YOU HAVE 9-SECONDS TO DECIDE

I’m old enough to remember the 1985-89 TV-series, The Equalizer which starred Edward Woodward. I was fascinated by the idea of a former “intelligence agent”  putting an advertisement in a newspaper offering anyone who was experiencing injustice the offer of equalising. Commander Robert McCall would then set about to use his skills to bring some justice into a person’s otherwise experience of injustice. When Antoine Fuqua invited Denzel Washington to play the same character in a movie remake of the same name, I was excited. Very excited. I saw it in the cinema when it was released and then I pre-ordered it on Apple TV. There are several reasons why I loved this movie. 

Firstly, it was clever - it actually had a sophisticated storyline. Secondly, it was topical - it confronted the topic of human trafficking and sex-slavery. Thirdly, it was about a man faithful to his wife. And fourthly, it was about justice. So when it was announced that for the first time in Denzel Washington’s acting career he was going to make a sequel, I was thrilled. Here’s why...

DENZEL WASHINGTON'S CHARACTER

Unlike Edward Woodward’s portrayal of Robert McCall, Denzel Washington’s portrayal is a fuller, mysterious-yet-revealing, discreet, confident, quiet, self-assured, and with the powerful humility of a Joe Louis. In the first of the three movies, Robert McCall works as a leather-apron-wearing shop-attendant in a Home Depot. We are shown that he lives alone in a sparse apartment. Each night he takes a book and a tea bag, which he has carefully folded in a paper napkin, and goes down to café where the waiter knows that he needs a tea pot of boiled water and a cup. 

As the story unfolds we discover that his wife has died, and that he is fulfilling her goal to read Mortimer J. Adler’s list of The Great Books, and that he is up to book one hundred and ten. We then learn that before his wife died, he made a vow to her that he would leave his career and give up his line of work. We later see that McCall is torn about this vow as he spins his wedding ring on his ring-finger when confronted with rampant injustice. (He does this in all three movies.)

THE EQUALIZER’S VIOLENCE

The Equalizer Trilogy is not for everybody. It is very violent. But unlike the gratuitous violence in many other movies, this violence resembles the kind of military tactical violence described in the Bible. Many people similarly struggle with the tactical military violence described in the Bible. The Bible describes the reality of war, military conflict, assassinations - which are not all condoned - and it does narrate God’s directives for Israel to engage in tactical military conflict. These accounts are often gruesome, but never gratuitous. I regard the violence depicted in the Equalizer Trilogy in the same way. It is the exercise of tactical justice.

WHAT THE EQUALIZER PART III GETS RIGHT

Some sequels should not be made - Matrix 2 for example. But there are some sequels that complement the story being told - The Lord of the Rings for example, and this includes Equalizer II and III. Some sequels disqualify themselves because they contradict their prequel - some of Disney's newer Star Wars prequels for example. But the Equalizer trilogy gets many things right. Firstly, it is overseen by the same director Antione Fuqua. Secondly, its lead character is played by the same actor (unlike the Batman franchise). Thirdly, the storyline is consistent, progressive, and developmental. The Robert McCall character is presented as complex, mysterious, and conflicted. Is he a good man or is he a bad man? He doesn’t know. 

Each of the three Equalizer movies have redemptive themes. When McCall helps someone, their question is, “Why me?” All beneficiaries of divine redemptive grace also ask, “Why me?” Those who perpetrate gross injustice with pathological indifference against their helpless victims may deceive themselves into the delusion that their sins go unnoticed by God. But Numbers 32:23 (“...be sure your sins will find you out!”) cannot be easily ignored or mocked. God’s agents of justice -

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13:3-4)