Recently I watched an excellent movie titled Memento (available on home video and DVD). Actor Guy Pearce plays Leonard, a head-injured man who has lost the ability to form any new memories and who is seeking to avenge the rape and murder of his wife. To remember important clues, he relies on Polaroid photographs and hastily written notes to himself that he tattoos to his body.
But for several reasons, this is no ordinary revenge thriller. First of all, it moves in backwards-chronological time order. Each day in the movie is previous to the one the audience just saw, so that the story is less about what happened, and more about how and why it did. Second, it is really an anti-revenge movie.
I happened to run across a Christian movie review*1 of Memento in which the reviewer delighted in the revenge premise set up in the beginning of the movie, but complained that Memento expresses the view that life is meaningless. This reviewer missed the entire point of the movie, which is not that life in general is meaningless but that Leonard's life became meaningless when his entire purpose in life consisted of plotting and seeking vengeance. Leonard admitted that he was living, "only for revenge". That is why Leonard felt he had to deceive himself; he felt compelled to continue fulfilling his only purpose in life.
It is not surprising that a Christian fundamentalist, especially a Reconstructionist, wouldn't "get" Memento, since their God is portrayed as vengeful in both the Old and New Testaments. Indeed, the concept of eternal punishment cannot be explained except in the context of a vengeful God, since an all-powerful, all-knowing God could very easily think of a rehabilitation program for souls that did not violate "free-will".
"For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:30-31, Old Testament)
"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord". (Romans 12:19, New Testament)
Although in context these quotes indicate that revenge is not something that humans should do, since God is held up to be the moral standard it is inevitable that fundamentalist Christians would justify human vengeance as well. Politically, this is translated into: strong support for the death penalty (even at the risk of high numbers of innocent people dying and in the case of Reconstructionists most of the planet would be on death row); strong support for the "war on drugs"; little to no support for prison reform or criminal rehabilitation programs; and support for some forms of physical abuse against children. By abuse, I do not mean the occasional, flat-handing spanking, but the regular use of weapons such as paddles, belts, or sticks, often either falsely called "spanking" or referred to by the euphemism "Bible-based discipline".*2
Go To Page: 1 2
