The Decalogue: Thou Shalt not Murder or thou shalt not kill?

The Decalogue is a set of short films that express the ten commandments in an abstract way that brings out the heart of the issue more deeply. Thou Shalt not Kill features a man who decides to kill a taxi driver. This man is clearly contemplating murder through the entire beginning of the movie. He gets into a taxi at random and tells the man to drive him to the middle of no where. He then strangles the man to death.

The second half of the film shows a lawyer trying to get him off of the death penalty and then trying to comfort him before he is hung. In the end it shows the man hanging to death. He dies the same way he killed. This parallel is done to show what the director seems to believe is the same thing, the murder of the taxi driver and the execution of a murderer. "thou shalt not murder" (Exodus 20:13 NIV) This translation and several others have the word murder instead of kill. The difference to me is immense. If killing and murder are the same than every soldier is a murderer. I'm not saying i am for the death penalty but i don't know how i feel about those who conflate the two terms.

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