I watched the flick John Q yesterday for my Biz module. The story is damned sad one about a father (played by Denzel Washington) whose son needs a heart operation or he will die within a matter of months or even days.
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The problem is, the U.S healthcare system is pretty screwed up and for someone who can't even afford to keep abreast of his family's mortgage payment, the US$300k operation is just w-a-a-a-a-y beyond his budget. The hospital director then nonchalantly told him off asking him to bring his son back home because his insurance coverage could not even cover the initial 30% downpayment that he supposed to pay up front. She simply said, "There is a limit to our generosity".
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The daddy being pushed into a corner and not wanting to live the day to bury his son, then takes a hospital full of patient hostage until his son gets the heart op he needed. To cut the story short, in the end it was revealed that the gun he used throughout the entire ordeal was not even loaded and he is even willing to shoot himself in the head committing suicide if it turns out that he's the only suitable donor for his son, who needed the op urgently.
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With Denzel Washington inside, you can bet that it is one hell of a tearjerker of a story. But stories like this does makes you think about family ties and just how far you will go for them. In this case, if you are the daddy, would you go as far as what Denzel did in order to get the heart op for your son? Or in the case of Prison Break, would you be like Scofield and go to jail with a scheming plan to get your big bro out of jail just because you believe that he was innocent??
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MCYS probably should take cue from these scriptwriters the next time they are embarking on their "Family Values" campaigns.
