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One of the Best Christian Movies of All Time - Man on Fire


This film is a beautiful display of Christianity and essentially illustrates the paradox of God.

This looks like a "vengeance/action filled movie" that in many ways can give the appearance of being contradictory to Christianity. It is, on the surface, but that is the beauty of paradox.

Creasy is a man like every one of us. We are all dying inside, and we all, physically, die. But what is our cause, what is our purpose? Often in society we are entrenched with the struggle of just 'surviving' but not living. Through the course of time as we grow into adults, we lose the innocence. We lose view of what makes life worth living (and what makes life worth dying for).

We see that struggle in Creasy, and as well see it in him, we see it in us. We have all done and continue to take action/non-action that leads to desolation, isolation, depression, loss of hope, and stifled with the question, WHY? Why am I here, what purpose does my life have?

Creasy ultimately decided to end his life, and in ending his life, he gained an answer to his question of purpose? He did not see it, nor did he want it, but the mis-firing bullet was God's message to him - that creasy had a purpose in life and it is yet to be fulfilled. Yet, Creasy will still lose his life in the end, but will be redeemed.

This is a point which humans may be at. Rock bottom. Only when you lose your life will you gain it.

Creasy is reborn that night, the same man, but with a different heart. He is now reborn as the Shepard, and Pita is his sheep. As Rayburn said "... [Pita] taught him it was alright to live again."

This is where people may go off target that this isn't religious at all, and spoils the Christian message - when Creasy goes on his killing rampage and takes out vengeance. What one may be missing, however, is the fact that due to the mis-firing bullet, God was working with and through Creasy. This is alluded to when Creasy early in the movie is speaking with the nun. She asks him "Do you see the hand of God in what you do?"

God's hand is John Creasy. God's utilizing Creasy in a way that will eliminate the 'earthly life' of the kidnappers, allowing those kidnappers to come face to face with God. Meanwhile, Creasy's actions inevitably lead to Creasy saving the life of one of God's Sheep (i.e. Pita).

Creasy, at the end of the film, has regained his life by losing his life. Only, instead of losing his life in a dark room with a bullet, he loses his life for a reason, for a cause. For the best cause. Love. And there is no greater love than to lay one's life down for a friend.

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And of course there's Creasy's line: Forgiveness is between them ad God, it's my job to arrange the meeting.

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I don't see it so positively. Creasy was a man who was destined to die. He was still physically alive, but spiritually he was nearly dead. Thus, after failing to protect the little girl who loved him from kidnapping, the only thing he had left to offer were his assasin's skills to enact horrific vengeance, which even though it was against ruthless terrible evil men, his actions were similarly ruthless and terrible. And yet by a miracle, he was able to perceive a way to save her, so he took the remaining evil men's vengeance upon himself by giving himself up into their hands knowing that he would be tortured and killed horribly, but this was also his way of finding a noble way to commit suicide, which was what he always wanted anyway, because there was nothing left for him in this world and he was already spiritually dead, so his physical life no longer mattered to him.


“There is NO such thing as a free lunch.” - Milton Friedman

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OP i am a Christian and i agree 100%. Probably one the best written posts i've ever read on IMDB.

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Another unexpected place to bump into christians.

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unexpected to find Christians on a board of a film with a Christian theme?

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A thoughtful account vpdaniele, well done.

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Ironically Creasy sleeps with Lisa Ramos in one of the deleted scenes (he protected her from gunmen who attacked a shoppng center and she fell for him). This is an scene taken straight from the original 1980 novel, which was set in Italy. Creasy is not a religious Christian in that version.

I suppose they deleted the scene to make Creasy more "pure"?

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He also kills the main villain with a self administered butt-bomb in the original ending, I’m not sure suicide bombing is a ‘Christian’ practice.

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Verbose

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