Hollywood Liberals Strike Again: A Review of ‘Circle’

The movie Circle was released in May of 2015 after debuting at the Seattle International Film Festival. Although it is a psychological thriller, it exemplifies conservative bashing institutionalized in Hollywood.

The premise of the film is deceptively simple. Random individuals have been abducted for unknown reasons. While the people debate why they were taken, a machine in the center of the room begins randomly killing people. The trapped individuals discover that they have the power to vote on which person the machine kills next. As a result, the people discuss who should live and who should die, all the while secretly trying to ensure their own individual survival.

The point of the film is to use a bizarre and deadly situation to discuss values and stereotypes in society. For example, when discussing who should die, one person argues that the elderly should be the first to go, since they have lived the longest. In another situation, the captured prisoners debate whether or not they should spare the lives of those people with families, especially those with children.

However, the film eventually spirals into debating perceived prejudices in society. In a characteristically Hollywood fashion, liberal and conservative beliefs are challenged. For example, one character, a rich wall street executive, argues that they should all vote to kill the Mexican character because he doesn’t speak English and was “probably an illegal alien.” Another person argues that they should kill the lesbian character because she has a non-traditional marriage. As you would expect, after suggesting these ideas, the other trapped individuals summarily kill these “prejudiced” characters.

Although the movie has potential to discuss the core values of America, if fails on every account to fairly describe conservative views. Instead, the movie paints conservatives as bigoted individuals that hate liberal progressives. The movie creates a straw man type argument, in which conservative values are simplified the point of absurdity. The movie then kills off these individuals in order to symbolically argue that the general society doesn’t actually value these prejudices.

For those who are conservative, Hollywood liberals bashing traditional values is nothing new. That said, this movie very explicitly and violently attacked conservatives in a way that should disturb any reasonable individual. It is one thing to disagree with conservative viewpoints; it is another to successively kill off conservative characters because the director of a movie hates traditionalists. Had the movie’s ideological arguments been reversed, one wonders would the media reaction would be to such a violent movie.

Although this movie deeply disturbed me, it ultimately shows the naïveté and immaturity of many liberal progressives. Instead of challenging conservative views in a more intellectual and fair setting, the movie resorts to a childish display of violent contempt for a viewpoint they likely don’t understand. In other words, this movie was nothing more than a form of immature name-calling.

For those of you looking for a prime example of Hollywood liberalism at its worst, I suggest watching Circle. But if you’re looking for an interesting movie that tells a great story in a unique fashion, you’d better look somewhere else.