Feature film “Gone, Baby, Gone” directed by Ben Affleck and based on the novel by the same name by Dennis Lehane does not only keep the attention of spectators but also makes them face a moral dilemma and judge if the final action by the main character, Patrick Kenzie, was right or wrong.
In the article about this film, which is called “The cruelest crime of all” and was published by The Guardian in 2008 the author gives such a plot review: “The film has a sinuous, labyrinthine plot and what begins as a combination of police procedural thriller and private-eye mystery turns into a complex moral fable about the conflict between what appears morally right and what society deems to be lawful.” The author of the article does not mean Kant’s moral principles, but rather his own or general public understanding of moral. And really, if to look at the last action of Patrick Kenzie it seems completely wrong, because what we see is basically a guy, who takes Amanda from people, who love her and can give her bright future and returns the child to her mother (which is definitely a lawful thing to do), who is a neglectful person, cocaine-sniffer, heavy-drinker and definitely does not fit to be in charge of a child. Special attention should be paid to the final scene with Patrick and Amanda, where he volunteers to watch the child, who is holding her old doll and watching television, while her mother is leaving for a date. Patrick asks Amanda about Mirabelle, only to hear Amanda inform him that her doll's name is "Annabelle" — implying that Helene did not know the name of her daughter's favorite toy. By all this scenes and by the name of the film and book itself authors are clearly pushing us towards the decision that Patrick’s action was lawful but immoral.
In order to analyze the action of the main character in terms of Kant’s moral theory it is necessary to clarify some of it principles. As Kant’s moral theory states that the action can be called morally right judging from its motive, which must be based more on duty than on inclination. At the same time Kant concludes that "Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the law." A good explanation is given in the article “Kant : the Moral Order”: “ The clearest examples of morally right action are precisely those in which an individual agent's determination to act in accordance with duty overcomes her evident self-interest and obvious desire to do otherwise.” If to regard Patrick’s action in the highlight of these notions, it is possible to claim that his action was moral from the point of view of Kant’s moral theory. Namely, he acted as it was demanded by his duty to return the child to her mother and this duty was a total necessity to act out of reverence to the law. At the same time he also had to overcome his self-interest (his girlfriend threatened to break up with him if he decides to call the police) and his desire to act differently (he could clearly see, how happy was the child and what future waited for Amanda if she returned to her mother).
Moreover, we don’t have to forget about such notion in Kant’s theory as “the categorical imperative”. Quoting Kant: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." The meaning of this is pretty clear: if you decide to act in a certain way, you have to regard the situation that everyone else will act according to the same general rule in the future. So, in terms of the film we face the question: “Should kidnapped kids be returned to their mothers or stay with their kidnappers?” and from the point of view of the categorical imperative the answer would be: “Yes, definitely all kidnapped kids should be returned to their mothers”. And again I can claim that Patrick’s action is moral.
So, Kant state that the ultimate principle of morality must be a moral law conceived so abstractly that it is capable of guiding us to the right action in application to every possible set of circumstances. In addition, as Kant’s moral theory emphasizes the importance of the duty in the field of motivation and the necessity to overcome selfishness and emotionality it automatically makes the achievement of happiness secondary. Good will is intrinsically good; its value is wholly self-contained and utterly independent of its external relations, it follows that the value of a good will does not depend even on the results it manages to produce as the consequences of human action. Presented arguments clearly state that the final decision of the main character of the film “Gone, Baby, Gone” Patrick Kenzie is moral from the point of view of the Kant’s moral theory but is still worth mentioning that in spite all of this facts the inner feeling tells that the story of Amand should have finished differently.
Works Cited
French, Philip. "The observer." Rev. Of Film, The cruellest crime of all 8 Jun. 2008: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jun/08/drama
Gone baby Gone. Dir. Ben Affleck. Perf. Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris. 2007.
Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the metaphysics of morals ; with, On a supposed right to lie because of philanthropic concerns. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub, 1993.
"Kant: Moral Order." Philosophy pages. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/5i.htm>.
