Good points well made, and I too have wrestled with my conscience

over the gratuitous violence that the children have witnessed or been subjected to.

I can only think that there's a disconnect for them in the fact that they know it's TV. It's not real. It is a work of pure fiction. I also think that the way the scenes have been cut together, perhaps the kids were sheltered from the worst of the Special FX. The rabbit decapitation in front of young Arby in his high chair was left to our imagination, but the entrails and limbs of the other rabbit and Arby covered in blood was quite shocking.

Interestingly, the school shootings were more powerful from the fact of what we didn't see, rather than what we did. That said, the panic of the lone child in the hallway who Arby caught up with was harrowing. The child sat in the Jim Nasium on his own was the first glimpse to us that Arby could connect with his emotions. The almost moment of clarity showed that he was able to question his own conscience, despite the perpetual abuse he'd suffered from childhood.

You're right about the kid's acting though, and his uncanny likeness to Neil Maskell. Amazing. To not register a flicker of emotion when so much was going on round him was breathtaking. I think what makes it all the more poignant is that we as doting Dad's cannot begin to imagine the intolerable treatment of one's own offspring. The scenes where the toddler Arby reached out with his arms to his Dad was almost more affecting in my mind than all the other stuff.

Conscience wrestling recommences in T-36 minutes.

Posted By: Jim Nasium on August 5th 2014 at 21:23:14

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