Beyond the less than veiled critique of the American medical insurance industry, this film wrestles with the question: How far will a desperate person go for love? Starring as “John Q” Denzel Washington offers the viewer one answer to this question. Directed by Nick Cassavetta, John Q relates a beautiful story of a desperate father, unable to pay for expensive medical treatment for his gravely ill son, who feels driven to take extreme actions. The movie starts with us meeting John as he gets one of his two cars towed. Although John is employed he does not earn enough money to sufficiently support the expenses incurred by his house and two-car lifestyle. The next instalment of the plot’s development depicts the collapse of John’s son Mike during a strenuous baseball game. This collapse comes without warning as John and his wife Denise have had not reason to believe that Mike has been anything but the picture of health.
At the hospital they learn that Mike requires a heart transplant immediately or else he will die. John is devastated to find out that his insurance coverage will not be nearly enough to cover the expensive treatment and surgical procedure. As an audience member you become drawn into the emotional turmoil that John and Denise attempt to raise the money needed for the surgery. After selling virtually everything they own, including their wedding rings, and having applied for aid at a number of financial institutions, they still come up short of the total amount. A few days after making a partial payment to the hospital John and Denise are told that Mike will be discharged. Enraged and distraught and feeling immense pressure from his wife, John makes an agonizing decision to take matters into his own hands.
The Essay on John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck John Steinbeck was a famous American author who wrote from the 1920 to the 1940. Steinbeck was constantly moving across the country trying to succeed as a writer. John Steinbeck lived a life of constant up and downs, successes and failures before he landed on his feet and became a famous author. John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. He was the only son ...
He takes over the ER, taking patients, staff and the transplant doctor hostage. The drama is played out as the scenes move among the police hostage negotiator and their back up “take out” plan, the conversation among the hostages, John’s explanation of why he doing what he is doing, and Denise’s vigil at her son’s bedside. The best scene in this touching movie is the one in which John says goodbye to Mike and tries to teach him all of life’s lessons in the few precious minutes they have together. This is an amazing movie with many lessons to offer. One of these has to do with the fact that ordinary people can questions cannot be easily dismissed. Should he have taken hostages? Does the end justify the means? We can all relate to having to make a choice between doing what is said to be right and doing what we believe is right.
Ethical standards require that we take great care in the courses of actions we take, even as the rule of law assumes that the transgression of the law requires that the law-breaker be prepared to bear the consequences. Movies with deep messages always recast in some way age-old human questions, dilemmas and noble values. Often religious themes are also found in these messages. One that came to me is Jesus’s tate ment that “Greater love has no one than he that lays his life down for a friend.” In this case is was a father willing to do this for his son, but nonetheless it portrayed the depth of love and willingness to sacrifice for the well-being of another. After watching this film I’m they would have the courage to do the same thing. It has been said that movies or great literary works that provoke you to think about your life, your priorities, your values or even your faith, have done their job.
If this is true then the movie John Q has truly accomplished this goal.
