John Q

John Q
Lauren Brooks
We have been talking a lot about Midrash with the Decalogue movies and I was trying really hard to think of another example where this concept can be seen, immediately I thought of the movie John Q with Denzel Washington. What a great example of Midrash in a film! The main story consist of a father with a son who needs a heart transplant or he will die, unfortunately the family is middle class and doesn’t have enough money to pay for the surgery, so he won’t be able to get a heart. Fed up with the hospital, the father (Denzel) decides to take the whole hospital hostage until his son receives a heart.
In my opinion this is exactly the kind of reason that we need the concept of Midrash to help us to determine what is right and wrong. We all know it’s wrong to take people hostage, but we also know it’s wrong to not help someone who is sick just because they can’t pay for it? Putting those two questions together we are then faced with the problem of what to do? We talked about this in class and people went from one extreme to the other, it’s kind of along the lines of if you are starving is it ok to steal food. Maybe the better question to ask is why people are not having their basic needs met, why are people starving and why are people in need of medical care. The concept of Midrash really helps to get to the root of the issue and I think that’s what matters most in this situation. This movie might not be the greatest movie but it is one with an important message.