Ben Gerard 

FOJ Period 7

 “There are three kinds of people, The ones above, the ones below, and the ones that fall.” What would you do to eat? What if it had been a day? Two days? Two weeks? Would you do more drastic things than usual if you had been starved? “The Platform” explores this phenomenon in the most brutal of ways. 

  The movie begins with our protagonist, Goreng waking up in a cell with a 4 by 4 foot square hole in the middle. He is told by his cellmate Trimagasi that they are in the pit and the hole in the center is where their daily rations of food come from. There are over 300 levels of two cellmates that have to share these rationings, the math simply doesn’t add up. There’s barely enough food for everyone to eat even just one thing. We later learn that everyone in the pit is being punished for a crime except Goreng who is doing it as an experiment in exchange for an accredited degree. He then has to learn how to survive in this new way of life, each month waking up on a different level of the pit, with more or less food than the last. 

  This film does a really good job of getting the audience to think about their own life choices and about how the world really works. There are scenes that show starving men resorting to outright cannibalism but at the moment it feels at least a little bit understandable. “The Platform” is packed full of metaphors and deeper meanings, mainly relating to different levels of wealth, power, and different social classes. For example, there is one scene where Trimagasi is urinating on the level below them, when asked why he says “because they are below us” and when asked how he would feel to find out people above him did that he responds with “of course they do, selfish bastards.” This highlights exactly how people have been shown to act for centuries with lower-class people constantly being mistreated until they get to a level of power in which they are bound to treat people the way they have been treated in the past, forgetting their own past experiences or letting those experiences control their feelings and actions.  

 There are a few notable plotholes in the movie like when Miharu is searching for her lost child, riding down the platform every day but still somehow ending back on her level at the beginning of every new day. Maybe someone in charge of the pit was pulling her back to her level each night but that seems unlikely as they never did anything about the starving people, murderers, and suicides. I think this can be explained by it only being a 94-minute movie with a pretty low budget. With that being said the movie is still great and the plotholes don’t ruin or even alter the overall plot in any way. 

  “The Platform” is similar to Squid Game in the sense that it tests people in what they believe is right or wrong and experiments with how far someone will go for something of value, in this case, their own life.  Squid game has one main character who you find yourself rooting for, despite how dangerous and savage he becomes. This is seen with Goreng too as he begins to descend into borderline insanity, he has awful thoughts but you find yourself understanding his decisions. This is also seen when Trimagasi resorts to cannibalism. The audience is appalled obviously, but at the same time, you can’t help but feel sorry that he is in this situation and almost understand his mindset. 

  If you like any movies or books related to social or economical inequality like The “Hunger Games” or “Squid Game” I’d say this is right up your alley. Fair warning, this movie can definitely make you angry, sad, or anxious. I remember I kept thinking about the movie and specifically the ending for days on end after seeing it the first time. However, if you like a movie that will make you think about things like social or economic issues in a new light, or you just simply like getting riled up over something, “The Platform” is for you.

I think the overall purpose of this movie is to make you think about serious real-world issues, in a fictional, exaggerated setting. I believe this low-budget film was designed to get people angry about issues that don’t directly affect them, whilst still entertaining them. Are you going to be more infuriated and want to help over a social media post about poverty or about an hour and a half long movie full of relatable characters and obvious metaphors? It’s hard to get people to care about something that doesn’t affect them but get them to relate with fictional characters in an exaggerated and dangerous setting, and they’ll have a new or stronger belief on the topic of the movie. I, like most decent people, care about social and economic injustices but I’ve never actually related to any until seeing them unfold in front of me for 90 minutes straight.  I think this movie accomplished exactly what it was made for and it’s a shame it’s not more popular.