Alex Aloise - The Decalogue

Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue is a series of films which place the Ten Commandments into contemporary narrative form. The first of these films that we watched in the class dealt with the first commandment: Thou shalt have no gods before me. In this film, a father and his son use a computer program to help them do various deeds. The father and son eventually put all of their faith into the computer, even putting it before God. As a result, the son dies due to misinformation given to the father by the computer. The film serves as a cautionary tale that if this particular commandment is broken, a severe price will be paid. The second film focused on the fifth commandment: Thou shalt not kill. In this film a murder is committed by a taxi driver. The killer is quickly convicted and sentenced to death. The film suggests that murder, whether approved by the law or not, is still murder and still goes against the commandments. It is a very political film which presents the filmmaker's stance on the death penalty.