There are some actors/actresses that seem to be miles above the average. Clint Eastwood, Arnold, Olivia Hussey, Jodie Foster are some of my favorites. Actually, I have quite a few favorites. I could name hundreds of Hollywood people from the 1930’s to the present that I enjoy watching on the big screen. When I think of any movie that I’ve seen Jodie Foster act, I remember it as a great movie. If she’s in the cast, I know I’ll love the movie. Who could have done such a wonderful job in Silence of the Lambs? The latest movie that I saw Jodie cast was entitled: The Brave One. Again, a magnificent movie. If you have not seen this flick, let me give you a few highlights.

The character is a New Yorker just living her life like all the rest. She has a boyfriend, very much in love, gonna marry him, yada,yada. They take a walk in the park, they get mugged, boyfriend dies, she is badly beaten, but eventually gets healthy. Here’s where the movie starts to take form. The cops take their reports and, typically, do nothing to find the culprits. She gets really annoyed with them and starts to question them as to what they are doing to avenge her dead boyfriend. They tell her the same stale crap, “we’re doing everything that we can do.” In a nutshell, they are doing nothing, as I said, typical. She stumbles onto some clues that could be used to solve the case and she gives this information to the cops. Of course, they do nothing. Finally, she goes to buy a gun for protection, gets turned down, and gets one from a guy in a back alley. She goes out to find the bad guys. She is warned by the cops to stay out of it; they start watching her. She gets into a few tight spots where the neighborhood scum try to rob/rape her. She blows them away. Slowly, throughout the movie, she finds out who the bastards are and hunts them down. She eventually kills them all. The cops are still clueless. The one top cop who has been watching her shows up at the last minute to help her out but the point of the whole movie is that, if you are in trouble, you’re on your own. There’s nobody but you who is going to make things right, or to prevent a crime. The cops are only there to harass the good people, and to protect the criminals, and to make reports after the crime is committed.

There was a series of movies with Charles Bronson some years back called Death Wish, 2,3,4,5. The Brave One reminded me of this great series. Same scenario, crimes are committed, cops do nothing but eat donuts, the main character has to track down the bad guys and dispatch them. But, he’s got to do it undercover, or the cops will arrest him.

We need more cops like Dirty Harry. When you deal with the scum of society, you have to jump down in the sewer to get them. They are not going to “play by a bunch of silly rules” so you can put them in jail where they can live better than their victims.

Do we see a pattern here in these movies? I know that when a writer/screenwriter produces a story for the cinema, they pick hot topics that are of relevance to the viewing public. Otherwise, who would go to see it? (Okay, so there are some weirdoes who will watch anything!) The recurring theme of crime at all levels of our society pervades the majority of movies. Obviously, somebody is trying to tell the public something. Something like: “Wake up and smell what you’ve been shoveling” when you support the criminals, and punish the good citizens for protecting themselves. So says Sam Post.