Why I love this movie SPOILERS

There are several reasons why. It is very unusual, a cerebral high-action movie. It is probably Ben Affleck’s best performance. It’s been clear to me that he is a bright guy (of COURSE he is, he’s from my home town!), but this narrative gives him a pallet on which he can shine. The story is carefully crafted. He was born congenitally challenged, as were his brother and sister. His mother abandons her family, in part because her husband is “married” to the US Army and the family has to relocate frequently. The father seems harsh to us at first. Did he drive his wife away? Maybe, in part. He forces brutal combat training on his 2 sons because, as we ultimately learn, he wants to prepare them for a world that will be cruel and very slow to accept and appreciate them.

And that leads to the main reason why I love this movie, which is why I also love Jody Foster’s Little Man Tate: it shows that people the world is inclined to toss on the trash heap of humanity can in fact be blessings on humanity. My Lord! How I loved the measured savagery with which Chris ripped apart the scum who dared threaten his adorable farm clients! THAT is fighting! Fighting combines passion with ruthless calculation. Why do you think that seminal
photo of Muhammad Ali is so prominent in this movie? The man who taunted his opponents so much that they entered the ring made stupid by rage? The man who
would “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” (which is pure martial poetry)? The man who, improbably, countered George Foreman’s overwhelming strength with his inspired “rope-a-dope” strategy? Nah! He did not have any influence on this movie, much.

What really drives this home for me is the revelation that the Guardian Angel who has been guiding Chris digitally all along is his speech-deprived little sister, communicating with a speech generator on the supercomputer he gave her. (Heavy sigh) How can anyone NOT love her? She is so smart, so funny, so compassionate. We can tell from her face on the screen that she has overcome her limitation, because it is so trivial when balanced against the gifted totality that she is.

I love this movie because it shows that we who are disadvantaged in some way(s) are only not human refuse. We can be heroes.