Joel Alvarado

LEH 355

3/10/2015

                                                            “M”

One of the most of impressive scenes from the movie “M” was when Beckett was taken to the kangaroo court, when he was forced into the basement like room he saw a large group of people that were going to witness his verdict. There were also a couple of judges in front of the crowd that were getting ready to sentence him. When Beckett felt the intensity and the atmosphere of the room he automatically went into defensive mode and he was acting like he did not have anything to do with being there. It wasn't until the blind guy confirmed that he was indeed the criminal that he confirmed that the people had caught up to his crimes. As he went into the defensive mode the judges pulled up a couple of pictures of the victims that he had murdered. When he saw the faces of the young girls he tried he went got surprised and he tried to flee but the people in the room did not let him escape.

Prior to sentencing him, he was assigned a lawyer but he was on denial; stating that he did not want to lawyer because he believed he was innocent. When he saw that the crowd was not being receptive to his demands, he insisted to be handed over to the police. Afterwards, he started confessing his disorders and he prosecuted himself. One of the reasons why I found this scene appealing was because it was highly ironic how a criminal tries to beg for help committing unforgivable crimes. It is as if he does not understand the intensity of the crimes he committed. Another important factor that made this scene outstanding was the fact that people decided to take matters into their own hands. I completely agree with a group of people doing so because there are many occasions where we let the government or the judicial system handle certain things under the assumption that they will deliver according but the decision is not fair at all. The fact that these people decided to put their own judicial system together implies that they care about their city and are willing to make a change for the better. Lastly, it would have been interesting to see how the group of individuals was going to punish the criminal if the police had not intervened.

This movie reflects a lot of the instability that was occurring in Germany in the era. The fact that the government was unstable and people were taking matters into their own hands speaks a lot about a society’s instability. Another major issue that was occurring in that particular time was that people were letting their desires overpower them. We saw how desire overpowered the professor in The Blue Angel and ultimately ruined his life, just like the desire of murdering ruined Beckett’s life in this film. Another major distress is that just like the film “ The Cabinet”, they were there were a lot of impression misconceptions that were placed on certain individuals. In “The Cabinet”, the murderer faked to be sleeping while in reality he was out killing people. The outcome of his crimes did not fit the description because he was an important member in society, that goes to show the misconception people had on others