Denzel Washington is back on screens in the second installment of “The Equalizer,” taking care of business and questionable foes the way they should be handled; With singular intent and brute force.
If one listens hard enough, they can hear the screams and denunciations from the cabal of the politically correct, those who argue hand-to-hand combat and violence are never an answer. For the most part this is true. Still, there are times when unchecked, brutal behavior requires a response beyond cowering, whining, and pleading to be left alone while someone so inclined takes care of life’s nasty bits of business.
EQ2 is only a movie, but Robert McCall’s brand of decisive action bears discussion. Why? Because the best essence of the American Male has been under attack for years.
There are plenty of reasons and many to blame, starting most obviously with overindulgent parents. Lacking school curriculums don’t help, nor does the continual erosion of general youth sports and the loss of unsupervised, freewheeling play. (Not to be mistaken for the pathetic and expensive children’s leagues which demand everyone gets a chance, rewarding trophies to all teams, including last place finishers.)
Most destructive is the push of social media, television, movies and music, which put a premium on the homogenization of the species, while grinding the edges off true masculinity. We are left with passive males, celebrated for effeminism over strength, complaining over contemplation, and an ability blend in while not presenting a threat.
To be fair, men had it coming. Those who, over the past 50 years, used their chromosomes as a license to bully, humiliate, gaslight, and generally act like overindulged fools and thugs. Pay disparities, outdated familial roles, frat mentality and generally boorish behavior, (man caves and strip clubs for starters) primed those who’d been sucking it up for years to start playing offense. What’s it’s spawned is a deserved reckoning. From the beginnings of the Oprah Effect one can draw a straight line to the pulsing force of MeToo. The resulting comeuppance has been mostly justified. The war against deviants and abusers, as well as their archaic and enabling institutions, has by design lacked grace and tact, opting instead for avenging full-frontal assault and public humiliation.
But it hasn’t all been quid pro quo. Seismic shifts have unintended and destructive side effects, fragging bystanders far beyond those who come up deserving. In the shadows, a more subtle and insidious psychological war has enlisted mothers, sisters, teachers and others to chip away at young male children. Many don’t even realize they are complicit, blindly following the examples of what they see and hear, mostly on social media and talk shows. The result has been an assault on the ideal of what it means to be a man. Sadly it has taken a massive toll. It’s hard to tell the difference between men and women under the age of 40 these days.
So forgive us for appreciating a fictional, burned-out assassin, working through his demons by settling scores for those who can’t settle their own. There should be nobility in navigating such a dark path, even if it takes us outside the diminishing boundaries of good taste, and into the realm of outcast status.