What Makes "The Pledge"In general "The Pledge" was a very entertaining movie. I personally like it because it showed the story of a man who had worked his entire life and earned the respect of all around him. However it showed how sometimes other's opinions of us don't truly mean as much as how we view ourselves. Jerry Black before he retired he made a promise to find the man who murdered this little girl. At first I enjoyed watching Jerry build a new life with Lori and her daughter; it was nice to see the relationship build and develop. Now the other aspect of this relationship is whether it was all a ruse to find the murder. I am one similar to Jerry where if I convince myself that I NEED to do something not for anyone else but for myself it becomes an obsession. However in this story Jerry's obsession and attempt for redemption drove him to the brink and caused him to lose everything that he had developed. That was the part that left me unfulfilled from the movie: the idea that every relationship Jerry had built up was lost because of his obsession.
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Great Movie: The PledgeBesides for the obvious plot summary of this article there were several concepts that stood out to both me and Robert Ebert noticed. One of which was the almost lack of plot development. There was so much time spent building up the scenario that for a bit the story seemed like it was headed nowhere. The other big notion that was discussed in this article but I also took notes on while watching the film was the aspect of how the story wasn't really about the plot but more about Jerry Black's obsession with completing a task. How Jerry had become obsessed with the concept of keeping his promise and finding the murder. Such as the article mentioned Penn's other film into the wild (which I have not seen however I did read the book) Both characters are doing something in order to prove to themselves that it can be done.
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