John Woo: When Doves Cry

Many Christians have problems with violent action movies, so it's ironic that one of the most successful directors in the genre is a christian.  John Woo insists that his movies bolster his own strong family values. His heroes are “always reaching out a helping hand,” he points out, “even sometimes sacrific[ing] himself for the others.”

Characters in his movies have both good and bad qualities – everyone does horrible things and makes mistakes. They're equally fallen and in need of redemption. Characters face moral dilemmas and their own sins throughout .Woo doesn't resolve dilemmas in simple ways – he leaves them hanging, much like in real life.

The symbolism, the framing, the way everything looks is intentional. As he says in an interview with Premiere Magazine:

I love doves. I am a Christian. Doves represent the purity of love, beauty. They’re spiritual. Also the dove is a messenger between people and God. When I was in high school and I used to draw posters for the church, I would draw a picture of a dove. When I shot The Killer... In the church scene, I wanted to bring them together. I wanted to use a metaphor of the heart. I came up with doves-they’re white. When the men die, I cut to the dove flying-it’s the soul, rescued and safe, and also pure of heart. So the dove became one of my habits: I used it in Hard-boiled, Face/Off, and in [M:I-2], at the end of the movie.

Surprisingly, he even wanted to be a minister at some point:

When I was a kid growing up in Hong Kong, our family was so poor, and an American family sent money to the Lutheran church and supported me going to school for six years, and also my brother and sister. And I was grateful to the church because, without their help, I might have become a different person. I had great parents, but at that time I was so scared, and so lonely, and I had to fight so hard, because I had to deal with gangs almost every day. So you can see how rough it was — I felt like I was living in hell, and the church became my shelter. I felt safe and happy and comfortable in the church. When I was 16, I really wanted to be a minister, to pay back the people who gave me help, and help other people.

So what does Woo truly believe, anyway? In his interview with Woo that closes Between the Bullets: The Spiritual Cinema of John Woo, author Michael Bliss leads us to an answer:

- Do you think that the traditional values that you cherish -- such as honor, devotion, religion, family -- aren’t very popular anymore?
- “Yes. It seems that many people have lost them. I think it is my duty to bring all of these things back, these things that people have lost.”
- With that in mind, would it be fair to say that more than anything else, you’re a religious director?
- “Yes. I’d agree with that.”

Updated: great article on Theology Gaming