Blog 5 Gone Baby Gone

In the movie Gone Baby Gone the characters Police Captain Boyle, Remy, Lionel and Angie believe in consequentialism. Consequentialism is the view that morality is all about
producing the right kinds of overall consequences. The characters that believe
in this believe that they know what is best for Amanda. For example in the
movie when Patrick and Angie go to speak to Doyle they find that Doyle has had
Amanda the whole time. Patrick threatened to call the cops on Doyle but Angie
tried to stop him because she feels like Amanda looks happy with the Doyle’s,
she could have a better life with them. Another example is when Captain Doyle
tells Patrick that he’s begging him not for the sake of himself but for the
sake of the child to let her stay with them. Patrick on the other hand believes in ethical
absolutism which is that an act committed is the same no matter what. For example
a murder is always a murder and a kidnapping is always a kidnapping. Patrick felt
guilty when he shot the man who molested and killed the little missing boy Johnny
Pietro he didn’t feel like he did the right thing but Remy told him that it was
okay. Angie also told him that the man killed a kid therefore he deserved to
die. Patrick felt like everyone who was in on this kidnapping did wrong
especially captain Doyle. When he’s over at the Doyle’s the Captain was trying
to make Patrick feel guilty about calling the cops telling Patrick that he
knows that Amanda is better off here and that if he calls the cops he will have
to live with the fact that Amanda will be with damaged children of her
own. Patrick went on to say that He may
have to live with that and he will apologize but he will not apologize when a
little girl comes to him saying that she was kidnapped and the aunt hired him
to find her and he did. But He left her there and she will always wonder why he
never took her back home because in the end all the family trips never mattered
to her and he knew about it all along and never did anything about it. Even
though the movie seemed a little all over the place I feel like the movie was
more on an ethical absolutism side because of the way things ended. When Amanda
was taken back to her mother they showed that Helene hasn’t changed at all she’s
still the same person as before. Patrick comes over to visit and I assume he
notices that she has not changed as well. I feel Patrick thinks its his
responsibility now to keep an eye on Amanda since he was the one that made the
call to bring Amanda back home.