How the onscreen presence of Denzel Washington brought me joy through the pandemic.

Written by Nathan Schumock

Film is a way to empathize with emotions that often escape me. Over the last 18 months, every aspect of life has felt dull, and genuine emotions have been hard to come by. However, one particular actor in one particular movie has helped me remember how to appreciate the small, happy moments in my life.

Tony Scott’s “Man on Fire” starring Denzel Washington is a brilliant portrayal of a seemingly lost man who found his reason to keep living. Through a beautiful symphony of sadness, hope and a lot of revenge, we begin to understand how no one is truly ever lost.

I was talking to my roommate, and she wondered how I can build a relationship with an actor I have never met before — I often wonder about that myself.

At the beginning of COVID-19, I realized how much I loved the Denzel Washington movies I had seen. So, I made it my mission to watch every Denzel movie.

I completed that mission, but it grew into a full-on love story between Denzel’s movies and me as I watched him grow and learn to dominate the screen through 40 years of movies that I fit into one summer. Out of all his movies, however, none restored my heart like “Man on Fire.”

In the film, the protagonist John Creasy, played by Denzel, travels to Mexico City and becomes the bodyguard for a little girl named Pita, played by a 9-year-old Dakota Fanning. Creasy is a broken man; he had the joy beaten out of him due to his dark past in the CIA. He lives a life with no family and few friends. However, Pita starts to pick up the broken pieces to etch some hope back into his life.

They develop a touching relationship that is emblematic of how a father and daughter would love each other. About 30 minutes into the film, Creasy helps Pita with swimming lessons, where she is afraid of the gunshot that signals the start of the race. Creasy bellows, “The gunshot holds no fear!” and Pita echoes it right back.

Their chemistry bounces off the screen, and it feels like you’re placed down beside the pool watching Creasy realize he cares about Pita. This scene makes me want to run through a wall. If I had Denzel motivating me to swim faster than everyone else, I would immediately become a world-class olympian.

A lot of people say the first hour of the movie is boring, unneeded and too long. For example, Stephanie Zacharek, a film critic for the digital publication Salon said, “This movie isn’t just about a kidnapping; it is a kidnapping, and we’re the hostages.”

I have never disagreed with something more.

I am grateful for the scenes we get with the two main characters bonding. If we did not have those heartwarming and friendship building scenes, the end of the movie would not be nearly as effective.

Multiple times a month, I will go on YouTube and fire up scenes from the first hour of this movie to motivate me to finish my homework and relieve all my unnecessary stress.

One scene that always pulls at my heart strings is when Pita gives Creasy a valuable medallion. It’s a medallion with St. Jude, also known as the patron saint of lost causes, on it. She gives him the necklace and you can see Creasy melt through the floor.

It’s like it was the first time he has ever been appreciated in his life.

That leads me into the title of the movie, which is a very important part of the story. “Man on Fire” relates to St. Jude. In historical literature, he is pictured with a flame above his head, and Creasy symbolizes this “man on fire.” Creasy found his way back to happiness, but the short-lived joy is ripped away when Pita is kidnapped by the cartel. Whenever something good begins, an action reverberates through his being and places him back in a state of loss.

I will never know what it is like to lose something of that magnitude in that extreme of a situation. However, I resonate with the feeling of heartbreak and utter hopelessness. Throughout the pandemic, there have been highs and incredible lows. This film helped me recognize that I need to bounce back, not roll over and let challenges steamroll over me.

Creasy has probably the hardest comeback I have ever seen. He tears through Mexico City and eliminates every single person who had anything to do with Pita’s kidnapping. His most dramatic act of revenge occurs when he finds the main man who organized the kidnapping.

Creasy proceeds to lodge a bomb up the man’s butt and blow him sky high. My jaw hit the floor the first time I saw that scene, but if anyone can make an ass bomb look cool, it’s Denzel.

Eventually, Creasy learns that Pita is still alive. This is where the tears come in. Creasy goes to a beautiful bridge two hours outside of Mexico City to recover Pita, but to retrieve her, he must give up his own life. He goes to the top of the bridge and Pita runs into his arms as they exchange a final moment together. I shed a tear every single time.

I have never been able to find the perfect words to describe that scene and the movie as a whole. My friend Sophia Struna, who is a fellow movie-lover who I always come to with my film opinions and recommendations, came up with a perfect description. “It’s like a love story within a tragedy,” she said. Sophia, you are exactly right.

Regaining happiness in your life is a wonderful thing. For Creasy, it was finding the person who brought him peace and joy in the world. For me, I recover that joy every time I flip on “Man on Fire.” I come back to it every time I need to smile, laugh or cry. I appreciate everything this film and Denzel have done for me.