The Interview’s
original intended Christmas Day release is back on the cards after the release
of the Sony film was cancelled amid hacking threats towards the production
company in recent days. The Interview is the most recent film starring duo Seth
Rogen and James Franco in a comedic assassination plot of North Korea’s
infamous leader, Kim Jong-Un. As a result of the controversial theme and even
more from the recent hacking of Sony, the film has gained an incredible
worldwide spotlight of attention. However, whilst every news website and blog
worth their salt is reporting on the updates of both the film’s release status
and Korea and America’s political dealing amid the Sony hackings this article
will report something different.
Is it okay to produce films like The Interview?
The plot of The Interview is about famous talk show
host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and
his colleague and friend Dave Rapaport
(Seth Rogen) being invited to interview Kim Jong-Un (Randall Park). The characters are then recruited by America’s CIA to
assassinate the Korean leader and a series of hilarious and surreal events
ensue. Being this is a personal blog and I am not a company name I am free to
state my opinion. I don’t think a film of this concept is morally okay to
produce.
The
first moral dilemma I see in a film of this nature is the simple fact that the
target of the film’s fictional assassination is a very non-fictional, very much
alive and real individual. Whilst Kim Jong-Un and his father before him have
always had somewhat of an infamous reputation as world leaders is it truly okay
to produce a film about their murder? It isn’t my belief that having a film
made about yourself being the target of a CIA funded assassination leaves a
great taste in Kim Jong-Un’s mouth and in his position I feel I too would be as
vocally offended as he was when the film was first announced. We are talking
about putting millions of dollars into the production of a film where the main
plot is murdering a real person and portraying doing so in a comedy of all genres.
Whilst
I can appreciate that the film aims for a light, less than serious tone with its
comedy setting I still feel this doesn’t detract from the plot of this film. I
can only imagine the amount of individuals who would be vocally aggressive
towards a comedy film being made about murdering the current reigning British
monarch, Queen Elizabeth, or assassinating President Barack Obama. Yet the
likes of George Clooney, Steve Carrel and even President Obama himself condemned
Sony’s original cancellation of the film after threats were issued to Sony by the culprits of the recent hacking attack.
In
America freedom of speech and creative license is celebrated and has been
quoted greatly in regards to The Interview being released, however freedom of
speech does have a limit in the country. Offensive and particularly hateful
speech is condemned in both the United States and the United Kingdom as hate
crime and a film of this nature directed towards any of their own cultural
figureheads would be the cause of uproar and rage. I, as an English writer, condemn peoples' acceptance of such a glorified acceptation of a film whose
premise is to provide comedy in a film about killing a real living person who
is the figurehead in his country.
If
I can say without doubt that I would personally be offended by a comedy snuff film being produced about my own death for
people’s entertainment, is it really okay to produce a film to make people
laugh about the murder Kim Jong-Un? That, I believe, is very much open and in dire need of debate.
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