Man on Fire (2004) – A Movie Review

photog Movie Reviews, Reviews , , , , ,

In this action/crime drama Denzel Washington is John Creasy, a former CIA killer whose past haunts him and has reduced him to an alcoholic.  He is visiting his friend and associate Paul Rayburn, played by Christopher Walken in Mexico where he has a security business that provides wealthy businessmen with bodyguards.

(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)

Rayburn convinces Creasy to take a bodyguard assignment to help him reconnect with life and take his mind off his past.

And so, Creasy takes an assignment to guard Pita (played by a very young Dakota Fanning), the daughter of Samuel Ramos; a wealthy industrialist.  And improbably, the little girl and the professional killer bond and Creasy regains his will to live.

But a kidnap squad that includes members of the Federal Judicial Police come for Pita.  Creasy kills four of the kidnappers but is himself critically wounded and the girl is taken.

While Creasy lies close to death in a hospital the kidnappers negotiate a ten-million dollar ransom which Samuel agrees to pay.  But dirty cops who know of the payment ambush the kidnappers, steal the ransom money and kill the ringleader’s nephew.  After this betrayal the ringleader informs the Ramos family that Pita is dead.

Somewhat recovered from his wounds and outraged at Pita’s death Creasy vows to Pita’s mother Lisa that he will kill everyone involved in Pita’s kidnapping and death.  With weapons furnished by Rayburn and information provided by a crime reporter and an anti-corruption officer in the Mexican government, Creasy proceeds to do just that.  With the liberal use of gruesome torture and threats of death he works his way up the chain of command in both the corrupt police organization and the kidnappers’ gang.

Along the way he finds out that Pita’s father and his crooked attorney were involved in the kidnapping.  And no one is spared.  The anti-corruption officer follows Creasy’s trail of bodies but allows Creasy to lead him to the kingpin, a shadowy character known only as “The Voice.”

Finally, Creasy captures the kingpin’s brother and pregnant girlfriend and tells him that he will torture them to death unless The Voice trades himself for them.  But the Voice has a different bargain.  He informs Creasy that Pita is alive and that he will trade her for the release of his girlfriend and brother.  But there is the further stipulation that Creasy surrender himself to the mobster.  Creasy agrees.  He calls up Lisa Ramos and tells her where the rendezvous and trade will occur.  Lisa will keep the gun on the mobster’s brother at a distance until Pita is safely back in her hands at which point the brother and Creasy will be transported back to the mobster for Creasy’s horrific fate.

We have a final reunion between Pita and Creasy before she runs across a bridge to her mother’s car.  The brother is released and Lisa and Pita drive off.  Then Creasy is shoved into a car and heads off into the countryside for his rendezvous with death.  But between his earlier wounds and a gunshot wound to the chest he sustained while capturing the mobster’s brother Creasy is already dying.  We watch him expire while clutching the St. Jude’s medal that Pita had given him earlier.

We learn in a postscript that the mobster is killed in an arrest attempt by the anti-corruption officer soon after Creasy’s death.

So, what’s the verdict on this extremely frenetic movie?  The action sounds like the plot of a 19th century Italian opera.  Death, betrayal, revenge, love.  It’s all so overwrought.  But for me, it works.  Maybe partially it’s because I enjoy Denzel Washington’s acting style.  Whether he’s chopping off a crooked cop’s fingers and cauterizing the wound with a car’s cigarette lighter or coaching Pita to reduce her time in a swimming competition Washington’s Creasy is a rational, intelligent man who will accomplish his objectives in a business-like manner.  But his motivation is to punish those who destroyed innocent life for money.  Basically, he’s atoning for his own sins as a killer.  In an early scene Creasy asks Rayburn, “Do you think God could forgive us for what we’ve done?”  Rayburn shakes his head no and you can tell that Creasy agrees.  At the end of the movie as he clutches his religious medal, I guess Creasy is hoping his self-sacrifice might even the score in heaven.  The movie is very violent.  But I think it is well made and if this kind of story interests you I think it’s well worth watching.

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 02AUG2024 – Those Who Serve

photog Guest Contributors, War Pig , ,

war pig

(With respect to the attitude of the populace toward the military.)

Quite true. I’ve seen the gamut from being spat upon and called a baby killer when I returned from Vietnam to being thanked profusely by strangers after 9/11.

You are correct. The populace in general thinks little about the military except screaming about the budget. Until, that is, they get a visceral gut punch and become afraid.

The alphabet people, who despise the military, fail to realize that only 1 person out of 250 is all that is preventing them from being defenestrated by the same Palestinians they are rioting to support. They.also keep feminists and other women from being put back into servitude and wrapped in full coverage burka. Ladies, want your voting rights, driving rights and any other rights ripped away? Do away with our military.

Only 4 people out of a thousand serve on active duty. One in 250. There are only some 6 out of a thousand who are veterans. Being a Spartan is a tough and lonely life. You live fast and die younger than civilians, on average. Those who actually serve in combat are an even smaller percentage. We have seen and done unspeakable things to protect The People in general. Some of us have fought and killed hand-to-hand. We are loaded with PTSD and commit suicide or self-medicate at several times the rate of civilians.

So get off our backs. We have enough baggage to carry as it is.

Don’t Let Them See You Sweat

photog Current Events, Reclaiming the Family , ,

There are all kinds of men in this world.  They vary in temperament, intelligence, philosophy, habits, health and any number of other traits.  And likewise with women.  They come in infinite variety.  Most notably of late is their level of allegiance to the feminist project.  So, they run the gamut from strident man-hating lesbians and cat ladies all the way to the maternal heroine of the Victorian novel who lives to help her children and dotes on her husband.

But one thing I’ve noticed about all women.  When the bottom drops out of the world and the Huns are at the gate even the most misandric harpy that ever railed against the patriarchy runs around in circles screaming for the cavalry to arrive.  And just to be specific they expect the cavalry to be steeped in testosterone and bearing Y-chromosomes.

The best example of this that I can remember was directly after September 11th 2001.  Maureen Dowd was and is a journalist for the New York Times and she has spent decades banging the drum for feminist complaints about men.  Her contempt for men in general and conservatives in particular was limitless.  But then the Towers were knocked down in September and suddenly policemen, firemen and soldiers were the heroes she wanted to write about.  Suddenly she realized that the only thing standing between her and the primitive world that is held in check by modernity is a man with a gun.  Of course, eventually she calmed down and realized that men with guns tend not to be feminists.  And she returned to her default contempt.  But for as long as she was scared, she wanted to be comforted by the knowledge that the patriarchy was keeping her safe.

And that impulse to look to the man with a gun is programmed into her DNA.  She won’t admit it because it makes her seem like someone who can’t push aside sex-linked traits as if they were just “social constructs.”  And it’s more than just protection from the Hun.  Whatever the catastrophe, when the bottom drops out a woman looks to her man to make things whole again.  And that’s all women.  The good ones are grateful.  The dishonest ones pretend they could have done it on their own.  They may even pretend they did.

But when Armageddon arrives, and you’re busy trying to figure out how to save the day, it’s good to remember that the women folk often need some kind of sign from you that you can save the day.  And here the female psyche should be taken into consideration.  Because even if there’s nothing that you can think of to do the best strategy is to appear to be doing something constructive.  I am convinced that a fretful woman who sees her man engaged in physical activity with tools of whatever kind; mechanical, diagnostic or even just a wheelbarrow will take solace from the idea that he is taking the lead and solving the problem.  And it doesn’t hurt if he assigns her some role to play in the “brilliant plan” that he is already putting into motion.

Camera Girl, even Camera Girl is not immune from this behavior.  She that has shared my life for almost half a century; knows me right down to my toes.  And she knows just how lazy and lethargic I am by nature.  But when I can see that something serious has scared her, then I know it’s time for me to do my best Superman impression and let her know that I have a way to make everything whole again.  Of course, most times I don’t and maybe I’m kind of scared myself.  But admitting that is a big mistake.  Morale is a very important part of life and if you let the family morale crack, things get even tougher.

So that’s my insight.  I recently saw an example of this that reminded me of this dynamic.  I thought it might be useful information for others.

31JUL2024 – The Curse Has Come upon Me.  Well Pretty Soon Anyway.

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, photog's Corner , ,
The First Selectman Taking a Stroll

A terrible fate is creeping up on me.  Periodically, First Selectman Cthulhu has to have his external parasites burned off by soaking in a lake-sized vat of boiling sulfuric acid.  It’s uneventful but a very long process that requires someone to supervise.  From next Monday until the Wednesday of the following week I will be in a form of purgatory.  Isolated from the site and forced to endure almost unimaginable tedium I shall not be able to write my posts under my normal conditions.  Whatever output I produce will be stilted, uninspired and generated in a state of exhaustion and mental duress.  Come to think of it, you may not notice the difference at all.  But undoubtedly, the word count will go way down.  I should be able to load up the Pictures of the Day and the Quotes of the Day this weekend.  But beyond that everything will be hit and miss.

Like some kind of latter-day Prometheus bound with cruel spikes driven through my immortal flesh into the adamantine stone beneath and with a cruel eagle constantly devouring my ever-regenerating liver, I will endure all this uncomplainingly knowing that I do it for the good of all mankind, or at least for the good of the MAGA Republicans.  Maybe Trump can visit me on my mountain crag and speak words of encouragement and snide insults at the eagle.  If he has the time.

If any of you have any content that you want posted feel free to e-mail it to me and I’ll make sure to publish it as a way to keep the readers happy.  When the time of my internment is through, I shall return renewed and rededicated to the proposition that all internet links are created unequal.  That they are endowed by their content creators with varying quality based on the qualities of these creators themselves and on how hard they are willing to work to make the content entertaining.

As the hours slowly pass during my captivity I’ll try to imagine what it will be like when President Kamala Harris is the commander in chief of this formerly great nation.  I imagine how she will take the rostrum in the House of Representatives and give the State of the Union address and we’ll all applaud as she describes the glories of her electric yellow school bus bill.  This bill will require the confiscation of all private, gasoline powered automobiles and mandate the use of buses for all travel.  With a $40 trillion dollar price tag it will be the boldest and most expensive bill ever passed and it will certainly convert us into a banana republic in the image of Venezuela.

I was just listening to Trump at one of his rallies riffing on what a loser Kamala Harris is.  It was funny.  I guess I’ve missed his rally patter.  It really is quite hilarious the way he describes her failure as “border czar” and her statements on defunding the police during the Summer of Floyd.  And his equally harsh mockery of Biden is quite amusing.  I think Trump is wise to highlight the fact that Kamala kept Joe Biden’s condition as a secret from the country.  That is indeed a damning accusation against someone trying to gain the trust of the country while running for the office of president.

Today is the last day of July and I consider it the end of New England Summer.  I’ve read that measurable snowfall has been recorded in every month of the year except for July in southern New England.  If that is so then August is early winter.  I have already begun preparing for it.  I’ll begin prepping the snowblower and break out the snow shovels.  I may wait a few weeks before wearing thermal underwear but it’s almost time.  Turkey deep fried on the barbecue for Labor Day?  We’ll see.