I have always thought that the movie, John Q, has Biblical parallels that can be seen all the way throughout the movie. Denzel Washington is a great actor who, I believe, can play any role. He can play good characters and bad characters, and through them all, he does a wonderful job of staying in character. I have some hesitancy comparing Denzel Washington, a normal man, to Jesus who is of divine power. I do believe, however, that it can be clearly seen that Denzel Washington plays a Christ-like character in the movie.
Jesus' life was all about sacrifice for people who did or did not even deserve His sacrificial love. He spent His whole life trying to show people God's love for them and He often had to do so in a way that may have hurt Himself. Without being heretical, I see a lot of this same comparison in Denzel Washington's character in John Q.
Throughout the movie, John Q holds a hospital full of people hostage because he wants to save his son. He is a normal man who turns into someone he is not because he feels the need to protect. His lifestlye before this instant is average and he has never, at least that the film lets on, had an interaction with the law. He stays away from trouble as much as possible and it just so happens that, in this instance, he needs to take desperate measures.
The movie goes on to show Denzel trying his best to protect his son. The doctors that he has in the hospital with him tell him there is no real way that his son will survive, and by the end of the movie, the audience learns that the only way his son will survive is if he gives himself in sacrifice. Denzel's character understands the depth that his son will die without a working heart, but, in the same breath, that if he gives his own heart, his son will grow up without a father. In his mind, it is better for his son to be alive without a father, than for Denzel to live his whole life knowing that his only son died. This is a sacrificial love because he gives of himself for the betterment of someone else.
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