In Taken, a film released to DVD this week starring Liam Neeson, two teenage girls go to Paris without any mature supervision or hard-headed sense. Predictably, they fall in with a smooth-talking predator. And they are taken.
Fortunately, the father of one of the girls (Neeson) worked many years for the government to prevent “bad things from happening.” So he heads to Paris to find his daughter — and take care of her abductors.
The father shows single-minded, coolly passionate competence in tracking his daughter. He demonstrates that there is no necessary conflict between reason and emotional commitment: he uses his mind to direct his physical prowess in recovering his daughter, his supreme value.
I really liked this movie.
Assuming Jennifer and I have kids as planned, I plan to buy Taken and other films with good sensible messages of self-protection. It really can be a dangerous world out there if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing and take sensible precautions. I navigated a few dangerous situations by sheer luck. I want to help my kids do better.