John Q. Archibald: The Plight of a Father
John Q. is a movie that features Denzel Washington as John Q. Archibald as the main character. He works in a company in Chicago and has a wife and a boy child. During a baseball game, the son collapses and John and his wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) rush him to the hospital for treatment. His condition is stabilized and after examination, the cardiologist explains that their son's heart is three times the normal size. The parents are given two options which include optimizing the child's life for the remaining days he was to be alive or have a transplant of the heart. The hospital administrator knows the Archibalds' well and she is aware that they are not in a condition to pay for a transplant; she calls for the boy to be put on optimization of his life. John thinks that he has health cover insurance but to his surprise, it was scrapped of when he was demoted to a part time worker. This means that what he is covered for cannot be enough to take care for a transplant for his son. The message in the movie revolves around the richest nation being unable to provide medical cover for its citizens. Some of the other themes highlighted are parental love and the plight of employees in the hands of their employers.
The Struggle for Healthcare
John's son needed a transplant and the amount needed for the same was $250,000. There was to be a down payment of $75,000 before the son was booked for an operation. John though he had an insurance cover but realized that his new HMO was not enough to cover for such a medical procedure; it could only cover up to $20,000 at maximum in any health service. This was a cover for someone who worked 20 hours a week for the company. Considering the services provided with such a worker, the cover was not enough and the company was exploiting John - exploiting his services while giving minimum compensation for the services he provided. Another subject of discussion here is the policies held by hospitals to this day. They value money at the expense of the well being of patients. The hospital insisted that John had to pay a down payment before his son was booked for an operation. This was despite the administrator knowing that such an amount was too high for this family to raise. The hospital should have allowed the procedure to continue on humanitarian grounds and let the family find a way to foot the bill later on. Insisting on them paying an amount that was way above their means was an injustice to them.
A Desperate Father's Actions
From the actions of John, we can see parental love and the extent a parent can go to ensure the wellbeing of their child. He realized he was not able to raise the amount required but had to use other means possible to ensure that the son was attended to. He takes a gun, matches into the hospital and takes hostages and vows to kill them if his demands are not mate. His main demand is for the son to get an operation and his plan involves him taking away his life and having his heart given to Mike who is his son. The hostages he has understand why he is doing this and occasionally help him out. John also allows the hostages to be attended to by the doctors because he meant them no harm but only wanted his son to be operated on. The negotiator understands this and offers him what he wanted but insists he should let the hostages go. Interesting to note is the fact that the gun he had was not loaded amplifying the assumption made earlier that he did not want to harm anybody at all.
The Incompetency of the Police Force
In addition to this, the incompetency of the police force through its leadership is also highlighted in this film. The police in charge of the mission, Chief Monroe is portrayed as an incompetent officer. During the hostage situation, a local TV channel manages to tap into the security feeds of the hospital and relays the situation live to the audience. The chief officer smuggles a sniper in the building and commands him to shoot john not knowing everything was live on TV. This is despite the negotiator having done a good job of reasoning out with john who had no intention of harming a hostage. This proves that officers at times kill innocent people who have little motive of crime (Rush, 2011). Criminals should not be shot to death unless they are posing a life threat to people around them. They should be arraigned in court and let it determine their crimes. The policy in essence should not act as the judge, jury and executioner in cases. Their job is to arrest alleged criminals and present them in court for examination by the judiciary.
Portraying Social Injustices
The hostages John takes are a representation of other social injustices in the American society. There is a pregnant woman who is dilating with no man in site. This is an indication of the irresponsible nature of some men in the society. Another one is a victim of a gunshot which shows the nature of the gun violence on the streets of America. The other is a woman who has been battered by the boyfriend but chooses to hide it until she is pressurized to say the truth. This shows that domestic violence is a common practice in America and women choose not to speak about it because of fear. These hostages play supporting roles to the theme of social injustices in the society. They prove that there are many social injustices that happen in America that need to be addressed by the administration.
The Message of John Q.
The film John Q was successful in articulating its message to the audience. Some of the themes that are covered in the movie are parental love and social injustices in the American society. John, after realizing he could not raise the money needed for a transplant, chose another method to ensure his son received the treatment. He was even ready to take his own life to ensure that his son got a heart so that he could continue living. Other injustices highlighted are the inability of companies to have a sufficient health cover for their workers, hospitals caring more about money than the well being of their patients, domestic violence, irresponsibility of male parents, and gun violence. All this contributes to highlighting the main theme of the movie which is the inability of the richest nation in the world to have a health insurance cover for its citizens.
References
Rush, Curtis (10 December 2011). "In tailspin after police shootings, former SWAT team leader lifts veil on post-traumatic stress syndrome". Toronto Star.
John Q. Film (2002)
