Gladiatorerna

This film must have been seen by Jean Baudrillard. It is a film about the simulacrum of military games, more realistic than real wars (which are no longer fought). First and foremost, it is a film about the impossibility of escaping the System, which saturates all reality with its effects, because reality itself has long been lost, and everything we experience as reality is just a script of the uncontrolled System, which produces this "reality" with its scenic models. The chance for conscious change does not exist - even that is included in the prediction, and its effect is channeled and fully utilized to strengthen the controlling circuits of the hyperreality-producing programs. This is because the existence of someone who questions the System and fights against is necessary for the System itself and for the appearance of its omnipotence - when we question someone's power, we acknowledge that they have this power, and from this unintended consequence, the System derives its legitimacy and true power. The possibility to challenge the System lies only in unconscious actions, in the true act of spontaneous humanity - this act can be killed, but it cannot be assimilated. It is a pessimistic film, and despite its radical statement not inclined towards contemporarily Maoism in its upswing (the People's Republic of China is put on an /abhorrent/ equal footing with all superpowers), its occasional excessive literalness can be seen as a negative aspect. (24.04.2015)