The "good" activist group (as led by Alejandro and Kara-don't forget, this isn't a "he's just a jerk" story) is more than happy to HELP that corporation in order to gain influence, even to the extent of risking the others' lives while lying about their intentions, killing off others to maximize their own chances for survival, and, of course, using the UN lawyer's daughter as a "sacrifice."Įvery decision in this film can be traced back to this central argument. The "evil capitalist organization" that partners with Alejandro is more than happy to kill off the tribe, Alejandro's group (remember the sabotage?), their "insider," and a major part of Earth's ecosystem in order to support economic prosperity. There is a reason that the end credits include the actors' twitter handles - it's all there in Alejandro's speech about gaining followers. BOTH are exploitive and violent "consumers" - the bull-dozing capitalists for obvious reasons, but-in Roth's telling-the wealthy university students as well, not to mention the meta-narrative about the "consumers" who are watching the students' video online (and, in turn, we, the consumers who are watching it ourselves). "idealist" war onto other people's land (as has been the case for centuries). The worst of international economic imperialism AND the worst of "charity imperialism" converge on this spot, literally bringing their "capitalist" vs. lawyer, who both does nothing to help due to "procedures," but also jokingly wishes for the days of overt military colonialism the professor who shows snapshots w/zero true ethnographic information or responsibility the corrupted activist organizer willing to partner with his enemy if it helps "the big picture," the lure of "missionary"/"savior" work (whether church or social justice based), and on and on. Other reviews seem to be suggesting that the movie is 100% about the extreme violence/gore of the tribe, with the "other" info (the UN, the use of barely informed/trending social media, the corporations, and, though a liberal academic myself, yes-liberal/left-leaning education and progressivism, etc.) being merely plot vehicles to get us there and therefore easy to ignore, rather than seeing Eli Roth's efforts to hold the extreme gore and violence (and its mundaneness to the tribe) as a hard-to-watch "mirror up to nature" for the surrounding story. In case you ARE considering watching this film, please go into it recognizing its efforts to both satirize and struggle with western-style activism/economic colonialism. Like someone taking the Onion seriously, or angrily disagreeing with some conservative talking point on the old Colbert Report, do people "not getting it" and therefore proving its point work as victories or defeat? IF art is art (rather than straight propaganda), where is the line between something that works and doesn't when it comes to satire, juxtaposition, and commentary? When it's CLEARLY the director's fault (like Kubrick cutting the all-important final chapter of Burgess's A Clockwork Orange), that's one thing - but, like an early audience rejecting Andy Kauffman for being "too weird," at what point does a film just "need a niche audience" versus "not work?" Reading the other interviews here makes me think of people who criticize Starship Troopers or Fight Club for being "too fascist." On one hand, both films are designed to satirically criticize fascism, not embrace it - on the other hand, it seems like the majority of the audience didn't understand and, especially in Fight Club's case, it seems to have encouraged rather than dismantled the enemy it was criticizing.
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