Castle S03E13: Knockdown (#2)
This is kind of a weird inspiration, but I decided to choose it anyway because of how impactful it is. The .gif is from an episode of Castle called "Knockdown." In the episode, two detectives: Ryan and Esposito are captured by the antagonist at the time, Lockwood. He knows that the police have enough information on him to track him down, but what he doesn't know is how much more information, or rather, how much damning evidence they have against him. So, the only way Lockwood believes that he can get the information is by giving the detectives a choice: "[n]ow, I'm gonna make you a deal. You tell me what I need to know, one pro to another, and I will put a bullet in your brain. You don't, you jerk me around, and you will be begging me to before this night is up." These are the choices he presents to the detectives. If the .gif didn't give it away, they choose option B. You can see the affect that it has on Detective Esposito as he's forced to watch helplessly as his partner's being tortured. The reason I find it (oddly) inspiring is because of how it proves even a small part of a scene or image can portray a strong reaction. When you see the .gif and don't know what the context is, you automatically want to know more about it. That's what I believe art is: something that makes you interested or react and forces you to feel something, for better or for worse. This .gif inspires me because I realize how important a few seconds are; how much they can depict; how much they can mean.
An interesting post. I thought for sure you were going to discuss the morality of torture (sadly, a necessary discussion these days) but you discussed animated gifs instead. Not a bad idea, either, since animated gifs (and other icons) are pretty common forms to convey information on the internet. I would like to have seen some deeper meanings being found in the medium, though. I agree a lot of emotion can be conveyed in just a few select frames, but I also think that the range of content can be limited (they're really only used for reptitive actions and joke memes) and that they wouldn't work outside the context of the internet.
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