person will not be satisfied at the get-go. Yet another source of conflict that is somewhat more subtle is the element of how an environment changes someone and how much that should affect the judgement of a person. In this analysis, I will focus on the themes of justice, vengeance, and upbringing. Certainly, if someone was only allowed to attribute one sole theme to this film, it would be justice. The whole premise of the movie revolves around justice. Different characters in the film have their own definition through justice in the film and each person's idea will be judged to either be true justice or vengeance. First of all, Hank considers that because the Thunderbirds murdered Roberto Escalante in cold blood, they deserve to be killed themselves. This seems relatively in line with Roberto's mother and her idea of justice, yet it still differs. She wants the killers to be mercilessly stabbed to death, as her son was which would be considered an 'eye for an eye' philosophy. However, Hank's opinion changes later on in the film, when he discovers that there is no evidence linking Danny diPace (Stanley Kristien) with the murder. Since the film focuses on Hank, his perspective, and never gives any credit at all to the idea that the gang thugs might be innocent, it judges Hank's idea of justice to be correct. Yet there is one more concept of justice presented, one being from Hanks wife Karin (Dina Merrill), who argues that the death sentence is immoral and that some consideration should be given to those forced to grow up in a rough neighborhood and this opinion is echoed by Danny's mother and Hank's ex-girlfriend. Hank shoots down this idea immediately, since he's from the same rough neighborhood and he was able to dig himself out. Essentially, the film brings in multiple different notions of justice, but only one is given any kind of serious consideration. The film loses some power because of this and leaves the viewer to conclude that death, despite perhaps being a fair punishment, is not truly justice since it is malicious and emotionally charged in nature. Ultimately, the film is ineffective in its use of justice as a theme. The audience is left with very weak arguments for and against the notion of death as a legitimate punishment, and because the film fails to 'stick the landing' it fails to ask any great questions of justice. Vengeance is the next major theme prevalent in The Young Savages and this is mainly helmed by Roberto's mother. To her, eye for an eye is justice, yet it becomes quite clear to the audience through Hank's perspective that her cries for justice are not cries for justice at all; but rather calls for vengeance. The mother's pleas stemmed from an emotional and malicious place. Truly, the film argues that eye for an eye, particularly coming from a place of malice, is vengeance rather than justice. While Hank is tempted to get the thugs a death penalty conviction. this betrays the notion of legal justice, since Roberto is revealed to not be innocent at all. In a Filmstruck blog post written by Greg Ferrara he discusses this factor by describing the conversation Hank has with a rival gang leader, in which he states, "[h]e (Zorro, the gang leader) has one of the best moments in the movie, when Bell informs him that he found out some incriminating details about Escalante, implying that he wasn’t a saintly blind boy after all. Zorro isn’t defeated for a second. He fires back stating that there’s a law against murder, and the law doesn’t say it only applies if the guy you killed was a good guy". Truly, justice would not be a terribly violent revenge-charged murder, but rather determined by the law. That is what both Hank and the viewer learn. Justice is determined by the courts and not left to individual discretion (which can often be distinguished as vengeance). Ultimately, justice nor vengeance is something that should be exacted by ordinary people and rather left for officials to decide. This message is a strong one that comes across more plainly than which notion of justice is the objective 'right one'. Justice is what makes a society civilized, not vengeance and the ling between the two is thin but still remarkable. The third major theme is upbringing. Throughout the movie the notion that thugs are coming from tough neighborhoods should act as a sufficient reason for legal leniency is recurring. Hank refutes this by saying that he came from that same neighborhood without joining a gang and that he made something of himself. This makes him a relatable character, but it also exposes the film's argument that people from low income neighborhoods are pushed into crime to survive as insufficient. Truly, the film has many powerful themes it tampers with, but fails to follow through with. Even the argument that crime is the only way for youths to survive is undermined right from the get-go, which makes it lose all its power and thus, causes the audience to be uninvested and largely unsympathetic. This is because the film never commits to a strong message on the matter and this makes the theme fall flat which drives the audience away rather than pulling them in. To conclude, The Young Savages is a film that attempts to say alot but is largely inefficient in its attempts. The narrative suffers from a lack of commitment on nearly all fronts, every counter-argument is a straw man, lacking any real substance, which leads the viewer question why they exist at all. This is a film that does have a solid message about the difference in importance between justice and vengeance but this could easily be found in a different film with more subtely that handles said themes with more grace to a larger extent.
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