The Confession (1999)
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Movie Database
- Themes
- Baptism
- (DVD ch 13) Mel baptizes Bleakie with bourbon after
Bleakie has had the experience with Sarah.
- Call
- Bleakie is influenced toward morality and
relationship with God through the lives of Fertig and Mel as
much as through their words/preaching.
- Confession
- Fertig's confession (ch 6)
- Sarah's confession (ch 9)
- Bleakie's confession (ch 19)
- Confrontation with Evil
- Bleakie must continually make decisions about good
and evil - must make decisions which move him away from evil and
toward good.
- Forgiveness/Reconciliation
- Bleakie tells Sarah that she is not responsible for
the death of her child.
- Grief
- (DVD ch 3) Stevie's death drives Fertig to kill, as
a moral/immoral act. He does what he feels he "must" and
then he knows that he must suffer the consequences.
- (DVD ch 14) "We go through life hoping for one
thing - that we do not come up against something we cannot put
behind us. I cannot put this behind me."
- Honor/Integrity
- The honor of Fertig (an "insane"
murderer) and the honor of the disbarred lawyer (Mel) who baptizes
Bleakie. Both are mentors for the socially admired yet immoral
Bleakie.
- (DVD ch 6) Bleakie - who pretends to be moral and
honorable - confronts Fertig - who is the "real thing".
- Institutional Evil
- The conspiracy about the water - political
"buying of others" - joy over others' misfortunes. (DVD ch
5)
- The death of Stevie because of institutional
malpractice, not individual immorality.
- Journey/Spiritual Growth
- Bleakie becomes a moral man by giving away all that
he wants.
- Judgment/Guilt,
- Fertig knows that he is guilty under God's law
whether man's law finds him guilty of not.
- Law Written on Our Hearts
- Fertig knows that he is guilty under God's law
whether man's law finds him guilty of not.
- (DVD ch 3) Stevie's death drives Fertig to kill, as
a moral/immoral act. He does what he feels he "must" and
then he knows that he must suffer the consequences.
- Liberation
- Bleakie's liberation as he sacrifices himself and
all he has obtained through his immorality.
- Moral Ambiguity, Recognizing Evil
- "It's not difficult to do the right thing.
It's difficult to know what is the right thing to do. Once you know,
it's easy to do it." (DVD ch 8)
- Prayer
- Fertig praying in prison (DVD ch 6). Resolves to
take responsibility for his actions as a strong act.
- Bleakie at cemetery (DVD ch 16)
- Sabbath prayers at beginning of movie.
- Repentance
- Bleakie hands away the election to an enemy because
it is the right thing to do.
- Sacrifice, Rebirth, Redemption
- Bleakie "self-destructs" - sacrifices his
career and all he's lived for, in order to find himself and be
regenerated as a moral man.
- Temptation
- Bleakie is taken to the top of New York City and
shown all that he can have as D.A. if only he sells his soul.
- Truth/Untruth
- "People who merely tell the truth are
understood to be insane."
- Vengeance
- Fertig kills those who didn't care - who
contributed to the death of his son - in order to force them
to care.
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