Hitman

In  2007 the talented actor Timothy Olyphant  played the lead character, Agent 47, in the movie version of the stealth game Hitman. He did a great job with that role that brings out the best of his magnetic combination of sheer sexual energy and flawless intelligence. The movie is violent, but the brutality is well, necessary in the context of the story. There should not be anything likable about a killer, but Timothy Olyphant brings out a philosophical quality in Agent 47, who despite his intentional anonymity manages to provoke deep emotion in his character and surroundings. As I was watching the many fight and killing scenes, it somehow triggered some existential musing. Agent 47's violent actions were very much visible, loud, lethal. I thought that each of us in his or her own way, is a hitman. We may not carry sniper riffles, or handguns, or kill people with our bare hands, but we are all killers by the time we are well into our life story. We kill hearts, dreams, hopes, aspirations, longings, all around us each day in varying degrees, with our arsenal of meanness, indifference, sarcasm, ridicule, cruelty, insinuation, ... just to name a few. I found the violence in Hitman honest, non judgmental even, perhaps because in the hands of a skilled actor like Timothy Olyphant, the ease with which he executed was so well practiced. He was a well trained technician who made no mistakes. We are all very good at our technique of hurting others equally flawlessly, because we leave no evidence, no marks. Right? And we think we are so smooth, but the bullets we let go from our invisible weapons leave scars that can last a lifetime. We scar our partners, at home and at work, our friends, our neighbors, our relatives, total strangers, and worst of all, our children. Yes, Hitman is a very violent movie, but I like it. It reminds me to be more gentle with my own finely honed, tuned, ready to fire, invisible arsenal of weapons that we all keep loaded, ready to go, each and every day.