Down To Earth

It is unfortunate that I am not a frequent visitor to the movie theatre but more unfortunate that the film I did see was Down to Earth. However, this paper does not attempt to criticize the movie but to use characters in the film to analyze Plato’s less than perfect personality types in the Republic. The three personality types that will be addressed are Timocratic, Oligarchic and Democratic. The first degenerate form of constitution is called Timocracy, a state in which the ambitious man’s love of honor usurps the rule of reason. In oligarchy, there has been some ground gained against reason but it is held in check by the dominant passion for wealth, which calls for an outward respectability. In democracy, the principle of freedom and equal rights for all is applied but in “the lowest part of the soul where he gives himself up to the pleasure of the moment.”
The movie is meant to be a funny story. The main character, Barton, who is black, was accidentally killed while r...