Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Everardo Valerio Gout
Starring: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Josh Lucas, Cassidy Freeman, Leven
Rambin, Alejandro Edda, Will Patton
You know the deal with these movies by now, right? Once a year between the
hours of 7pm and 7am, the US allows an amnesty for all crime. Decapitate
your next door neighbour. Steal that Porsche from the local car
dealership. File a dodgy tax return. Anything goes on Purge Night. The
movies of this franchise (this one is the fifth, but it feels like we've
gotten twice that number to date) usually involve some members of the
lower class, usually people of colour, having to negotiate their way
through Purge Night without being targeted by homicidal upper class
bigots.
The last few instalments haven't exactly been subtle in their critique of
Trump, with the villains falling resolutely into the rich and white camp.
There's always been something a little off about the reductive politics of
this series, something a little hypocritical. While aiming their ire at
America's right, the franchise plays out like free propaganda for the
National Rifle Association, with its heroes usually rescued by that
mythical figure of the good guy with a gun. The series' mistrust of elites
could at times be read as coming from either side of the political fence.
The Forever Purge sees the franchise lean further to the
right. Where rich white people were the baddies before, now it's poor
white people. In one of the most right wing scenes to come out of
mainstream Hollywood in quite some time, a rich white man lectures a group
of Marxists about how they're no better than the Purgers. For a series
that hates Trump so much, it sure does sound like it's parroting his "both
sides" messaging.
The threadbare plot sees a Mexican immigrant couple – Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and Juan (Tenoch Huerta) – find work in Texas. Adela is a
supervisor at a meat packing plant while Juan is a ranch hand for Caleb
Tucker (Will Patton), a classic ranch patriarch in the Ben
Cartwright/Jock Ewing mould. Unlike his bigoted son (Josh Lucas),
Caleb has a fondness for Mexicans and is something of a father figure for
Juan.
As is the custom, everyone locks down for Purge Night, but when they
emerge the following morning they find that certain groups have decided
one night just isn't enough. As America is decimated by violence, our
wealthy white and poor Mexican heroes must band together to battle the
true menace – the white working class. If this isn't a liberal Hollywood
fantasy writ large, I don’t know what is.
This isn't exactly a series known for its subtle politics, so it seems
churlish to get annoyed by its portrayal of poor white people as either
one-dimensional racists or murderous Marxists. That said, the more I
watched the rich white heroes ingratiate themselves with their brown
buddies while mowing down pasty faced plebs left, right and centre, the
more sinister and mean-spirited the whole enterprise felt. "We're the good
white people," the filmmakers seem to be saying, "You know, the ones with
nice houses and good diction. It's those illiterates with bad teeth you
need to watch out for." We even get the classic trope of the racist white
guy (Josh Lucas as the JR to Will Patton's Jock) who changes his views
just by spending some time with a person of colour – think
Green Book
with explosions.
Boiled down to its basics, The Forever Purge is a chase
thriller, with our heroes trying to get to the sanctuary of Mexico (see
what they did there) before the border closes. The action along the way is
middling, and a lot of it feels like it's inspired by the Italian
Mad Max and Escape from New York clones that
propped up video store shelves in the early '80s. Thanks to costume
designer Leah Butler, the movie is at least visually arresting,
with the Purgers sporting some eye-catching get-ups. I particularly liked
the Antifa substitute who wears a mask that makes him look like Yul
Brynner with half his face shot off in Westworld.
But I'm grasping at straws here. The Forever Purge is simply
another retread of the storyline the series has been using since its first
sequel. In trying to reach across the aisle and appease the white rich
elite audience it's long been mocking, the franchise seems to be on a
fool's errand. I don't think rich white elites spend much of their time
watching movies like The Forever Purge. In switching the villainy from the wealthy to the downtrodden, the
series has gone from lazily punching up to cruelly punching down.
The Forever Purge is on Netflix
UK/ROI now.