What would you do?

Defiance

I saw an older movie called Defiance. It was not a Western. It took place in the bad area of a more or less contemporary city. I call it a B movie because the good guys were so clearly the good guys, and the bad guys were so clearly the bad guys. There were the mild-mannered good citizens, and there were the out and out gang members.

Honestly, I thought it was one of the most superficial movies I had ever seen. Who is to say why I watched it?

The supreme good guy was Jan-Michael Vincent. The other main good citizens were Art Carney, Danny Aiello and Jan–Michael’s girlfriend, Theresa Saldana.

The street gang members were so outrageously stereotypical bad-guy gang members that, to my mind, they were laughable. They swaggered the way bad guys are supposed to swagger, dressed like bad guys etc. There was no subtlety in this movie. If there was, I missed it.

There was irony, however. The name of the gang was The Souls, and the gang leader was named Angel!

Just so you get an idea of The Souls’ nature, one of The Souls’ pleasures was to go to church meetings and bully the priest, beat up a few guys, and hassle the women.

The good guys were weak guys. The bad guys were also weak. But what the bad guys had going for them was that they were a team.

The police were not helpful. They were waiting for citizens to file a complaint. The citizens were afraid to file complaints because no one wanted to tangle with the gang. I mean, the gang could kill you.

I’m not going to tell you all about the movie, but I would like to tell you a few scenes and ask you to tell us what you might have done and why. (I should mention that this was before cell phones.)

1. Jon-Michael Vincent’s girlfriend goes into Art Carney’s store. Art Carney is a a good friend. She goes into the back to get some aspirin for her headache. While she’s in back, she hears the street gang come in. She hears them beating up Art Carney, and she hears Art Carney’s screams. She hovers in a corner back there with her hands over her ears until the gang finishes beating up Art Carney and leave. Then she comes out.

What might you have done in the circumstances, and why?

2. How do you think Angel’s girlfriend responded when he gave notice he was going to murder a town-member? Of course, you would never be a gang leader’s girlfriend, but if you were, here are your choices:

a. Make amorous advances.
b. Leave the room.
c. Beg him not to.
d. Warn the town-member.
e. Do nothing.

What would you do?

3. Jon-Michael Vincent won’t fight the bad guys because he is going to leave town soon anyway so he sees no reason why he should care. What situations below do you think motivated Jon-Michael to get into action? What situations below might make you actually get up and do something to rid the town of the gang’s power, and why do you choose the answers you do?

a. The gang beats up Art Carney.
b. The gang threatens him, Jon-Michael Vincent, himself.
c. The gang destroys the roof-top garden of Jon-Michael’s girlfriend.
d. The gang beats up a kid who tries to protect the garden.
e. The gang kills the kid’s father.

4. If you were the police, and even if it were the law, would you wait for someone to file a complaint before you took steps? Tell why you choose the answer you do.

5. The town citizens did finally rid the town of the gang. What was the secret, do you think? What caused them to finally succeed?

My opinion of this movie is only my opinion, you understand, and it wasn’t high. Imagine, according to Amazon, there is only one copy of this movie available, and it costs, you’d better sit down, $108.00!

Posted by Gloria on March 20th, 2008 under these topics
Movies, Godwriting Journal

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3 Replies

Reply from Charles Fines on March 21, 2008

Hmmm, interesting that there are no replies to this. I did not want to reply because I felt my response would be negative and not helpful. Still, not replying is the same behavior as what allows gangs to flourish in real life.

Unfortunately, I think that the way we seem to be determined to bring civilization crashing down on our heads will make this scenario too real for too many of us.

We would rather not think about it, hope that it will somehow take care of itself. Maybe it will. Maybe discussing the possibility of having to face such violence only feeds that energy.

Yesterday on the news was a story about a local couple who had suffered a home invasion and ransacking of their belongings. Fortunately they were not harmed physically. The man said they had lived there for 30 years and had never locked their door.

Unfortunately in today’s deteriorating society it has become foolish not to lock your door, and even that is often not enough. How much farther to prepare is something that each person needs to consider carefully.

In my view it is just as much a mistake to live in the constant defensiveness of fear as it is to leave your door unlocked. Somehow we need to find a middle way that is sensible for us and yet ultimately depends on God for our defense, whatever the outcome.

This is not easy. While learning to do this better, I think we also need to take advantage of the opportunity to pray a blessing on those who would appear to be our enemies. That’s the hardest part of it all for me. It seems to be the key.

Reply from Gloria on March 21, 2008

Dear Charles, you gave a beautiful deep perceptive response to what I was cavalier about.

My life is so far away from violence that I must think it only exists in movies.

I love how you took this to a deeper level.

In terms of the movie Defiance itself, I don’t know what the girlfriend could have done under the circumstances but do what she did and stay out of sight. I’d like to think I would be braver. What is right, it seems to me, is to help your friend any way you can. Yet the mind says that you can only get yourself hurt too and not be of any help anyway. Yet how can it be right to be cowardly and just sit there while your friend is hurt? And how do we really know what we would do until such a moment would come. Would we do the same if the one being beat up were our mother, or child, or brother?

Of course, when the good citizens became a team, they routed the gang. When they became a team, they lost their cowardice.

Jon-Michael Vincent became a hero only when he was so angry that he didn’t think just about himself anymore. His own self-interests weren’t so important anymore, and he was able to fight for what was right, and not just for himself. Opportunity knocked on his door, and finally he accepted it.

Charles, I have to confess I mostly leave my door unlocked. In a big city, I’m sure I would lock my door. Yet, if someone wanted to break in, I don’t suppose my lock would stop anyone.

Your comment makes me think of many things. In the terms of the movie, I had no compassion for the gang leader or members. In real life, I might be more compassionate.

I think of the bishop in Les Miserables who befriended the man who stole from him. The bishop gave the thief more of his belongings. I think of something I heard was in the Kaballah, something like this: “What is really yours can’t be stolen. If it is really yours and it is stolen, it will somehow be returned to you.”

Many many years ago I had a car stolen. The police did find it, and the car was returned to me — without the engine.

I for sure wasn’t happy about it.

Reply from paula on March 23, 2008

I agree with Charles and I think that it’s not possible to answer these questions, unless we find ourselves facing the situation. This seems to me the same thing as people who say that if they had been there with Jesus, 2000 years ago, they would certainly have recognized Him as the Son of God. I used to think this way, but then I realized that probably I would have considered Him mad or, at the least, I would have been afraid of letting people see me with Him.
The only thing I ever had stolen from me were two rings. One was my husband’s university degree ring and the other one was a ring I got from my family for my degree. I realize now that having lost them had a great symbolic meaning. I had to let go of my attachments and go on.

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