MovieChat Forums > The Devil's Rejects (2005) Discussion > I don't get why we were supposed to be s...

I don't get why we were supposed to be sorry for the Fireflies

posted 8 years ago by vandyvch
7 replies | jump to latest

Supposedly the draw of this movie is the Fireflies and law enforcement switching villain/protagonist roles and the cops going over the line in this movie.

Yet we're supposed to feel sorry for the Fireflies... why? They had a happy party before they died? They showed solidarity while being tortured? The movie plays on public fear of cops?

Let's not forget they weren't exactly on an innocent run from the law - they were still actively kidnapping and killing people on the way. Hell - there was even a mother and son who were likely to get killed had Spaulding not been gunned down by the police.

If it were up to me, they'd of let Sheriff Wydell complete his revenge without interruption.

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[–] The-IIVII 8 years ago

Just re-watched the movie tonight, I didn't get the impression we should feel sorry for them. What makes the film interesting towards the end is that the roles of good and bad are moved into a grey area. Even though the Devil's Rejects are clearly the antagonists throughout the movie there is still some small bits of charm to them that make them personable. That's what makes these characters and the film unique, the audience can get confused on whom they should be rooting for.

[–] vandyvch 8 years ago

I dunno. I know that's what they were going for, but I never could get confused as to who to root for in this movie. Maybe I would if they were simply on the run and weren't still actively terrorizing/murdering people, and didn't antagonize the sheriff with memories of his dead brother - that's the kind of stuff in the movie that made me happy to see them suffer and undergo pain.

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[–] sillyspaghetti 8 years ago

We saw this at the pictures when it initially came out. My husband is watching it again now. I don't feel ANY sympathy for the Fireflies what so ever, for precisely the reasons the OP stated. The only bits of the film (that I can think of) that I enjoyed were:
Sheriff Wydell stabbing Mother Firefly
Sheriff Wydell inflicting torture on the Fireflies in return for what they did to others
The end. Lol.
The chicken shagging references were funny. As was the line "Would you mind withholding any more information about your deputy's ass?!"

[–] vandyvch 8 years ago

The one thing I did like about the whole setup, is that it gave us a movie, finally, where (aside from Tiny getting lucky with Wydell of course) the villains were entirely powerless when it came to law enforcement - something you rarely see in this type of horror movie.

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[–] sillyspaghetti 8 years ago

I concur

[–] ElectricWarlock 8 years ago

I didn't get the impression that we were supposed to feel sorry for them at all. This is a very interesting movie because, as the other poster said, it kind of blurs the lines between good and evil. This movie dares to ask whether good must become evil to fight evil. We all know things like violence and torture are bad, but what about when it's happening to murderers and torturers themselves? Is it acceptable in some circumstances or do we become just as despicable as them when we seek revenge?

It really causes you to think and look inside yourself and decide what you believe. People always say Rob Zombie's movies are nothing more than "shallow redneck torture porn" but I find most of them deeper than people give them credit for.

[–] HorrorFanatic24 8 years ago

I cheered when they died