I saw the whole movie a long time ago, and caught part of it last night. I don't remember what happened to Creasy in the past, did he have a family that was killed?

Only thing I remember is that he went from the military to being a bodyguard/fixer because of Rayburn. I don't know if he had a family.

I don’t remember a family ever being mentioned.
I think “The Job”wore him down. Pita made him feel human again. Which is why he went Old Testament on her kidnappers.

well, which movie? the scott glenn or the denzel?

In the denzel one, he left cia wet work because he was a drunk. His demons got to him. He was on his last legs, and Rayburn threw him a lifeline.

quote:

Originally posted by DSgrouse:


In the denzel one, he left cia wet work because he was a drunk. His demons got to him. He was on his last legs, and Rayburn threw him a lifeline.

This.

I will add this is why he was so amenable to the 'suicide trade' for Pita... he realized he couldn't abide in this world anymore after what he had gone through to save her.

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I got the impression that he was a drunk BECAUSE of the wet work, and his guilt and remorse started to overwhelm him. The job with the kid was a bone thrown to an old friend down on his luck, then he came to love her.

I also interpreted that he was mortally wounded at the end anyhow, so he kinda got one over on the kidnappers when they traded for him, and then he died on the car ride. Wrong?

That's how I took it to be.

quote:

Originally posted by slabsides45:
I got the impression that he was a drunk BECAUSE of the wet work, and his guilt and remorse started to overwhelm him. The job with the kid was a bone thrown to an old friend down on his luck, then he came to love her.

I also interpreted that he was mortally wounded at the end anyhow, so he kinda got one over on the kidnappers when they traded for him, and then he died on the car ride. Wrong?

This. He went home to the Blue Bayou... Thats is why the played the Linda Ronstadt song, Blue Bayou. Personally, I thought it was a great movie.

His life had run him down and he was looking for a "pure" purpose.

I see it a bit as an allegory to our modern day lives that grind us away and find us in search for the simple things that really matter, the things that redeem us.

Man On Fire is a fantastic movie.

I agree on slabsides45's take.

Can't remember when the exchange was in the movie, but Creasy asks, "Do you think God will ever forgive us for what we've done?"

And Rayburn's smile freezes on his face and he says, "No."

Then there was the scene when Pita gives him the necklace, where they're talking about how him and Rayburn were going to conquer the world together when they were young, before Rayburn met his wife and "went ooooooooohhhhhhhh."

I took the backstory to be that Rayburn got out of whatever the hell spooky Black Ops shit they were into at some point after he got married. Creasy stayed too long and burned out, and then either by invitation or self-invitation wound up at Rayburn's in the southwest as the wreck we met at the beginning of the movie.