“John Q”
The movie entitled “John Q” is a 2002 American drama movie directed by Nick Cassavetes.
The characters of the movie were played by an amazing cast of Denzel Washington, Kimberly Elise,
Daniel Smith, and more. The movie won 2 awards for the exceptional acting of Denzel Washington
and for the best original music used. The movie also had 8 other nominations.
There comes a moment when we have to stand for what we believe is right no matter how bad
the situation can get. The movie is about the story of John Q. Archibald (Denzel Washington), a
struggling factory worker, whose son, Michael (Daniel Smith), will die if he does not get a heart
transplant. However, John’s unfair insurance company only covers $20,000 of the estimated cost of
$250,000. John and his wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), is given two choices by the hospital
administrator because of their financial problem. One is to pay a down payment of $75,000 to get their
son to the top of the list of heart transplants and the other is to improve his quality of life and wait for
his death. Naturally, the parents chose to pay to save their son’s life. Despite the extreme efforts of
John, Denise, and their community, they still cannot raise the down payment. The hospital then decided
to release their son due to insufficient funds of the parents. As the boy slips towards death, John takes
extreme measures to save his son’s life. He took hostage of the emergency room at gunpoint and
demands that his son should be put on the list or else, he will start killing hostages. The situation turned
into a national media crisis which made John a hero to almost everyone including most of his hostages.
He was praised for standing up to the unjust healthcare system to try to save his son. The police and
hospital administrator then deceived John and Denise by saying that their son is on the list of the
transplants. Because of this, John was shot after a heartfelt message between the family that moved the
hospital administrator to put Michael on the list. Unknowingly that Michael is on the list, John realized
that their son will never be put on the list so he planned to kill himself to use his heart for his son.
However, a miracle happened just in time as a compatible heart was found for Michael. The hostages
were released and the operation for Michael was a success. After the operation, John was caught by
the police. The movie ends with John hailed as a hero by many however, he was still sentenced for
kidnapping and false imprisonment. The movie tackles the issue on the unjust healthcare system and
how the main character faces it. It shows that the actions done by the main character is morally correct
especially because he was hailed as a hero by many. However, the actions of the main character should
not be tolerated and praised because it is wrong and insensitive to those held at gunpoint. Vigilante
justice should not be the way to solve things especially because a lot of people are also in this situation.
The movie is morally obtuse and manipulative of the audience’s sympathy by showing an
unrealistically hostage situation. However, the movie surely captures the hearts of the viewer because
of the convincing and excellent performance of the actors especially of Denzel Washington.
“John Q” is an emotional movie with the actors’ excellent and convincing performances. It
showed how a person would feel and act if he was thrust into an impossible situation to save his son’s
life. The actions done by the main character were understandable because a parent would do anything
to save their child’s life. However, it was the movie’s mistake to show the actions as heroic as possible.
The actions should not be praised and it would be more realistic and morally correct if there were
severe consequences in the movie. Overall, the movie was fun to watch especially the actors’
performance however, the movie’s way of battling the unjust healthcare system was morally wrong.