When a 16-year-old boy discovers that the “perfect” managed society in which he lives is simply a drugged potemkin village, he must decide whether its superficially happy character is worth the price in terms of foregone human experience and lost liberty. [ The Giver credits: Dir: Phillip Noyce/ 94 min/ SciFi-Drama/ Individualism, Government enforced morality, Equality & Envy]
External Reviews
“There are unmistakable messages in The Giver about the dangers of surrendering freedom, of believing that government exists to perfect us, of thinking that life can be lived fully without risk and pain and suffering. The gift of The Giver is something good and true and beautiful about what is good and true and beautiful in humanity.”
–National Review (Kathryn Jean Lopez)
“This is a utopia organized not around the seeking of pleasure but instead the avoidance of pain. As Meryl Streep’s character explains, ‘When people have the freedom to choose, they choose wrong.’ …At its heart, the film rebukes not just the idea that life can be engineered to perfection but the idea that painlessness is even desirable for the human heart.”
–National Review (David French)
How to See It
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