MovieChat Forums > Mad City (1997) Discussion > The Children in this movie

The Children in this movie

posted 14 years ago by alblmfld-1
3 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this movie on Netflix and I thought it was an OK movie.

My problem with it is how the children act in this movie. I think this part of the movie was so poorly written and made the movie unrealistic. When the kids first come across Travolta's character holding a shot gun non of them were scared. In fact when Travolta accidentally shot the gun and shot his co worker some of the children are even cheering thinking it's cool the gun just went off.

I think at some point in a newscast they say this has been going on for 3 days. Non of the kids are scared or even upset that they are away from home? In the very end when Travolta let's the kids go, a couple of them come back and say Thank You.

Thank You? Thanks for holding us against our will for 3 days and not killing us?

[–] Excaliburan 14 years ago

There were a few scared kids. Some of them kept quiet or pretended not to be bothered by a madman with a gun. The rest of the kids seemed to enjoy being hostages. They were locked up in a museum for three days, but they were away from school and home. They had no rules; they had free rein to run amok, eat candy all day and wear flashy shoes.

I didn't understand why they needed light up shoes but, while the kids being hostages was a bit exaggerated, it made sense. These kids were desensitized. Kids nowadays see adult events on the news, in video games or sometimes up close and by a certain age, some things don't faze them.

Perry: "You, stop multiplying!"

[–] koumpi11185 13 years ago

I would agree with the previous answer.

What the film wants to present -as fas as children are concerned- is that for them all this "hostage story" and violence is familiar to them.
Furthermore, after the first day they had become "friends" with Travolta's caracter. He was not scaring or violent. He was crying, he had this naive face... So it was easy for the kids to think of him as a friend.

For the shoes, I was thinking that FBI sent these shoes in order to recognize the children into the dark, in case they wanted to shoot the kidnapper.

[–] JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies 13 years ago

A very important aspect of the film is that no one who encounters Sam Bailey is the least bit frightened by him. Mrs. Banks is completely unconcerned that Sam has a gun and is pointing it at her a couple times, for example. The only time anyone inside the museum ever worries about the gun is when Sam is doing something that might cause it to accidentally go off again. This is even the case the couple times that Sam gets upset.

If the kids were at all frightened of him, uncomfortable, etc., the point above wouldn't be made nearly as well as it is. The point is not realism (and also don't forget that a major mode of the film at times is comedy). Rather, it's showing a concrete representation of more abstract ideas. Many films should be read that way, but unfortuantely, most folks only try to read them "literally", and very superficially.

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