Sample Movie Review on The Giver
There is a popular belief that ignorance might be bliss. People do not worry about things they do not know, and sometimes it is better that way for them to live a happier life. This is well portrayed in the movie The Giver, a 2014 science fiction film based on the 1993 novel with the same title written by Lois Lowry. The movie illustrates a story of a community regime focused on wiping off everyone’s memories of the past except for one person – the ‘Receiver’. The aim of such behavior is to ensure a utopia of tranquility and eternal peace. Every community member seems to be happy with the existing rules and the tasks allocated to them. Mostly because they do not know a better way of life than the one they have. Thus, they live in harmony and have no obvious reason to worry or complain. Is that bliss? Doubtfully.
This peaceful coexistence changes when one of the main characters, a 16-year-old boy called Jonas, is appointed by the community’s chief elder as the next “Receiver” of the memories and placed to work under the current master, the “Giver”. In due course, Jonas starts receiving memories of the past that shatter his little comfortable world forever. The new emotions that soon follow he teaches his friend Fiona demonstrating that ignorance is far from real happiness. Knowing something gives people a chance to be more creative and learn better solutions for the problems they have.
Ignorance might even kill. Rosemary, the Giver’s daughter and a former Receiver of memories in the past, commits suicide as a result of distress about the past. She cannot handle the new knowledge. The similar fate might also wait for Jonas questioning the regime who is considered dangerous for the community because of his new feelings. That is a rather common issue when those at power try to destroy those who threaten their rule.
The movie itself is another reminder that ignorance is not bliss. Lack of knowledge creates additional barriers for those people who want to learn and grow through their lives. Knowledge is useful for survival and personal development. A knowledgeable person or community lives much more colorfully than the ignorant. The Giver proves again that despite all the efforts to cover the truth, it always finds the way to the surface.
Works Cited
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
The Giver. Directed by Phillip Noyce, Walden Media, 2014.