Battle Royale Essay

While watching the film, Battle Royale, a viewer may feel disgust or uneasiness while viewing these scenes of death, destruction, and often torture. The reality of life seems so removed from this film, but on a deeper level, the director Kinji Fukasaku has brilliantly illustrated the brutality of life’s journey in his film. Starting at the most basic level, humans are inherently a self conflicting people. The conflict that arises generally stems from the desire to forward one’s self in the social hierarchy in order to gain a position of power or personal gain. The disagreements between individuals, or groups of individuals, can escalate to the point of physical violence, death, and destruction of communities. Ultimately, this illustration of the island and the pain and suffering contained therein reflects the reality of human society, even if there have been many attempts to suppress this violence and conflict.
No matter how much civilization advances and peoples unite to accomplish tasks, the harsh reality of societal interaction is founded upon a lust for control first over oneself and then over others. Inherently, humans are a self conflicting group of people. Conflicts that arise most often result from a person’s desire for power over one’s self in the social hierarchy and for power over others below them in the social hierarchy. These various disputes between individuals, or groups of individuals, often escalate to arguments, physical violence, and can even escalate to the destruction of entire communities. This series of steps by which humans react and move forward in society is illustrated by the film Battle Royale in a much more gruesome, yet entirely realistic way. Ultimately, the island, and the pain and suffering contained therein, reflects the unfortunate reality of human society, even if there have been many attempts to suppress this violence and