Welcome to A-Z Movie Reviews. Every Sunday, for the next several months, I will be posting a review of a film in my home movie collection. How it works is, I will be reviewing movies in alphabetical order until I get to the letter Z (Yes, I do have a film that ends in Z). Now I realize there are many ways to alphabetize a film collection but this is mine so don’t judge me. This is simply for fun.
With all the election stuff happening right now (congratulations to our President-elect Joe Biden/Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris), I think it’s quite fitting that the movie we’re talking about for this week’s A-Z Movie Reviews is Divergent starring Shailene Woodley and Theo James.
What it’s about:
In a world divided by factions based on virtues, Tris learns she’s Divergent and won’t fit in. When she discovers a plot to destroy Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents dangerous before it’s too late.
Based on the book by Veronica Roth, Divergent is a film that is all about being true to who you are. It’s also a bit political as well.
The setting is Chicago, a vastly different one I might add. It’s post-war Chicago and the people have been split into five different groups or factions which are supposedly designed to make life better. The five factions are Erudite, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Abnegation. Each of these groups are different in their own way. Erudite contains smart people, Amity is made up of farmers who are kind, Candor is filled with honest people who believe in order, the Dauntless are the soldiers and protectors, and lastly, Abnegation which Beatrice Prior AKA Tris (Woodley) belongs to, contains people who lead simple lives and are selfless. All’s right with the world if each faction knows where they belong.
I found it interesting watching this film again after taking my philosophy class because it made me think of when I learned about political and social philosophy. Bear with me for just a minute because I may have lost you by talking about school but, Socrates talked about how we know what class we belong to in society. He believed that there were three parts of our soul that determined what class we belonged to and if we stayed within that class, our society would remain just. That sounds a lot like what Divergent is dealing with.
Because Abnegation are known as public servants, they rule the government. The thing about that is, Erudite feels they should be running things because they feel they are more fit to rule. While all of this is happening, Tris has just taken an aptitude test to find out if she does in fact belong in Abnegation. She finds out that her test results are inconclusive. This creates a problem for her because all her life she has been told to “trust the test” because it is designed to tell you where you belong. Because her results are inconclusive, she is told by the proctor to trust herself.
The future belongs to those who know who they are.
Struggling with who she is, on choosing day, Tris picks Dauntless because that’s where she feels she belongs. Tris is a fighter and I love that. She never backs down from a challenge and stands up for what is right. That fight is what draws Four (James) one of the leaders of Dauntless to her. He sees some of himself in her and the two find out they have much more in common than they thought. Tris’s test results were inconclusive because she is what is known as Divergent and so is Four. A Divergent is a person who has equal attributes of multiple factions. This makes them a threat to what is deemed as the natural order that Erudite seeks to maintain.
Jeanine (Kate Winslet), the leader of Erudite is on a mission to overthrow Abnegation so that they can be the ones in charge of the government. If that doesn’t sound slightly like what has been happening in the U.S. over last four years, you haven’t been paying attention. Tris knows that Abnegation has not done anything wrong and because her own parents are part of the government, she works to stop Jeanine. If you’ve read the book or seen the film, then most likely you know the outcome, but I’ll stop here just in case reading this has gotten you interested in the film.
I’ve seen Divergent several times and this time around I saw it in such a different light. I already love this movie, but I think now I love it even more.
Other Thoughts
- There are so many great quotes in this film that I love.
- The soundtrack for this film is still one of my favorites and every song fit perfectly in the movie. It was interesting to listen to it again and realize there were lots of artists I wasn’t familiar with who I now know like Pia Mia and Chance The Rapper.
- If it were that easy to get a tattoo, I would get one.
- Fun Fact: Our HBICs name is on the scoreboard, see if you can find it.
- Theo James is fine as fuck
- Fours back tattoo gives me some thoughts.
- Eric is a dick, but Jai Courtney is also fine as fuck and I loved his tats and piercings.
- Seriously cannot stand Peter (Miles Teller)
- So, you can pick a faction, but the faction still gets to decide whether you can stay or not? Umm okay, that’s fair…
- I don’t care how big Fours bed was, that thing looked uncomfortable as hell. I mean it literally looks like a block.
Divergent is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
