Did anyone pity the pedophile in "Hard Candy"?

I did not see it.

Pedophiles create new pedophiles (not all the time, but most abusers were abused).

1. Being abused does not justify becoming an abuser.

2. Being abused does not justify taking the law into one’s own hands.

Of the two, I pity her. Her life was destroyed through no choice of her own.

As to the pedophile, to reap what one sows is raw justice. Being sexually abused is torture.

Nope. Dude had it coming.

It was an excellent, if hard to watch, movie. A victim of a pedophile myself, I strongly identified with her. However, at no time would I have taken the actions that she did. The whole thing was sad, all the way around.

@Marina: He didn’t actually abuse her. He didn’t get that far. Without giving things away, that’s all I can say. She wasn’t abused.

I think she needed mental help. She could’ve just called the police with the information she had.

@poofandmook I always kind of assumed she had been abused in the past, by someone else.

She kinda lured him in the movie. But no, I didn’t feel sorry for him.

@august: No, I don’t think so. I think she just discovered him and took everything upon herself.

I loved how brilliant she was, and how it wasn’t what I expected it to be. Great movie. Its a Little Red Riding Hood hunts the wolf kind of a thing.

am I the only one who thought that this question was talking about the Madonna album?
see amazon sticker at right

In the movie? Sure, it was awesome. Way to go Ellen Page, no pity there.

In real life? Let’s see, 14 year old girl takes it upon herself to bait and torture a murder suspect with no professional police or investigative assistance? Not acceptable.

If you want to feel pity for a pedophile, see the movie “The Woodsman” with Kevin Bacon as a pedophile who has been released from prison and trying to start a normal life. Another very difficult movie to watch, but in a different way. Makes one consider that some of these people aren’t just “monsters”, but are very, very sick and in need of help – and some of them can change if given the right treatment.

Madonna put out a CD about pedophiles? Now I’m confused.

I love this movie and I thought it was perfect, especially the ending.

Does anyone ever “pity the pedophile”???

I didn’t pity him, but there absolutely was one part in the movie that was hard to watch – anyone who has seen it knows what I’m talking about, but I won’t say here, just in case anyone wants to watch that hasn’t so far.

Very disturbing movie, but I can’t find it in myself to ever feel sorry for a pedophile. Things that happen to some of them as children are sad and unfortunate, but it’s not something you can use to justify your behavior once you’re an adult.

Not only did I not pity him, I got a few ideas from that movie that I wish I had guts enough to do! I loved that movie. Yes, it’s a very disturbing movie and difficult to watch, but kind of empowering at the same time.

I think that was almost the point of the movie. As a society, we know that pedophilia is a terrible thing, especially when it is acted upon. By reversing the roles, having the “torturer” become the “tortured,” we are meant to question who is right and who is wrong, especially given the fact that the actor was an attractive man. We also see that the girl’s advice had the potential to be flawed, and it almost came out that neither party was free of guilt. It was a brilliant movie, that’s for sure. I would say that, at certain points, I almost felt sorry for him, mainly when the validity of her evidence was coming into question. The fact that he hadn’t done anything specifically to her (yet, potentially) was the number one indicator of a shady situation (on both parts, though), for me.

I haven’t seen it, so I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think I would pity the pedo. Not for being a pedo, but because I don’t get emotionally attached to characters in horror films.

I haven’t seen the movie, but I can say I pity the fact that pedophiles have a mental illness. I do not pity any of them when the repercussions come to them after they chose to act upon their desires. I believe it is a choice to act, and if someone knows they are about to do something wrong they have the choice to seek help.

@Vinifera7: It’s not really a horror film, go rent it, it’s pretty interesting.

I did pity him. She was so mean to him, and just tortured him. It was disgusting how cruel she was. He was a helpless human being. I find it disturbing that not enough people don’t pity that character. The guy was not even a pedophile. He had a thing for teenage girls. Now that is wrong, but why is it that in “American Beauty”, the majority of the audience cheer on a grown man pursuing a teen girl, but hate another one in a different film?

As far as the violence in “Hard Candy” goes, there’s a line in “The Running Man” that Arnold says that sums it up:

“I can’t kill a helpless human being. Not even a sadistic scum like you.”

It’s a shame that type of goodness in people is very slowly dying. People are becoming more and more like the criminals. Heck, in criminal’s minds, they think they are doing the right thing. Being good is within the eye of the beholder, but once you resort to physical violence and torture upon a defenseless human being who has no fighting chance, you’re know longer one of the good people.