what should we do.pdf

What Should We Do? A review of the film The Decalogue: 1 to 5 (1988) KrzysztofKieslowski(Director) Reviewed by KeithOatley InThe Decalogue, written by Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, and directed by Kieslowski, the mandments act as starting points for 10 one-hour films about the effects of human actions on other people. The films were made originally as a miniseries for Polish television and are now available as a boxed set of three DVDs with English mandment is: “I am the Lord thy God…. Thou shalt have no other gods before me”(Exodus 20:2–3, King James version).Decalogue 1, the film associated with it, is about a university professor (Henryk Baranowski) for whom puter has e the new God. He is constantly making calculations. It is winter. Ice covers the lake near where he and his 10-year-old son (Wojciech Klata) live in a relationship of tender affection. The father asks his son to phone the weather bureau to find what the temperature has been on each of the last few days. He takes the data, makes a calculation on his puter, and tells the boy that the ice will bear a person three times his weight. The father has just given his son a new pair of skates. A surprise thaw occurs, and the ice does not support the boy's weight. The theme of this story is that of Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein(1818/1985). The moral question is whether, with our knowledge and t