Shooter is one of those action movies that is so cynical about the state of the world, it leaves you feeling dirty on your way out of the theatre. The film makes a number of very explicit references to the Iraq War and issues related thereto, and it is not too hard to suppose that director Antoine Fuqua is essentially apologizing for his earlier film Tears of the Sun (2003), which came out at the beginning of the Iraq War and was thought, by some, to bolster the case for American intervention abroad. The problem is, the hero in Fuqua’s newest film remains a person who takes the law into his own hands and proceeds to dispense life and death without a particularly deep understanding of the situation in which he finds himself. Fuqua is still basically pandering to what Lawrence & Jewett have called “The Myth of the American Superhero“.
It is especially interesting to see how Mark Wahlberg, so soon after his Oscar-nominated turn in The Departed, once again plays the cold-blooded vigilante out for revenge — and then to read this junket report from CanWest News Service, where Wahlberg talks about his religious beliefs while promoting the film:
This morning, Wahlberg, who was raised Roman Catholic, is asked whether he could imagine himself in a similar situation that required him to seek out and destroy his enemies. His response is to remind reporters that they’re talking to him on a Sunday.
“I went to church today and I’m in a really good mood and giving people the benefit of the doubt — that people are honest and honourable. But ask me that again tomorrow or Tuesday, and it might be different!” . . .
Shooter is a violent movie — the kind that has had preview audiences cheering when the bad guys are mowed down.
So there’s still this nagging question that Wahlberg must face: can he imagine himself behaving similarly in real life? “I would hate to be in a situation where I had to do something like that,” he admits.
Yet he can see such a situation occurring. “God forbid, if something happened to my children or something happened to someone who couldn’t defend themselves, I don’t think I would be that quick to be reasonable or so forgiving.”
But then again, his religious beliefs start intruding with their emphasis on forgiveness. “That’s what I’m supposed to do, and that’s what I practice.” He adds that he’s also in a Lenten mode these days.
“Yeah, no meat on Fridays and I haven’t had any beer. But I don’t necessarily try to give things up as opposed to focusing on doing better, being more patient, being more generous, being more honest.
“These are the things I try to do, and I remind myself of those things everyday, when I say my prayers.”
All very interesting. I’m not sure how it connects with this film or the character he plays here, but still very interesting.
Oh, and the funniest part of the interview is when he says he hopes the movie “will inspire people to go out there and vote and do something.” Vote? We’re talking about a movie in which (spoiler alert! spoiler alert!) the hero deliberately tracks an elected politician to his home and kills him in cold blood.
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