Category Archives: Action/Adventure

We are blessed with many friends. Being in the synagogue rabbinate and serving as a school principal, we have always had many guests at our table and it has always been a joyous experience, for it afforded my family and me the opportunity to make many friends.

However, I have had few close friends. My immediate family has always been my best friend. They were the people with whom I wanted to spend my free time.

But once I made aliyah and redefined myself as a teacher, not the man in charge, our guest list in Israel shrank. Instead of inviting congregants, students, and their families, we now mostly invite friends. At first this was strange to me since I perceived myself as a community figure whose mission it was to connect with congregants, parents, and students and encourage them to move further along the path to religious observance. Now I just had to be a good friend. It was as simple as that.

My wife, Meryl, helped me make this transition when she reminded me that being a friend means more than having a person for dinner. It means developing a relationship, getting to know the other person well and sharing in his joys and sorrows. Friendship means connection in a deep sense.

I thought of this as I watched Heat, a crime thriller in which a career criminal, Neil McCauley, avoids connection. He does not want to foster any lasting relationships because they will make him vulnerable and perhaps get him killed. It is a sad, lonely, and solitary existence, but a necessary one for a criminal whose success thrives when people cannot identify him or know him well. Early in the narrative, he remarks to a confidante: “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” McCauley leads a life of disconnectedness because attachments and friendships expose him to risk.

Pitted against McCauley and his team is Police Lieutenant Vincent Hanna who doggedly perseveres in hunting him down. Hanna also leads a solitary life because of his utter devotion to his job. His all-consuming goal is to catch his man, even if it is at the expense of taking time to nurture his relationship with his wife and step-daughter.

In one mesmerizing scene, McCauley and Hanna meet over a cup of coffee in a restaurant and commiserate about their respective and all-consuming occupations. Hanna shares his concern for his depressed stepdaughter and reveals how his third marriage is headed for disaster because of his obsession with work: “My life’s a disaster zone. I got a wife. We’re passing each other on the down-slope of a marriage – my third – because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block. That’s my life.” McCauley opens up how his relationship with his girlfriend is fraught with peril because at any moment he may have to leave her. The meeting concludes on an ominous note as both men acknowledge they may have to kill one another if the situation requires it.

Jewish tradition values connection with others. The Sages implore us not to separate from the larger community. Joining with the community affirms our connection with others; it stabilizes and nurtures us. In Hebrew the word for friend is chaver and the word for connection is chibur. Both words share the same root, which means staying connected. When man is by himself, it leads to self-centeredness, selfishness, and gratification of self. That is not the Jewish way, for it is through the crucible of relationships that our life is enriched and character is refined.

The obsession-driven characters in Heat remind us of the perils of being a loner. We may get what we want, but it is an empty victory when there is no one with whom we can share our happiness.

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An essential challenge in the life of administrators is to decide issues based upon whether something is good for the many or only good for the few. I confronted this often as a school principal. In my early years on the job, I made exceptions to the general rule because I wanted to do what was best for the individual child, and also because I was interested in boosting enrollment for what was then an unknown and untested institution. Having a large enrollment was outwardly a sign of success and it meant more tuition dollars to support the school’s programs.

As I matured in my profession, I made less and less exceptions because every exception undermined the overall policies of the school. Once the enrollment stabilized, I could set higher behavioral and academic standards that, in the long run, made the school stronger educationally.

Ethan Hunt, leader of the Mission Impossible (MI6) team of heroes, faces similar challenges in Mission Impossible – Fallout, the latest installment in what has become one of the great action movie franchises in film history. In the course of his mission, Ethan frequently has to decide whether to save the world or an individual friend, who has time and again saved his life and the lives of others.

Ethan’s task in this story is to recover three plutonium cores that have found their way into the hands of terrorists. When he is about to take possession of the plutonium, he discovers that the villains have captured Luther Stickell, one of the members of Ethan’s group. Ethan has a choice: to take possession of the plutonium, which can be used for atomic weapons to destroy the world, or to save his friend Luther. He opts for the latter, and thus begins a worldwide search to find the plutonium and to eliminate the terrorists. His task takes him to Paris, Berlin, London, and an assortment of exotic locations in which Ethan fights for his life as well as for possession of the plutonium cores.

Mission Impossible is a movie in which we know the outcome. Even If Ethan makes a questionable decision, things will work out okay in the end and the world will be saved. Nonetheless, the film presents the dilemma of making a choice knowing that the result will most likely lead to an imperfect solution.

In The Ethics of the Fathers the Sages ask: “Who is wise?” They respond: “One who sees the future.” In truth, one cannot foresee the future, but one can predict a likely outcome. Rabbi Bernie Fox shares an innovative twist on how the Rabbis of the Talmud viewed a wise man: ”Our Sages did not regard a person as wise simply as a consequence of the accumulation of data. A wise person is an individual who is guided by wisdom. This means that the reality of ideas is as definite to the wise person as input received through the senses. The Sages characterized this quality by referring to seeing the future. The future, although only an idea, is as real as the present that is seen through the senses.”

Ethan Hunt is a wise man and knows the likely outcome of saving his friend rather than rescuing the world; but when it comes to saving human life, especially that of a friend, he is conflicted. He knows terrorists are bent on destroying world order and are prepared to eradicate anyone who stands in their way. In spite of this, Ethan does not abandon his humanity.

In the imaginary world of Mission Impossible – Fallout, Ethan understands the dire consequences of saving his friend over securing the plutonium. We, the audience, know that Ethan will save his friend and also save the world. He will destroy the enemy and, at the same time, affirm his concern for the value of one single life, and that is why we admire him. The Talmud expresses this message, embedded in the mind and heart of Ethan Hunt: “he who saves a single life saves the entire world.”

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I do not know how to play chess, but it seems to be a mentally engrossing game. One of my sons actually was a chess champion when he played competitively as a member of his high school chess team. From watching him and other students play, it seems clear that to be successful at the game, one must be able to envision the next moves of your adversary. You have to consider not just one move ahead, but many moves ahead to be victorious.

This kind of mental maneuvering takes place between Major Vic Deakins and Captain Riley Hale, two pilots in the United States Air Force who are tasked with transporting two nuclear bombs in a training exercise in the tense thriller, Broken Arrow.

Their flight begins calmly, but once airborne Deakins, on a mission of his own, attempts to kill Hale. The end result: Deakins ejects Hale from the plane and, using parachutes, steals the nuclear warheads with the goal of threatening to detonate them if a huge sum of money is not deposited in Deakin’s Swiss bank account. The title Broken Arrow refers to the code name for lost nuclear weapons.

Hale lands safely, and with the help of Forest Ranger Terry Carmichael, attempts to thwart Deakins’ plans. Deakins and Hale know one another well. As the action progresses, each tries to anticipate the other’s moves. Deakins leads them to red herrings, but Hale sees through the obfuscations. After all their chess-like moves, in which each tries to anticipate the next move of the other, there is a final physical confrontation between Deakins and Hale.

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo writes about the analogy between chess and life. By doing so, he sheds light on the respective strategies of Deakins and Hale and the exhilaration of combat experienced by both of them. Cardozo writes: “The chessboard becomes the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are the laws of nature; and man roams freely once he applies the rules to such an extent that a whole new world is revealed. But let us never forget: He who knows all the rules is not necessarily a great player. What makes him a formidable opponent is his ability to use these rules to unleash an outburst of creativity, which emerges only because of the game’s unbearable limitations. It is mental torture, but it is the height of beauty as well. It is poetry to the game, as melody is to music — like one gentle brushstroke of Rembrandt on a colorful canvas, making everything look radically different; or like the genius musician playing her Stradivarius, re-creating the whole of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5. It transports the chess player to heaven.”

This poetic description of chess suggests the satisfaction that both Deakins and Hale feel when they have figured out the next move of their adversary. Deakins and Hale engage in a war of the minds, and both savor the combat.

It is fascinating to observe how Deakins and Hale try to outguess the other. A case in point. Law enforcement has to determine where the bomb may be detonated. Deakins plants clues that indicate the location will be in Salt Lake City to the west. In fact, Deakins plans to obliterate Denver to the east. The authorities at first head west to surround Salt Lake City, but then, in an “aha” moment, Hale realizes that Deakins has planted clues that serve as a subterfuge for his true intention, which is to attack Denver.

Broken Arrow is a high caliber action film. It delivers all the fights and explosions that one expects in escapist entertainment, enabling the viewer to enjoy the cathartic release of good triumphing over evil. Along the way, it provides an insight into the strategies of those who want to destroy others. Not only do they want to win the battle, but they may also enjoy intellectually checkmating their opponent.

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