My Rating: ★★★★★
IMDB Rating: 6.8
Cinema that make a difference.
There are some who create through destruction, and there are those who create from scratch. Von Trier acknowledges the ugly truth that great art can come out of great suffering yes, but he also points out the danger of that mentality by making the 'artist' literally murder people in order to create his masterworks. Von Trier uses Jack to show how this line of thinking has no moral floor. The most disturbing part in this film - where Jack argues that genocide is a masterful art form in itself - isn't an endorsement, it's just Von Trier taking the 'great art at great cost' to its most extreme conclusion, saying that once you justify any immoral behavior you open the door to let anything be rationalized or justified.
The film dives quite deep into the worst of humanity's capabilities until we arrive (quite literally!) at the depths of hell, where there's no salvation for those who need to break one thing in order to make another. Since this is a Von Trier film, it's obviously self-reflective in that he considers himself to be a person that can only create through pain, who doesn't possess the ability to make something from scratch. This film is him acknowledging how much harm he's done over the decades in pursuit of greatness, and accepting his eternal fate.
I think Von Trier believes that the only way out is through, in that the more we become aware of our own evils, the more we can do to stop ourselves from ever reaching those points. I look at this film as an act of purging, a message from someone who's beyond saving to save ourselves before we end up in a similar position. The fact that some people react to the film by trying to shame it out of relevance or merit says more about them than Von Trier, Because this is without a doubt a masterpiece that asks questions rather than answer them.