The Punisher War Zone

Punisher: War Zone (2008, Lexi Alexander, dir., 103 min) is yet another cinematizing of a comic book franchise. It seems like a comic book. I have no defense for watching it. It happened to be on while I was doing other things. For my religion and film purposes, however, the film had three sterling moments.
First, at the funeral of a “good guy” killed accidentally by the Punisher in one of his many killing sprees, the minister intones, “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our faults. As parents have compassion on their children, the Lord has pity on those who fear him for he knows of what we are made. He remembers that we are but dust. As for us, our days are like grass …” The scene stands out in the film’s gruesome violence and fascination with vengeance. It is the ideology that the film and the film’s violent genres deliberately, polemically reject. The Punisher’s killing spree stems from the mob’s slaughter of his family. We see the sobbing Punisher at the grave of his family, and a replay of his family disaster, immediately after the “good guy” funeral. At the “good guy’s” funeral, a special agent promises the “good guy’s” widow that he will get the Punisher. Of course, he does not. Ultimately, he joins forces with the Punisher.
Second, two-thirds of the way through the film, the Punisher visits the priest, also his friend, who officiated at his family’s funeral. The priest tells the Punisher that he is a long way from the seminary and asks him why he’s taken this tact. The Punisher’s response is that someone must punish the corrupt. The priest responds that we will be judged by the same measure with which we judge. The Punisher recognizes the reference (Matt. 7:2) and accepts his fate laconically. He has chosen a suicidal path, rather than life. In fact, he admits that sometimes he’d like to get his hands on God. Incidentally, it is in this same church that the Punisher and the special agent hunting him join forces to save the widow and daughter of the “good guy.”
Third, in the film’s epilogue, the Punisher departs the climactic shoot out, which saves the “good guy’s” family, with another (comically ineffective) policeman. As they leave, they pass in front of a church with a flickering, cruciform neon sign that says “Jesus Saves.” While the bumbling policeman talks about his opposition to the death penalty and his belief that even bad guys can change, the Punisher disappears. Almost immediately, a thug mugs the policeman who cries out to the Punisher for help. As the mugger threatens to kill the policeman, we see the armed Punisher standing beneath the “Jesus Saves” sign. “Jesus” flickers out, the Punisher pulls his weapon, the screen darkens, and we see simply “Saves” as we hear one gunshot. While the screen remains black, the bumbling police man says, “Oh God, now I’ve got brain splatter all over me.”
The credits roll. The music is Rob Zombie’s “War Zone.” The message is complete. God/Jesus/religion are ineffectual against contemporary violence and evil. Today’s evil calls for dark, violent heroes (cf. The Dark Knight). The move, not incidentally, is exactly the opposite of that executed in End of Days, where Jericho Cane learns that faith, not guns, defeats (supernatural) evil.