Laramie Project

Blog – Respond to the movie. Comment on the idea of ‘live and let live’.

The Laramie Project is clearly designed to get a strong emotional response. From the violent descriptions of the murder, to the innocent portrayal of Mathew Shepard, to the heart-wrenching speech by Matthew's father - the movie's sole purpose is to create an emotional response to the cruelty of hate. Even in today's world - where news reports all seem to be about murder, robbery, and somebody pulling the race card - the movie is capable of making even the strongest cry. The movie is extremely well made - not focusing on the facts as much as the emotional response of the people of Laramie, Wyoming. The movie's only flaw is one that is incapable of being fixed. It is slightly annoying to watch actors portray the real people of Laramie. The actors seem to try to hard to be their character - sometimes making it look more like a Hollywood film than a portrayal of normal people who undoubtedly would not have used such advanced vocabulary and the same style of social interactions with "strangers", especially after such an intimate tragedy. It is understandable though, and quite obvious, that it would have been darn near impossible to get enough people to talk about the tragedy on film. The people of Laramie appear to be uninterested in the attention and the media - wanting to be left alone to "live". Indeed, a common term used in the movie is, "live and let live". The people in Laramie wish to move forward - to let the memory of Mathew Shepard live, the killers of Matt Shepard live, and they want to live. They wish to live because it's the way they can heal, the way the town can continue living. Just by "letting live".