Special Delivery

See this one. 16 Blocks is an engaging film with enough action for the men out there, but not too much for the ladies. It makes an excellent date movie or “guys night out” flick because it is both entertaining and well made, yet still manages to provide some interesting questions for your dinner conversation. It is well worth the price of a sitter.

This new thriller from director Richard Donner stars Bruce Willis as Jack Mosley, a used-up cop with a checkered past and rapper-turned-actor Mos Def as Eddie Bunker—a career criminal with a big secret.

Jack is tired. He’s tired from staying up all night on a thankless assignment, he’s tired of his career, and he is tired of his weary life. He wants nothing more than to punch out and return home to his bed and his bottle. But fate and a traffic jam conspire to burden him with the unenviable task of escorting the fast-talking Eddie to the Grand Jury. Since the court house is only sixteen blocks away, this task shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes of Jack’s life. In fact, it takes much more.

On the way to the court house, they stop at a liquor store. Leaving his handcuffed prisoner in the back of the police car, Jack runs in for some breakfast. Upon returning, he discovers a would-be assassin poised to kill Eddie. To his own surprise, he shoots the killer and starts down the path to a new life.

It turns out Eddie is not just any old snitch; his “big secret” is very big indeed. He’s an eye-witness to a murder committed by a dirty cop—a dirty cop in whom other dirty cops have no confidence. Convinced that Eddie’s testimony will lead to their own indictment, they resolved to eliminate the problem. What they didn’t count on was Jack.

So far, there is nothing especially remarkable about this story. “Hey, Bruce Willis is playing another burnt-out cop—whoop-dee-doo. And, look, another singer wants to be an actor.” But what makes this story interesting—as opposed to Hostage, a Willis vehicle from 2005— is that, though 16 Blocks appears to be about a delivery, it is really a story of deliverance. Jack and Eddie are both slaves: Jack to alcohol and his nihilism; Eddie to his past and a corrupt system that will never let him forget he’s a criminal. The sixteen blocks they travel is more than the distance between the police station and the court house, it is the distance between slavery and freedom.

Eddie says repeatedly that “signs are everywhere” and indeed this is true. Some are obvious: Eddie wants to start a new life baking birthday cakes with his sister in Seattle. The birthday cake clearly symbolizes a new beginning.

Another obvious sign is the amount of money Eddie received as a windfall just before his arrest on trumped up charges. That amount is identical to what he needs to start his business. In Eddie’s mind, the exact correspondence is providential. Clearly, fortune smiled upon his cake-making venture. Or at least it did until his arrest.

The most interesting sign, however, is Jack himself. The name “Mosley” is suspiciously reminiscent of Moses—the used-up shepherd with a checkered past who reluctantly agreed to deliver the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt. In this modern day Exodus, Jack is the symbolic Moses. In fact, “Jack” is derived from the Hebrew name “Yochanan“(John), which means, “Yahweh is gracious”. Eddie did nothing to deserve Jack as his deliverer, but it is through Jack that Eddie makes it to his Promised Land.

The Promised Land is a fitting metaphor indeed, as the movie’s ultimate message is that people can change. This claim is made most clearly through Eddie, as he tells Jack about his birthday cake plans. During his previous stint in prison, Eddie vowed to change his life. Learning how to bake was the first step to this renewal. He opted to make birthday cakes after his release because “every day is somebody’s birthday”—an observation cynically shot down by Jack who tells Eddie that “life is too long.”

Jack’s desperate nihilism has kept him chained to his past, but Eddie’s profound determination to start anew ultimately forces Jack to reconsider. If Eddie can change his ways, in spite of all his past transgressions, than why can’t Jack also be reborn as a good man? Mosley confronts this issue with a new-found hope, and we see from his actions that he can indeed be reborn.

While you’re out on your date, have your kids watch their own Willis film: Disney’s The Kid. In this one, Bruce stars as a successful yet miserable image consultant whose life is dramatically changed after meeting a mysterious boy. The kid, who is really just a younger version of Bruce, accuses him of abandoning all of his childhood dreams. “So, I'm forty, I'm not married, I don't fight jets, and I don't have a dog? I grow up to be a loser.” This movie is a gentle yet firm reminder that it is never too late to become the person we’ve always wanted to be. And best of all, it’s absolutely fine for the kids to watch with the babysitter.