Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Emilio Estevez, Alec Baldwin, Taylor Schilling, Jena Malone, Christian Slater, Jacob Vargas, Gabrielle Union, Derek Polen, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Rhymefest, Ki Honk Lee, Patrick Hume, Richard T. Jones, Susanna Thompson, Spencer Garrett, Michael Douglas Hall, Bryant Bentley, Nik Pajic, Jared Earland, Dale Hodges.
To be homeless is to understand that the vast majority of people you encounter will not look you in the eye, will look upon you with fear and suspicion and will steer clear of you as if you were harbouring a contagious disease, and in a way on that last point they may be right, for the scourge of homelessness is a disease, not of want or a sin created by the person suffering under the weight of lack of aspiration, but one increasingly and systematically corrupted by unchecked capitalism, perpetrated by greed, delivered by the belief that the homeless have brought it upon themselves.
To look a person in the eye who is suffering from the disease of homelessness and not feel an ounce of shame, of empathy, is to know that your humanity has been destroyed, that you are comfortable with the lie that they all choose to sleep on the street rather than be out of the cold, they would rather be abused, kicked, have their possessions stolen, their dignity wrecked, rather than be in a place of safety; and in that lays the problem of today’s society, that we celebrate wealth rather than feel the pain of squalor.
When the youngest member of the Kardashians can receive money from a member of the Public to help her become a millionaire and yet a man or woman has to beg for somewhere to sleep for the night, that is the moment that society has completely lost its moral compass and it is shame, pure and simple dishonour.
It is to the credit of Emilio Estevez that his moral pulse is not only strong, but racing with anger, with fierce rage, and his insightful film, The Public, is one that strides, even perhaps with others not realising, purposely in the same great steps as the play An Inspector Calls or in the quoted The Grapes Of Wrath. We live in an age of constant devilry, of inhumanity, and like the social problems that were inflamed by the greed of the mill owners at the start of the last century or the Great Depression in the 30s, we are on the edge of such a glaring fall once more; and this time we need to solve the disease once and for all by sticking by those that have fallen, not to make them feel as though death is a welcome brother of sleep.
Emilio Estevez displays great empathy in his script, and with sharp reflections of performances by Taylor Schilling, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Rhymefest, Christian Slater, and of course Mr. Estevez himself, Public is a film that doesn’t just ask you feel bitterness, it demands that you feel anger, that you acknowledge your shame for being complicit in the disease of homelessness, and the fury of wanting to make sure that those that find themselves on such a path are cared for in future, above and beyond any need for self-glory or vanity projects which bare someone’s desire for power.
Not just a well-written film, but one of exposure as well, The Public is a film that is required watching.
Ian D. Hall