To Kill a Man (2014)Movies

When is homicide justified?  What are the moral consequences of homicide?  How does a man deal with the consequences of taking another’s life?

These are the deep waters explored in Alejandro Fernandez Almendras’s 2014 drama To Kill A Man (Matar a un Hombre).  It is a joint French-Chilean production.

It is, surely, one of the most ancient and intractable of moral questions.  Greek drama visited the theme frequently, and never came to a firm resolution of the issue.  Dostoyevsky painstakingly chronicled the movement of the soul’s decline after a murder in Crime and Punishment.  Director Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 drama Straw Dogs also explored the issue, but left little room for philosophic reflection by making self-defense the key determining...