Morality is one of the most contested, criticized and discussed issues all across the world, and this is especially based on the fact that it is one of the aspects in life that dates from as back as man became a civilized being. However, over centuries, there has been a lot of changes in the way morality is viewed, and through changes and evolutions such as the definition and drawing of moral lines between what is good and bad in the society, a lot has changed morality especially with the development of values, loosing of traditions and globalization. For example, what may be viewed as morally right in one community/society may be seen as the exact opposite in another society based on the two different societies’ outlook on life, values and preferences. This is what leads to a clash in moral values and credibility of a certain society is consequently criticized by another.
According to Kant’s moral philosophy, there are however a number of checkpoints that ensure that the society’s morality are upheld, maintained and unscathed. Apart from tradition which happens to grow and move into extinction day by day, religion has maintained an upper hand in ensuring that a community’s morality is upheld. Almost all legal religions across the world hold similar perspectives towards certain vital moral issues such as death and preservation of life, respect for the elderly, maintenance of dignity and practice of morality and utmost respect for the Supreme Being (Johnson 67). In this assignment therefore, the movie “Indecent Proposal” has been analyzed and some of the moral teachings in it focused on from the Kant’s Moral Philosophical perspective.
In the film ‘’The Indecent Proposal” staged and produced in 1993, sexual morality and maintenance of one’s own dignity are the issues that have been discussed to lengths. Directed by Adrian Lyne, the movie’s plot focuses on David and Diana Murphy, two childhood sweethearts who end up getting married in their mid twenties. The couple remains to be a happy one until they decide to pursue David’s dream of establishing a real estate entrepreneurship in the view of achieving financial freedom. His wife Diana comes in fully supporting him in his venture, and in their search for money, the two settle on relocating to Las Vegas where they get themselves into gambling. Having placed all their money and savings into red in Roulette and lost, they happen to meet a multibillionaire gambler John gage (Las Vegas is a city that holds the reputation of having multiple billionaires who acquire their wealth through gambling). Problem starts when gage instantly gets attracted to Diana, David Murphy’s wife.
John Gage, the Las Vegas billionaire is an intelligent person who within a short time is able to figure out that David and Diana Murphy are frustrated from loosing all their resources to gambling and that they are in desperate need for money, at least to get back to their feet. He therefore uses this to his advantage and offers them one million dollars just to spend a night with Diana. The couple, considering their financial crisis are left in a dilemma and after much thinking and mutual consultations, they eventually give in to the offer. After spending the night however, a lot changes between the couple, as David is no longer able to trust his wife and still feels insecure that she might as well continue with the ties with the billionaire later in their marriage. His insecurity state lead to the couple’s constant disagreement and after Diana realized that the billionaire has in fact purchased their private home and constantly keeps on pursuing her; she gets more attracted to him. The situation turns out to be too intense to the point that the couple can’t hold on together any more, and the settle for a divorce.
However, after their separation, David realizes that life will be very difficult without his wife and before the divorce actually materializes, he talks to his wife who is already seeing Mr. Gage at this time. He declares to her that she is giving back the million dollars to billionaire and at this point Diana realizes that they have come too far in their relationship to sign a divorce. She therefore talks to Mr. Gage and gives him back his lucky coin, and having understood, he even offers to take her back to her husband in the mainland.
In conclusion, Kant’s Moral Philosophy emphasizes on the respect of moral law and states that every moral action that a person takes has a consequence. At the same time, a person should not be forces to take any given moral action especially where he is directly involved, rather the choice should be out of one’s own free will, bearing in mind that every moral action has a consequence (Johnson 87).
WORKS CITED
Johnson, Robert. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Missouri: PhilPapers Publishing, 2008. Print.
