Purple Hearts is a Netflix movie that was released on July 29, 2022. In this American-made movie, we watch the romance between a diabetic woman named Cassie Salazar and a young sailor named Luke Morrow. Although the two are very different people, life brings them together and they find themselves in a fake marriage. If this marriage is exposed, there is a possibility that they will face jail time. Yet they take this hard road and eventually fall in love with each other.
When Netflix released this movie, it was a hit and within a few days, it entered the top 10 of Netflix’s best movies list. Purple Hearts received full marks from the audience as a romantic and musical movie. However, there are critics as well as fans of this movie. Some people don’t like this movie for some reason. Why do people criticize Purple Hearts so much?
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What is Purple Hearts About?
Purple Hearts is about a woman with diabetes named Cassie and a man named Luke, who is a sailor in the army. Cassie makes money by singing and bartending at a bar, yet she can’t afford her insulin. Luke Morrow is a troubled man and has found the solution to his problems by joining the Marine Corps. The two meet at Cassie’s bar and later make a deal for their financial interests.
Luke is in debt to his former dealer and has to pay him a large sum. Cassie, on the other hand, cannot afford insulin medication. The two get married and take advantage of Luke’s increased salary and health insurance for married couples, who have served in the military. However, since this is a fake marriage, it is a crime like defrauding the army and the state. They pretend to make everyone think their marriage is real. However, over time they fall in love with each other.
The title of the movie symbolizes two different things in its story. A purple heart symbolizes the love of opposite people like red and blue and a Purple Heart medal for those who served in the army and were injured or killed. The title of the movie fits the story very well in that sense. The contrast between Cassie and Luke as much as blue and red come from their views and differences in life.
Is Purple Hearts a true story?
The Purple Hearts story is not a true story. However, the movie is based on a book of the same name. When the novel Purple Hearts, written by Tess Wakefield, was published, it was very popular, just like the movie. Liz Garcia and Kyle Jarrow also adapted it from the book, and the script for the movie came out. The story of the movie is entirely scripted, although romantic movie fans may be disappointed to learn that the movie doesn’t tell a true story.
Why is Purple Hearts Problematic?
Although the Purple Hearts movie was very popular when it was released, it also garnered some heavy criticism. The biggest criticism of the movie is that it makes military propaganda and contains racism. In the movie Purple Hearts, there are two people with opposite worldviews. Cassie is an advocate for gay rights and against racism. When the egalitarian Cassie encounters Luke and his team, who are going on military duty, she sees that they do not have such awareness.
In one scene of the movie, Luke’s colleague utters offensive and racist remarks against Arabs. Although Cassie was against him at that moment, the presence of such a scene in the movie and the fact that the event was forgotten in the script flow became the target of criticism from the audience. Purple Hearts was also criticized for misogyny at some points. There was talk of Cassie, who had a strong, feminist character at the beginning, but was later pacified by keeping up with Luke. Some critics say that the military propaganda against the Arabs was behind the romance between Cassie and Luke.
One of the scenes that shows Cassie changing for Luke is at the team’s meeting before they leave for military duty in Iraq. The person who uses the term Arab aggression gets a harsh reaction from Cassie and the two start arguing. Cassie warns him of the tone of voice and Luke’s friend tells Luke to restrain Cassie. While Cassie is against the word, Luke tells Cassie to sit down and Cassie gives up. This scene was also criticized when Cassie gave up.
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