Red

Outside of class I ran into Dave and we briefly discussed the movie Red. Dave shared with me his ideas of how he saw the movie as religious. He mentioned that he saw the old Judge as God because he was omniscient (by listening to everyone’s phone calls), a judge (makes the final judgment on people), and can see the future (dream about Valentine’s future happiness). I had not thought that the movie was strikingly religious in any way before talking with Dave. The points that Dave argues make sense to me that the judge could be seen as God, however, there were some very humanistic qualities that the judge had that I thought were not like God at all. The judge felt remorse for spying on his neighbors after meeting Valentine and turned himself in to the police. As far as we know God is the highest power and no one shows God that he made a blunder. In the scene where Valentine first meets the judge he is indifferent about the return of his dog and he says that he cares about nothing and Valentine suggests that he stop breathing. As we see later in the movie, one of the reasons the judge is so unfeeling is because he lost the woman he loved and he never got over it. Of what I know about God, God is both caring and forgiving neither of which the judge appears to be in this scene. I liked Dave’s argument for the judge to be seen as God but I think there is too much evidence that the judge has faults and cannot meet the criteria of God.