Attack of the Block and Majoritarianism

“Attack of the Block” is a 2009 film directed by Joe Cornish about a group of young, British, gang members who come across a vicious alien species. Within their small clan (and friends along the way) they stop these baddies through various methods and experiences. This film loves the “no gooder” and tries it’s best to show everyone has a hero quality if you dig down deep enough. The movie starts off with a mugging, our main characters rob a poor, unexpecting woman and run off. She calls the police on them and justice almost feels deserved. We’re not supposed to have sympathy with these characters by any means. What they committed was genuinely terrible and they should pay for their actions. They are unmajoritarian and proud of it. That is until the aliens come in. Their threat is what turns these characters more moral. The same woman they robbed later becomes an ally through their shared experiences with the supernatural.  It longs of widespread attacks where no matter your politics, views or feelings, we all have to come together and deal with the problem together. She is incredibly unwilling at first but after his attempt of patching it up you can’t really help but forgive him. The most interesting aspect to this topic is the ending. After the planet was saved and all was seemingly well, our main character is met with an arrest. It brings back the feeling of Alex coming back to society in “A Clockwork Orange”. You may be a better person through very different sinarios but it’s society that won’t forgive you. The original thoughts you had about these characters are legitimate, you felt them for a reason. To see this ending is a shock because we’ve seen this character grow from a villain to a hero within the span of one fateful night. Should he be forgiven or punished? Questions like these make “Attack of the Block” effective and relevant. Everybody has some good left in them and while morals change overtime and events can lead to others, it’s important to forgive and forget.