Shooter

Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur) is good at making action films, and Shooter is a pretty darn good one. It's your standard revenge flick, which hollywood loves to make. Mark Wahlberg plays Bob Lee Swagger, a sharp-shooter who gets framed for attempting to assassinate the president. Swagger is on the run most of the film, trying to prove his innocence and get revenge on those who are setting him up. He gets help from an FBI agent (Michael Pena) who is searching for the truth, and sees that all the pieces don't fit. Danny Glover (who kind of sucks at this role) is the evil government conspirator, working alongside a sitting US senator. There are lots of cool guns, big explosions, and rugged manliness.

The tagline for the film states: "Yesterday was about honor. Today is about justice." Swagger has been framed, and evil has been committed against him. Justice would be served if those responsible were put in jail, or even killed. So Swagger wants revenge, and we want it too. Hollywood keeps making revenge flicks because we eat them up. I would list a few, but there are just too many to name. It's one of the film industry's favorite themes. Why do we like them so much? We want to know that we can take revenge against our enemies too. Our pride tells us that we won't take any crap from anyone, and that we are justified in wanting to fight back. And yes, we should desire justice. But Scripture tells us that vengeance is God's to deal out, not ours. We must leave it in His capable hands, which is very difficult. Jesus taught us to turn the other cheeck, not fight back. As Christians, we are called to give up the right to revenge, and instead we are to forgive seventy x seven times. Forgiveness is the answer, not revenge. One character tells Swagger something like "This isn't the wild west son, you can't just shoot all the bag guys. Although sometimes that is what's needed." But Swagger does think it is the wild west, and the film does too. Shooter demonizes the bad guys so that we will be happy when they are blown away. We tend to do that a lot, so we don't think about that fact that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." We all deserve punishment, not just our enemies. Yet the grace and forgiveness of Christ is powerful, so powerful it can cover even the "bad guys." Forgiveness is hard, much harder than exacting revenge. Revenge is not a Biblical ideal; grace and forgiveness are.

Wahlberg is quickly becoming the "man's man" in Hollywood these days. He rocks in Shooter, which that all-American rugged individualism. And Shooter is an exciting, enjoyable ride. But let's not let ourselves buy in to the lie that we should exact revenge on our enemies. Let's lay down our rights, as Jesus did, and forgive. Let us forgive even if those who receive it don't deserve it, don't want it, and reject it. Let us forgive because He has forgiven us.