Reaching for an understanding of "Reacher"

I lead a rather sheltered life and what once were called action-adventure films are not ordinarily a part of it. But for some reason I got tangled up this week, when I could have been doing more productive things, in devoting parts of three evenings to watching a 2022 series entitled "Reacher," developed for Amazon Prime Video.

Google tells me this was the most watched film on that platform for a time after it's release; critics, in general, praised it. A new series has been commissioned. Based on novels by Lee Childs, the film is well produced --- it grabs the attention and holds on.

But my goodness --- the violence. Dozens of good and bad guys dispatched in frightful and graphically depicted ways during its course, many by the principal character, (Jack) Reacher, portrayed by Alan Ritchson using a script that offered him an opportunity to show the emotional range of a sack of cement.

We were assured, after he had slaughtered dozens, that his heart was pure --- borrowing the old morality-play mantle to throw over it.

I'm not ashamed --- after all, I came back for three evenings and watched from beginning to end. Nor am I a fan of censorship and am in no way suggesting it here.

But I got to thinking about what has scandalized large percentages of Iowans in recent months ---  school teachers, for example; fantasies about critical race theory, transgender and other LGBTQ+ people among us and, most alarmingly, books.

Nary a whimper about violence, however, and the various ways we glorify (or trivialize) it. The hazards presented by school teachers, critical race theory, transgender people and books are imaginary. Violence isn't.