Speaking of bullies and rioting in the streets, there’s a movie in production about a black power group targeting and killing abortionists for the industry’s focus on the African-American community. Alfonzo Rachel praises it here, saying pro-lifers who decry any story depicting violence against abortionists are missing the larger point.
Gates of Hell by Molotov Mitchell is riddled with true statistics about the practical genocide against black families through abortion. That’s the ugly part of this story, less than the fictional violence.
One pro-life advocate argues Gates of Hell “is a vigilante apologia, and I genuinely fear that it will whip up young black men and lead some to violence.” I doubt it, in part because it doesn’t appear this movie will be widely released, and of all the movies with black men shooting each other, I wouldn’t bet this one would inspire violence more than any of them.
Now that I’m thinking about it, what movies have been made about terrorism or murder for a good cause. Is Death Wish the only type of this, a personal revenge storyline? Maybe the others are all war movies.
I’d say Taken with Liam Neeson (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/) fits into the vigilante/terrorism/murder for a good cause mold.
And how about Harry Brown with Michael Caine (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289406/)? Haven’t seen that one, but it looks like a fit.
I am torn about stories and movies like this. The speak to our deep-seated (or deep-seeded, if you like, given that God “seeded” that desire in us) desire for justice, and especially in the case of Taken, the proper drive within a man to go to extraordinary lengths protect and save his family.
But, as modeled in many movies, that desire for justice and drive to protect and save goes to some uncomfortable extremes.
Yes, most movies go straight to vigilante justice, and that’s what Gates of Hell is, unless you think it qualifies as actual war.
Lately, I’ve been struck by the transition over the past few decades from the hero to the anti-hero. The time was when you could count on John Wayne or Buck Rogers or Underdog to come catch the bad guys, while upholding goodness in the process. Then Clint Eastwood, Steven Seagal and the Bourne series upped the number of fatal flaws required. Now we have the likes of Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp who is just as evil and vicious as the bad guys, but because he does his killing and torture on our behalf that’s ok. Or is it?
“Man on Fire.”