Is this satirical in a way?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — John Q
bati928 — 9 years ago(July 17, 2016 06:21 AM)
I mean the parts of this movie that most people pass off as unrealistic. A huge crowd cheering on the guy holding innocent people hostage. John Q cracking a joke just before he goes off to kill himself, met with riotous laughter (including from the guy he joked about killing!). The over-soppiness of the ending; the news crews glorifying violence. I am guessing this movie was intended to start or contribute to a conversation about equality in the US healthcare system, but could these parts further do this by highlighting its ridiculousness? I.e. the only way to get your kid a heart is to hold up a hospital and have an exact match in a horrific car accident in which all her vital organs are intact.
Or am I reading too much into this and these parts were just poorly done. -
AndrewGS — 9 years ago(July 19, 2016 05:54 PM)
It's somewhat hard to tell intentions but that seems a fair interpretation of at least some elements of the film
I think the filmmakers knew it was a challenge to make John remain sympathetic given his actions so they maybe intentionally made the crowd so supportive, kind of overdoing it to get the audience to acknowledge the absurdness and yet also be supportive themselves (and I think this worked). It seemed like a lot of the crowd anger was real and yet it was still a crazy response to a crazy situation (the crowd wouldn't have wanted to be one of the hostages). Certainly the news media is just in it for their own benefit and Frank seems correct when he claims the crowd doesn't really care about him.
The hostages laughing at John's joke about killing one came after they had been stressed for a long time and also partly from relief that they knew he wouldn't actually do it.