Film Comment: Daredevil

The film, Daredevil (2003), is based on a comic book series.  Daredevil is one of Marvel Comic's second-tier characters, much less well known than The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Spiderman, or the Fantastic Four.  The film includes several comic book insider references and, as do almost all Marvel films, has a cameo by the iconic comic book writer Stan Lee.  Be aware that the film, while rated PG-13, includes extreme violence and some profanity.

The superhero Daredevil is in reality blind attorney Matt Murdock.  Yes, blind.  As a child, Matt Murdock was involved in an industrial accident which destroyed his eyes but enhanced all his other senses to the point that they almost produce sensory overload.  He feels the heat of your breath; his fingers can feel the indentation in the wood produced by a pen writing on a sheet of paper on a desk;  he can sense movements in the air around him; he can hear your internal organs at work; he can identify you by your smell as you enter a room; and his enhanced sense of balance means that he has become the world's best acrobat.

By day an attorney, at night Matt becomes Daredevil, a vigilante in a form-fitting red leather suit, complete with small devil horns on his forehead.  Motivated by the murder of his boxer father, Jack "the Devil" Murdock, Matt swears to fight crime and to "seek justice, one way or another."  Matt's way is extreme violence against rapists, muggers, thieves, and other low-life scum who exist in the underbelly of the city.

The reason this film is germaine to this blog is that the film highlights the fact that Matt Murdock is, at least nominally, a Christian.  This was established as early as Daredevil #119.  Matt's Christianity was brought to the forefront by the writer Frank Miller (who, by the way, is an atheist) during his run as the book's writer and has become one of the character's most identifying aspects, playing on the conflict between his beliefs and his actions.  In Ultimate Spiderman #109, Daredevil states that he is Catholic.

Matt Murdock is a Roman Catholic and the comic books (and the film) are full of cathedrals with stone gargoyles, crosses, stained glass windows, priests, nuns, and other overtly religious images.  Matt hangs around his church and talks to his priest, but seems to avoid actual church services, though he does occasionally go to confession.  He actually believes but can't give up his quest for revenge.  He doesn't want to be a bad man, but he fears that he is a devil.

After severely beating a mob enforcer, Matt realizes he has been observed by the man's son.  He turns to the boy and says, "I'm not the bad guy, kid. ... I'm not the bad guy. ... I'm not."

Matt is stuck in the limbo in which many religious people find themselves.  He is blind, even though he thinks he can see.  People like Matt believe intellectually, perhaps even emotionally, but they are unable or unwilling to commit, unwilling to give up their favorite ways of doing things, unwilling to give control of their lives to the Lord.  They are neither hot nor cold for God, they are lukewarm.

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth"  Revelation 3:15-16