Decalogue

The Decalogue is about the 10 commandments. We watched film showing us the first commandment and the 5th commandment. Midrash is relevant in both films but in my opinion more so in the first film about a father losing his son and possibly his faith in science as well. The first commandment is "thou shall have no other gods before me" and this the commandment addressed in the first film. In the film, the father is raising his son alone and they seem to be very close, bonding over equations they can put into the computer.  The father is a man of science in reason, this is immediately shown in his response to his sons question about death. The father responded with a very technical answer about the body shutting down and when pushed more by the son the father has no biblical answer, but instead a mild disintrest. This leads his son down a path to search for deeper answers, guided to sources about god from his religious aunt. All 3 characters view the world differently, the father has a pragmatic approach and the aunt believes god is in control of everything, while son is searching for answers somewhere in between. The fathers faith is then rattled when his god, science, betrays him, and allows his son to fall through the ice and drown. This leads the father to have an emotional episode in a church. How can someone not believe in god but still be angry at him? I just saw that on house and is very applicable here.
The second film is about the 5th commandment "thou shall not kill" which is something I think everyone can get behind. The film follows a young deviant commiting increasingly deviant acts throughout the town. The character esclates from being an ass to brutally murdering a taxi driver with a rope, stick and rock to finish the job. His lawyer stands up not for his actions, but objects to the death penalty, saying it is not a deterent to murder, which empirically has a lot of evidence behind it. While waiting to die we see the sweet side of the killer, he has a family he cares about and thinks that if his sister wasnt killed by his friend this would be different. Then we have a very uncomfortable scene of his struggle before being hung. After he was hung I felt very empty. Despite him having a family he cared about, I didnt have much sympathy for him, and I didnt think his sister dying was an excuse at all. Before he was hung I had no opposition to that happening. But after it happened it doesn't feel like justice is served. The cab driver is still dead and his family no better off. The deviant leaves behind a crying mother. Also, the hypocrisy of killing someone for killing sinks in too.