Review
MAN ON FIRE
Starring Denzel Washington, Radha Mitchell and Dakota Fanning
Directed by Tony Scott
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"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." – Romans 12:21
As a heathen, I don’t quote scripture on a regular basis, but I’m hoping you’ll excuse me this once, particularly as this passage from the good book appears to have been underlined by screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Mystic River) and director Tony Scott (Enemy of the State) in the making of the violent revenge thriller Man on Fire.
Frankly, the film demands a massive distortion of Christian doctrine if its numerous scenes of Old Testament-style justice are to be excused with such out-of-context references to New Testament ethics. But Scott, one of the high priests of the Hollywood blockbuster, carries off this distortion through a miraculous transubstantiation, reconfiguring his slicker-than-spit vigilante flick as a gory Eucharist for a congregation of bloodthirsty moviegoers.
Man on Fire is objectionable on other levels, too, the worst being its unwillingness to blur the boundaries between good and evil. Granted, in the beginning, the film appears to be taking a slightly ambiguous approach to dualism, at least within the troubled conscience of its protagonist, Walter Creasy (Denzel Washington), who exhibits all the traits of a classic antihero. Washed-up, alcoholic and anti-social, the rumpled Creasy lives up to his name as a former counter-insurgency operative struggling to get good with God after 16 years in a morally dubious profession.
Of course, since Man on Fire is a big-budget action film and Washington is a powerful name actor, Creasy’s redemption is never in doubt. This becomes apparent early on, when Creasy takes a job as bodyguard to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, half-American daughter of a Mexican businessman. Creasy is supposed to be protecting Pita (Dakota Fanning)from a band of nasty kidnappers roaming the streets of Mexico City, but it’s inevitable that the big lug befriends the precocious kid, sealing his fate.
Once the swarthy bad guys abduct Pita, Creasy immediately defeats his demons and sets out as an angel of death to do the Lord’s work – hunting, torturing and killing his newfound enemies in ingeniously cruel ways. Proponents of vigilante justice will not be disappointed by his barbarous disposal of corrupt Mexican scumbags. Others may take issue with the fact that nearly all Mexicans in the film, even those working with Creasy, are portrayed as compromised if not completely crooked. Or that the black lead must be martyred before he can become a true hero. Or that the porcelain doll-like Pita and her all-American mother (played by the equally blonde-haired and blue-eyed Radha Mitchell) are the only characters in the entire film that aren’t in the least corrupt.
Who knows, Scott might rationalize these elements of Man on Fire by saying that this is just the way things are – that corruption runs rampant throughout the Mexican justice system – and also that certain criteria must be fulfilled in making a successful action thriller. Certainly, there is a degree of visual sophistication in the film that leads one to believe that little of its construction has been left to accident. Still, if we meet the film on its own terms as we marvel at its violent spectacle, we might do well to recall not just Romans 12:21, but also Romans 12:19 – "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but (rather) give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance (is) mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." |
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