Death Sentence: Could You, Would You?
Last night I saw the movie Death Sentence. Following will be a quick run of the plot. Then I want to deal with the theme of the film, which is vengeance.
Nick Hume lives a great life. He has a nice home, good job, beautiful wife, and great kids. Who could ask for more? All of this comes crashing down when his son is senselessly murdered as a bystander during a gas station robbery. Hume is incredulous to discover that his son's death is actually a calculated gang initiation. The perpetrator is captured and prepared to face justice. If the father, the only witness to the crime, will testify convincingly then the killer may get a couple of years in prison. Hume is so angered at the injustice of the situation that he refuses to testify against the creepy and unrepentant gang member. The cocky kid is released and the vengeful dad quietly follows him to his residence. Later that evening, he walks outside to the dumpster, where Hume confronts him with a knife. A struggle ensues, and halfway by accident the knife ends up in the side of killer. The broken man has exacted revenge. And in doing so, he continues in motion an escalating series of violent acts of vengeance between the gang and himself. In the process, it seems that everyone of significance is destroyed. His family is murdered. Every gang member is killed. And Nick Hume becomes a monster.
An interesting exchange occurs toward the end of the movie. Hume and the gang have their final shootout in what looks to be an old, abandoned church. The protagonist is armed with powerful guns. A leg is completely severed by a shotgun blast. A bad guy is shot in the forehead at point blank range. Billy Darley is the powerful and violent leader of the now dead gang. He and Hume exchange a flurry of gunfire, and both are wounded and exhausted. Both stagger and end up sitting side-by-side, exhausted, upon a bench. Darley looks over at his opponent, whose head is shaved and face spattered by blood, and says something like the following: "Look at you. You're just like me." Hume pulls out a revolver, cocks the hammer, and says matter-of-factly, "Are you ready?" The spent Darley simply closes his eyes and nods his head. The film spares us the next scene, but we all know what happens.
It is a good movie. Not a classic, and it has some flaws. It is violent, very much. I think Kevin Bacon is always a good actor. Garrett Hedlund is quite scary as the unstable and capable gang leader. And John Goodman plays well his cameo as a greasy gun dealer with coke-bottle glasses. Obviously the film is hypocritical with its message, simultaneously glorifying violence while preaching against taking the law into your own hands. To me a good film will leave an impact upon your heart and mind. And this is one I cannot forget easily.
Could you, would you, with calculation exact revenge upon an enemy? Maybe, you do it even now, in subtle but unmistakable ways. What would you do if another person, with calculation and evil, were to bring serious injury or death to someone you love? If the only route to justice would be vengeance, would you do it? My answer is yes. It is complicated and quite a bit messy, and is not good. But I am capable of such. I'll explore this in the next post.
