This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Modern Day Robin Hood
Plot Overview
Nursery rhyme investigator Katherine
Thomas in her Foreword quotes Henry Betts in the Intro to his Nursery Rhymes and
Tales (Methuen & Co., Ltd., London, 1924): “They are to be
found all over Europe and they have analogies among uncivilized peoples all
over the world. It appeared, also, that many of them are of incredible
antiquity, bearing unmistakable traces of origin in prehistoric
times.” The movie “Parker” follows the archetype:
There was a man of our town, And he was wondrous wise. He jumped into a bramble bush, And scratched out both his eyes. And when he found his eyes were out, With all his might and main, He jumped into another bush, And scratched them in again.
This rhyme was originally aimed at
“wondrous wise” Reverend Dr. Henry
Sacheverell of St. Savior's Church,
Southwark, who preached two scandalous sermons against the
Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance. In the resulting
brouhaha he was convicted of seditious libel, his two offensive
sermons burned, and his preaching forbidden for three years. He
made such a fuss over it that he was “publicly restored to
favor and appointed to high honors as Rector of St. Andrews” (Thomas 23), thus
scratching both eyes back in place.
“Padre” Parker (Jason
Statham,) this movie's titular character, has absorbed a long
tutelage under master, retired criminal Bob Hurley (Nick Nolte)
making him wondrously wise in the ways of crime. Attired as a
priest he heads up a five-man crew to rip off the gate money from
the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. He's too good at his disguise to
be entirely faking it; he must have had some priestly
background: He wins a stuffed toy for a little girl who
responds as if to a real padre, he pays attention to the released
bunch of balloons a sign in the sky, and he talks his foot in the
door of the counting room, manned by senior Security Guard Ben
Jones (Billy Slaughter) who doesn't detect any false note though
his uncle was a priest. When Ben panics, the “priest”
comforts him. If all that weren't enough, we'll see later in the
movie his body displaying stigmata: striped scars on his back &
a puncture wound in his palm. That he's not an actual priest is
given away by his sermonette: “I don't steal from anyone who
can't afford it, and I don't hurt anyone who doesn't deserve
it.” He also states he does what he says he will, and
anyone who reneges on a deal will face consequences. If
he'd completed his religious training, he would be keeping his
priest vows. We gather in flashback that he left his studies
to be with Hurley's daughter Claire (Emma Booth) and join their
crime family, but he retained some of his principles. He has an
argument with his confederates in the getaway SUV over the division of
the take, and he gets shot (twice) and left for dead in a slough on
the side of the road.
In phase two he gets rescued by good
Samaritan farmers on their way to market. He comes after his
betrayers (“Civilized people need to follow rules”) who
being connected send Kroll (Daniel Bernhardt) their best hit-man
after him. He doesn't escape without a scratch but is
eventually able to reestablish the status quo (“I just need
to put things right”) and then some.
Ideology
A student of the proverbs might have known not to look for a quick buck but to keep plugging away slow and steady: (Prov. 30:7) “Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:”
(Prov. 30:8-9) “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” The get-rich-quick scheme if it works will leave one in the clover but denying his dependence on God who is our ultimate Provider. If it doesn't work he'll be poor enough to steal and swear falsely denying it.
Ben in his panic said he was nobody,
making minimum wage. Parker sympathized saying he was in the same
boat. Maybe he once was, working a minimum wage job to support his
education. But he turned to a life of crime and just gets in deeper
and deeper. As his crew's spokesman Melander (Michael Chiklis)
describes it, “Two-hundred grand each isn't gonna make any of us
rich, but if we could kick in our shares as seed money towards the next
little business down the line, we all end up with two million each.”
For all his wealth Parker forgets God in his ersatz priesthood.
To scope out his erstwhile
confederates' pricey Palm Beach hideout, he enlists the aid of real
estate agent Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez.) Eleven years ago
Leslie Cienfuegos had a comfortable existence managing Boca
Resort. Then she met Mr. Rodgers and, “He was a
salesman; he sold me the whole dream.” With his income
to rely on, she quit her job and went into—slow
coming—commission work at Palm Partners. Rodgers directly
went bankrupt, they divorced, and now pushing forty she shares his
debt and lives with her mom Ascension (Patti LuPone) retired from
her beauty salon business, lending her daughter money up to a
point. She buys the occasional lottery ticket, of which her wannabe
boyfriend, Sheriff's Deputy Jake Fernandez (Bobby Cannavale)
says, “Those things are a crock.” In desperation she
swipes a fellow agent's client who is the aforementioned
Parker under an alias. Another office worker catches her,
“You just stole her client.” She retorts,
“There's nothing wrong with stealing now and then. They do it to us
all the time.” She is awash in “vanity and lies.”
Production Values
“” (2013) was directed by Taylor Hackford. Its screenplay was written by John J. McLaughlin as adapted from the novel, Flashfire by Donald E. Westlake. It stars Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez and Michael Chiklis. Statham is altogether suited for his role. Lopez is multidimensional. The bad guys come across as ones you or I wouldn't care to tangle with.
It's rated R for extreme violence, language throughout, and brief sexuality w/nudity. It had good camera work and appropriately timed flashbacks. Violence seemed inevitable with a fallen pacifist priest on the scene. It moves right along. Runtime is ≈ 2 hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
There's a
slow burn giving Leslie a large share of the drama in the end. The
State Fair's disguises include Melander & Ross (Clifton
Collins Jr.) dressed as clowns, their
youngest member Hardwicke (Micah Hauptman) as a dime-a-dozen
fairgoer, and black Carlson (Wendell Pierce) as a driver
in a Fire Marshal vehicle. People only see the uniform, and a black
face in a sea of white is invisible anyway. The diversion
occurs at the white square dancers pavilion (with maybe a couple
blacks in the peanut gallery.)
Carlson is also the driver of the getaway vehicle, and he drives the purloined fire truck in their second gig. While the other men clear the condo looking for Parker, Carlson holds Leslie hostage at gunpoint. He takes liberties. Leslie's spiel was, “I'm sick of showing these f_cking entitled wannabe playboys … houses that I could never afford. … All the while fending off their gropes.” She's likely never handled a gun in her life, but if she could get ahold of one in this thieves' den, would her real estate training prevent her from using it on the African American who was pawing her? Good question.
Pierced-palm Parker in his last gasp effort to set things right, throws himself over an upper story railing and hangs high from this metal cross hoping to get resurrected, after he shakes off the devil. As such he is a Christ figure, albeit an unlikely one. The farmers for his token of appreciation consider him an angel.
I thought the movie was engaging with the requisite thrills and suspense, and it evoked a sort of sympathy for a pseudo Robin Hood. It was well made and well acted and wasted no footage.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev, 1769. Software.
Thomas, Katherine. The Real Personages of Mother Goose. Copyright, 1930, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Copyright in Great Britain, the British Dominions and Possessions. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Print.
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