Decalogue(shall not kill)-Meredith Elliott

The second Decalogue we watched in class was to represent the 6th Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”. In this film, a young man is scarred after his sister died when she was very young. As a result of this the young man is a disturbed human being with much grief on his back. He threw a rock off of a high building just because and he kills this taxi driver just because as well. Although in many people’s response to the movie they felt sorrow for the young man I do not. Yes the taxi driver wasn’t the nicest man in the world, but does he deserve to die?
In this movie, God is seen as the person directing the cross walk, and when the young man is in the taxi the crossing guard looks at him as if to say “don’t do it. This isn’t the best way to solve the problem”. However, the young man goes about killing the taxi driver in a rather disturbing and grotesque way.
Something that grabbed my attention was although the commandment is “thou shall not kill” it seemed as if killing was a big part of this movie. The young man’s sister died causing him to kill the taxi driver. As a result of the tax drivers death, now the young man is going to be hung leading him to his death. It seems as if it is a never ending cycle. Going back to what I was saying earlier about not feeling sympathy for the young man, I can see that he is sad over the loss of his sister, but if the cycle doesn’t stop somewhere it will go on and on and on making this world an awful place to live in. Both films are in black and white which also increases the amount of mysterium, keeping the audience locked in to see what happens next. I think this film is a great way to show why exactly one shouldn’t kill; not only because of the eternal Hell one would suffer, but also because of law matters here on earth.