In the film, True Grit, we begin to see a few examples of a double standard when real justice is in view.
Granted, some of the examples I include could be slowed down by the historical context in which we find our characters, but to be honest, I'm getting a bit tired of that idea. There have been abolitionists, freedom fighters and just causes from the dawn of humanity. With that said, let's look at a few examples.
When young Maddy comes to retrieve her father’s body and belongings, she is also intent on avenging her father’s death. Upon arrival, she is accompanied by the family slave, and man maybe in his 50's or 60's, whom she abruptly sends home. Her primary narrative is that she is after justice and will do so at any cost. She begins by arranging the hire of a US Marshall, known for leaving little room between his gun and his prisoners and then sets off with him in search of the criminal, Tom Chainey. Before they leave though, a town hanging demonstrates the next injustice. Two white men and a Native American stand at the gallows. The two white men are given a chance to give their last words but as the Native American begins his, the executioner immediately bags his head and the lever is pulled. Obviously, he wasn’t supposed to speak. Then, before they leave, a slave boy helps Maddy pick out her horse. Much later in the film the US Marshall unnecessarily and violently kicks two Native American boys sitting on the porch while Maddy gazes past them, eyes intent only on discovering the criminal’s whereabouts.
So while the chase is on for Tom Chainey, and a brand of retributive justice is being held as the highest ideal for a known criminal, flagrant social injustices surround this pursuit, blind to the dominant eye. It’s not that these injustices are ignored, it’s that they don’t exist as injustices in the eyes of those that define the dominant culture. While the narrative of justice traced out by the author is pursued by Maddy, the other narrative of True Grit participates in a myriad of gross societal injustices. The author is also genius in his use of a young girl. Too many stories of revenge are fought between adults or equals, entailing that the audiences’ faith in the hero is undermined by his or her own vigilantism. In this story, the hero, or heroine, is a young girl. Dismissed for her age, yet still wielding a weapon of revenge, she is able to allude the natural disdain an audience would attribute to a vigilante.
What’s the point? When we pursue justice, we do so in constant danger of incurring a string of unintended consequences. Justice should be played like a good chess game; slowly, and in anticipation of as many future implications as is possible. Many times in the pursuit and applause of justice we are at the same time active or passive pursuers and applauders of injustice. While we publicly praise and open a warm embrace to lady justice, we could at the same time be mocking her scales and undressing her with our eyes.
Sadly, this summary remains more a critique than anything else. Yet, I would hope for a wider grasp and awareness of our own failings and faults each time we administer justice and realize that many times the messages we send cannot be distinguished from the mediums we package them with. Our methods and forms of communicating are just as important as the message and content and some would say are the message itself.
In True Grit, Maddy ends up killing Tom Chainey with a shot from a rifle. She doesn’t get to kill him with her father’s hand gun, though she is able to wound him with it earlier in the film. Part of me enjoyed that ending, a little poetic justice to finish my day. I enjoyed the fairness it executed. I enjoyed that the story had resolution and I enjoyed the satisfaction that the ending provided me.
I had enjoyment, resolution and satisfaction. Though, if I’m really honest, I wasn’t genuinely at peace or completely satisfied. Nor did I sense that real justice had been administered and no matter how poetic it was, it was still revenge. Justice never really has the last word at least real justice doesn’t.
So, I think I need to be more careful with the things that give me joy, peace and resolution. Somewhere else in the world or even more likely, right in front of my eyes, those things that give me joy, peace and resolution could actually be causing someone else real misery, stifling strife or the constant pain of dissolution and dislocation. For us as Evangelicals and many others the message is hopefully clear - The Medium is the Message and “Real Justice” will always require more than “True Grit” will ever have to offer.
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