Film Review of
Prisoners (2013) Benji Steinberg
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.risoners (2013) follows the disappearance of two young girls in Pennsylvania, and the subsequent police investigation. After bureaucratic failure, one of the fathers, Keller Dover, takes the interrogation into his own hands, capturing, and physically abusing one police suspect, Alex Jones, hoping for a confession. Prisoners is a film bound up with the concept of heritage. First, it reveals the desperate and often immoral lengths that one will go to protect their physical progeny, as witnessed in the countless violent scenes of physical abuse when Keller Dover tries to beat a confession out of Alex Jones. Throughout the film, the audience is positioned in Keller’s state of uncertainty and confusion. We experience Keller’s decreasing confidence in his quest for his daughter, and his weakening conviction that Alex Jones is guilty. This journey concludes in the revelation that Alex Jones is a victim himself of his inheritance. Alex Jones turns out to be a victim of the very same religious cult responsible for the disappearance of the two girls. In this moment
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of helpless irony, Prisoners effectively sours the seemingly romantic saying, “I will do anything for you.” Keller’s willingness ‘to do anything’ for his daughter produces a severe injustice and incredible suffering. Second, Prisoners reveals that we are totally defenceless against our inheritance – especially if we receive this at an early impressionable age. Alex Jones typifies this situation. While he is complicit in abducting the two girls his upbringing has taught him that there is nothing wrong with his actions. As part of the religious cult, Alex was indoctrinated to believe that young girls have to be committed to stop them from committing sin. Overall, maintaining one’s inheritance is an incredibly powerful force for action and, at the same time, can be incredibly blinding. In essence, Prisoners shows how what we inherit and the attitude we have towards our progeny can be cruel. It can produce insidious effects. Prisoners in effect poses the question: What should we teach our progeny?
