The Brave One
The female Death Wish.
Jodie Foster plays Erica Bain, a New York City Resident. A woman who apparently has never really considered that New York is a cesspool and law abiding citizens are sitting ducks and cannot legally defend themselves with a firearm from the large amount of bad guys in the city.
The opening setup for this movie is something every anti-gun woman should see.
Jodie and Sayid from "Lost" are walking their dog in Central Park and they are stopped by three thugs. The thugs proceed to beat Sayid to death and beat Jodie to within an inch of her life.
After physically recovering and mentally trying to deal with the loss of Sayid she decides she needs a gun for defense and peace of mind. Clearly, the reality check she received has made her realize that law abiding citizens are basically sheep waiting for the slaughter and that law abiding adults are responsible for defending themselves. Unless the police are RIGHT THERE to stop the situation all they can do is make a report and investigate AFTER the fact. Not a lot of good that does for Sayid huh?
Anyway... She goes to a local gun shop and soon learns that there is a 30 day waiting period after she gets a license. This will not help her goal of feeling safe in a scary city where lots of bad things happen.
A guy at the store privately sells her a 9mm pistol. Now I don't remember if they dude was just in the gun store or worked for the gun store. If he was just another customer I think the person-to-person sale could have been legal. If the dude was an FFL then I think what he did was illegal.
Legality's aside, she bought a Kahr 9mm pistol with a box of cartridges.
Carrying concealed (illegally since you can't carry concealed in NYC) she finds herself shopping at a bodega where a pissed off ex-husband enters the store and shoots his cashier wife to death. Unfortunately Jodie's cellphone isn't on vibrate and when the Ex hears her phone ringing he's alerted to the fact that he's not alone in the store and proceeds to try and find and kill the witness.
She doesn't give the killer the chance and she shoots him a few times in self defense, killing him. Since she broke the law (carrying concealed, possible illegal gun, etc.) she leaves the scene. Stupid gun laws aside, I believe it was a righteous shoot.
Later she finds herself on a subway with some hoodlums. They steal some dude's iPod and threaten her with a knife. She shoots the two of them dead. Again, I feel a righteous shoot.
Driven by anger and grieving her loss Jodie's character slowly becomes a vigilante. Again, the legalities of that aside, this story would have been completely different if Sayid had been carrying a gun around like he does on Lost. It could have been a legal drama with focus on the 2nd Amendment. Though, Sayid would have been alive.
Not that I'm advocating vigilantism but it's better to be judged by 12 than carried by six.
I gave it 4 stars out of 5 on the Netflix scale. (It looks really good on Bluray by the way)
Available on DVD
