I know I said I’d write about the Trinity some more tonight, but one of my friends invited me to go see “Taken,” and as a movie fan who loves spending time with my friends. I took him up on his offer. If you’re thinking of seeing the movie, keep this one in mind as while I try to not give spoilers in a review, sometimes it might inevitably happen. You might just want to mark this one down and read it later. (And please do make sure to read it later.)
Liam Neeson is the star of this one. He’s divorced and his only daughter stays with his mother and her stepfather and he emphasizes that he is her real father. We see early on that he’s got some fighting skills and later realize that he once had a job with a government as what he describes as, “a preventer.”
His daughter, Kim, wants to go on a trip abroad with a friend and needs his signature for permission and he does not sign it immediately. At this point I’m thinking, “Way to go!” It’s about time we had a father who didn’t give into his child’s every desire and the reason is the best one he could have. He is not comfortable with two youngsters being alone overseas.
He does sign though and gives her three conditions to follow. Unfortunately, she doesn’t do well. The next time he talks to her, she’s witnessing men breaking into the apartment of her and her friend and kidnapping her friend. Her Dad, Brian, tells her that she’s going to be kidnapped next, but that he will come for her. He hears her screaming into the phone as she’s kidnapped and shouts for someone else to answer and when a man answers he tells him that he will pay anything to get her back and not let her go, but if they don’t want to pay, he gives the ultimatum of “I will come, I will find you, and I will kill you.” The voice on the other end says “Good luck.”
Bad choice of words….
The next hour involves Brian going overseas and fighting everyone who tries to stop him to find his daughter and save her from being sold into a prostitution ring. I would say it is about an hour because this is a short movie and frankly, I had no desire to look at my watch. The action is intense and seeing Brian take out the villains is intensely gratifying.
And I’m thinking, “It’s about time a Dad got to be a Dad again.”
This is something that we need in the world again. Men need to step up and be men and be willing to fight for their families. This time around, the Dad was the hero. He was the one who was willing to go overseas to save her and seeing as it took place in France said that he’d tear down the Eiffel Tower if he had to to save her.
How can you not love that?
As I saw this, I kept thinking, “How far will a father go to save the one he loves?” In this case, it’s his daughter. In our case, we have a Father who was willing to do whatever it took to save us even while we were still enemies. Brian is willing to tear down the Eiffel Tower to save his daughter. God is willing to send his Son to save us and I believe eventually do a total re-working of the creation to show his glory in saving us.
As I thought about the prostitution aspect also I pondered, “How far will a father go to make sure the one he loves is pure?” Brian was willing. As the one scene where someone gets the best of Brian shows up, I heard someone in the theater say “Oh no.” I think that’s revealing. What if the father cannot save his daughter? What then?
Fortunately, a loving father will face anything just for the one he loves. We as Christians should know this, and we should realize how powerfully the ending speaks to us when his daughter is saved. As Brian rescues her, he holds her as she sobs and she says “You came for me. You came for me.” To which he replies, “I said I would.”
And one day we’ll get to eternity and be able to embrace the one who saved us and can we not picture the conversation going the same way?
“You came for me. You came for me.”
“I said I would.”
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