In life, we often battle situations where there is no easy way to make a decision. The moral or ethical dilemma that comes with the decision making leaves us in a spot. The main reason for this is the situational conflict between two ethical operatives, and you would be in a situation of choosing one of the two options with consequences.
You often experience an ethical dilemma not only in your own lives but in the case of films as well. Sometimes you agree with everything about them. Sometimes you don’t. You also tend to identify with the character of a movie more often. Following are four movies from Hollywood that deal with ethical dilemma beautifully.
Eye In The Sky
Actress Helen Mirren plays the role of Katherine Powell, who works as personnel in the British Army. She goes to Kenya for a mission to capture terrorists. To destroy the terrorist camp, she orders a drone missile attack. However, things start taking a wrong turn when a little girl sets her feet in the area that falls under the category of a kill zone. The storyline of Eye In The Sky revolves around what happens at the war front. It compels viewers to question the ethics of modern war strategies and the use of drone missiles.
The dilemma is all around the point of whether Katherine should go ahead with her missile strike, knowing pretty well that the girl is in the kill zone. In case a strike happens, three key members of that terrorist group will undoubtedly die, but the life of the young girl will be at stake too. Is killing the innocent girl justified? Should the girl be sacrificed for a bigger cause? You will certainly find the ethical dilemma weighing down on your mind throughout the movie.
Gone Baby Gone
Casey Affleck plays the role of Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator. The character of his girlfriend, Angie, has been portrayed by Michelle Monaghan. Together, they set out for a missing case of a young girl who has suddenly disappeared from her neighborhood in Boston. The case takes a complicated turn leading to several shocking revelations that have an unexpected impact on the local community and the duo itself. Crime as a topic is always evocative.
But, whenever there is a crime that involves kids, things turn out to be a bit more evocative. You would face many ethical issues like ethics of parenting, how you lead your lives, and how you treat people in Gone Baby Gone. The most relevant question is whether you can treat the issues as just black and white or shades of grey in every aspect of your life. Should you listen to your brain or your heart? What should you do?
Circle
Fifty strangers suddenly find themselves trapped in a dark room. And they have no idea about how they reached there and why. To their great shock, they witness the killing of two members in a gap of two minutes.
Then they realize that they have the power to decide who should be the next person to die, and thus, they began an alliance based on what they thought of other people who were there with them. The intriguing storyline of the sci-fi does not initially seem to have ethical dilemmas. However, it turns out to be an amazing study of human behavior, and you tend to judge others based on certain parameters.
Passengers
Chris Pratt plays Jim and Jennifer Lawrence plays Aurora in Passengers. The storyline revolves around a spaceship that starts malfunctioning during its journey to a colony situated far away. When Jim and Aurora find it out, they try getting to the crux of the malfunction and make every possible attempt to ensure that their 5000 co-passengers are safe.
There comes a situation when he refuses to suffer from loneliness and tries to push Aurora’s life into jeopardy. As an audience, you face an ethical dilemma regarding whether it was fair for Jim to do this. Can there be a justification or not? There are many complex questions to answer as Passengers progresses towards the climax.
Once you finish watching these movies, you will realize how to solve an ethical dilemma better. And you never know, it might also change the way you think and help you look for alternative solutions in life.