Just Vengeance?

In the movie Kick-Ass, the eponymous hero’s alter ego, Dave Lizewski, laments the fact that no one is prepared to stand up to injustice. If someone does, of course, he gets his ass kicked.

Director Matthew Vaughn crafts the movie in a manner that reveals and explores the stark contrast that exists between characters in their motivations and effectiveness. Dave (Aaron Johnson) channels his outrage at the casual cruelties of petty crime into a crusade against the perpetrators, one of limited success but, thanks to YouTube, of immense popularity. In contrast, father-daughter team Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) are more ruthless, better trained, much better armed, and incredibly motivated crime fighters. The duo’s motivation goes well beyond justice. They are motivated by revenge for a life taken and a childhood lost. When at last their pursuit is fulfilled, the cost begs the question: Was it worth it? 

Rooted in fantasy, Kick-Ass nevertheless has compelling parallels to the realities of Jewish history. While our history is replete with instances of powerlessness in the face of violence—from the crusades to the blood libels, from the Inquisition to the Chmielnicki pogroms—Jews have also had occasion to explore the balance between justice and vengeance. For Jews in the waning shadow of the Holocaust, the two became almost synonymous.

In the post-war era, a quiet few went about vengeance against the Nazis (chronicled in Michael Elkins’ book, Forged in Fury). Others felt the best revenge was to build their strength, their shattered families, and most importantly, a Jewish homeland, one that would be so strong that no threat could overcome it. Echoed in the wilful blindness to injustice Dave Lizewski encounters all around him is the determination of a forgetful world to rebuild after the horrors of World War II: a world which lost its appetite for justice shortly after the Nuremberg trials convicted most of the remaining leadership of Nazi Germany.

Simon Wiesenthal and Beatte Klarsfeld never despaired of their goals; in capturing, trying, and hanging Adolf Eichmann, Israel demonstrated its fealty to justice as well. Yet these pursuits never sat comfortably with the rest of the world. Argentina even sanctioned Israel after Eichmann’s capture, and Nazi hunters never enjoyed much cooperation from postwar governments.

In our generation, saturated with violent imagery on the one hand and the promise of quick solutions in hourlong courtroom dramas on the other, popular culture offers up no easy choice between vengeance and justice.

Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds laid out a revenge fantasy of Hollywood proportions. Steven Spielberg’s Munich asked uncomfortable questions about where justice stops and vengeance begins. 

It is not only on television and movie screens that our motivations and those of our heroes are questioned. In real life, the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are accused daily of ignoring justice and perpetrating injustice. 

There are even some who claim that Israel, and by extension the IDF, is motivated by a revenge fantasy (Haim Baram, New Statesman, January 2009). Terrorist attacks—such as the killing of five members of the Schijveschuurder family in the Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem in August 2001, or the shooting of the pregnant Tali Hatuel and her four daughters in May 2004—may cause some to feel anger, even rage. Nevertheless, Israeli soldiers operate under the code of tohar haneshek, or purity of arms, which states, “The soldier shall make use of his weaponry and power only for the fulfillment of the mission and solely to the extent required.”

The Torah teaches “tzedek, tzedek tirdof”—“Justice, righteousness thou shalt pursue.” Even though one may feel like lashing out, we are commanded to perform the difficult task of chasing down justice and righteousness, while leaving vengeance to God. At the end of Kick-Ass, it becomes clear that Hit Girl and Kick-Ass need each other to eliminate the evil criminal mastermind plaguing the city. They work together. Each finds a way to redeem himself or herself, overcome ridiculous odds, and finally put the past to rest. Justice and revenge coexist, albeit uncomfortably. Justice can sometimes be as grim as vengeance. In the long run, though, it is far more effective.

Arieh S. Rosenblum is the COO of a Toronto-based outreach and education organization. He speaks frequently through the Hasbara Fellowships and ICC speakers bureau on contemporary issues including Israel, Zionism, anti-Semitism, and culture.