Hit Action Thriller You Can Stream Right Now Makes A Baffling Moral Choice
If art imitates life, it stands to reason that bodies of art are often utilized as an outlet to express certain moral or ethical positions. While some films take their role as political statements on humanity and culture quite seriously, others, such as 2021’s Nobody, showcase baffling movie morals that will make you question the team who wrote them.
Nobody seems to make an upfront argument that violence is wrong and psychologically damaging, yet it presents violence in an extremely positive light, in an odd contradiction that reduces the entire film to absurdity.
Nobody’s Confusing Morals
Look, I’m no prude to violence, and I don’t mind seeing some blood and guts spilled on the big screen. Movies such as Inglourious Basterds, or really any Quentin Tarantino film, offer a celebration of violence as a tool for those who can stomach it to bring justice to the world around them. In the case of Nobody, however, it seems like the movie wants you to believe that it has morals that malign violence as something to be renounced without following through on that position.
Depressed Assassin Renounces Violence
The film centers on Hutch Mansell, a former assassin working for an unnamed intelligence office in the United States. Long before the events of the film take place, Hutch spares a man’s life and appears to renounce his violent ways in favor of finding peace and tranquility. Instead of finding tranquility, however, the protagonist of the Nobody movie becomes a run-down, neutered underachiever whose morals get in the way of his success.
Beating People Up Makes Life Better
As the Nobody movie continues, Mansell sheds these morals and finds immediate success, praise, and universal respect from his friends, family, and co-workers. As soon as Hutch begins murdering people and beating up thugs, his libido improves, his wife wants him again, and his son finally becomes proud to call Hutch his father.
That’s all well and good, but if the creators of the film wanted the moral to be “violence is awesome, and should be used as often as possible,” then why did Hutch ever decide to live a nonviolent lifestyle in the first place?
Other Movies Do Reluctant Heroes Right
When I first streamed Nobody, I assumed I was getting a movie with morals similar to the John Wick franchise, or the Equalizer trilogy, or even the recent Jake Gyllenhaal Road House remake from earlier this year. In each of those films, the protagonist recognizes that they are capable of committing great acts of physical violence, but restrain themselves because violence takes a psychological toll on them, or makes people view them as a monster.
At one point in the new Road House movie, Gyllenhaal’s Dalton explicitly expresses that he is terrified of what happens when people push him to the brink, as he doesn’t like that part of himself.
Makes Viewers Wonder Why He Left It All Behind
The Nobody movie, by comparison, muddies its morals by showing that Mansell’s wife and child don’t respect him when he’s living peacefully. Furthermore, Mansell’s boss feels comfortable overworking and underpaying him because he feels no pushback for his disrespect until Mansell starts cracking skulls again. If indiscriminately killing thugs is the secret sauce that earns Mansell money, power, and respect with no impact on his psyche, then why did he ever want to leave the violent lifestyle behind?
Still A Fun Movie Available To Stream Today
REVIEW SCORE
I’m not saying Nobody is a bad movie or that a pro-violence moral is a bad position for a movie to take. I just think that the film’s ruminations on violence fall apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny and probably could have been reworked if screenwriter Derek Kolstad were made to produce another draft. Kolstad is the scribe responsible for penning each of the John Wick films, so we already know that his understanding of this theme is up to snuff.
Despite Nobody‘s bizarre movie morals, the film has still been well-received by critics and audiences. If you’re interested in catching the film, Nobody can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video today.
