Zach Wilson; Decalogue

Kieślowski's films portray the darkness of sin in brutally explicit detail. The memory that I have most vividly is the brutality of the murder portrayed in the taxi scene. The films portray the darker tendencies of human nature which are both intentional and unintentional. My primary thought when viewing the film was that it touched upon both sin that is known, and sin that is unknown. The murder film was obviously a carnal, known sin which was quite obvious, due to the graphic nature of the action. The personal computer, on the other hand was far more subtle. The idolatry committed had only the best motives. The father was trying to protect his son, Pawel, as he went ice skating. However, the father was putting his faith in a computer so much that he essentially bet his son's life upon the information given, rather than on his faith in God, or even in his own common sense, that an unseasonable thaw might endanger his son. Both films had catastrophic consequences. In the case of Pawel's father, he must now live on without his son, knowing that he had placed his faith and Pawel's life in the hands of a machine. In the case of the murderer, he faced his own graphic death by hanging. The consequences and effect of sin is just as Kieślowski presented it. It is ugly, it is brutish, it is shocking, and it is disgusting. As the class cringed during the prolonged scene of killing, Kieślowski had achieved his desired effect of shocking the viewers at the reality of sin in the world, and how the Law is inevitably just, and inevitably for the benefit and favor of society. The genius displayed by Kieślowski is that he displayed both the moral goodness of the law, as well as its innate practicality and utility. The death of a child by drowning, and the random, brutal murder of an innocent man are both ugly events that upset the aesthetics of the films. In addition, their deaths, being brought about by the transgression of the law, demonstrate impracticality. It was impractical for the man to trust a machine over his common sense or faith in God, and it was impractical for a man to commit a random, brutal act of murder.