Loving Salvation: Creasy and Pita
The most obvious and relevant salvation relationship in this film is between Creasy and Pita. Creasy, who is disillusioned with humanity and has given up on life is saved by the sweetness and love of little Pita. She shows him how to love again and becomes like his daughter. In turn, Pita, who is almost completely ignored by her busy parents, finds in Creasy a father figure that is stable and loving. He takes time to help her with her swim meet. At one point when Pita’s parents don’t show up for her match, she even calls Creasy her father for the day.
This savior position is taken up again by Creasy when he must literally save Pita from her kidnappers. Before he knows that she has not been killed, he decides to save her memory by seeking revenge against those who kidnapped her. After discovering that she is alive, he then literally saves her and returns her to her mother.
Throughout this ordeal, small round scars are continuously seen on the back of Creasy’s hand. At one point, the film shows his hand, scars and all, dripping with blood. This reinforces the idea of Creasy as savior, as this correlates to the stigmata of the Christ.
Warning Salvation: Pita's Mom
In a strange way, the kidnappers are responsible for the initial salvation of Lisa, Pita’s mother. At one point in the film after Pita’s kidnapping, her mother talks about how two weeks earlier she was worried about which nightclub to go to, and now her world has fallen apart. The loss of her daughter jerked her violently back to the reality of the real state of the relationship between them, filling her with regret. Creasy becomes her savior as well. He becomes the avenger, saving Pita’s memory, and when he saves Pita herself, he gives Lisa a second chance at being the mother that she should have been.
Violent Salvation: Pita's Dad
Creasy becomes savior again to Samuel, Pita’s father. Samuel’s whole situation is a result of the Biblical idea that the sins of the father are passed to the son (as seen in the book of Leviticus and throughout the Old Testament). Samuel’s father left him with a lot of debt, which resulted in Samuel scheming with his lawyer to have Pita kidnapped for money.
Fate also plays an important role in Samuel’s salvation. At the beginning of the film, Creasy tries to shoot himself. There is an indent in the bullet that shows the hammer of the gun fired, but it did not come out of the gun. It is this misfiring bullet that Creasy, Pita’s surrogate father, gives to Pita’s real father who betrayed her. This time, the bullet hits its mark. It is hard to ascertain whether or not Samuel receives actual salvation, but he is at least given divine justice and punishes himself for his misdeed.
He asks for forgiveness before this and is willing to kill himself for what he has done. This points to the fact that, like Creasy says in the film, “Forgiveness is between them and God. It's my job to arrange the meeting.”
Creasy as Angel of Death
This relates to Creasy’s other position in the film as Angel of Death. In the religions of Middle Eastern origin (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), the Angel of Death is a messenger of God sent to deliver God’s wrath upon the unfaithful. These angels are either Gabriel or Azreal, depending on the religious tradition. Like these angels, Creasy takes divine justice into his own hands, seeking vengeance against those who performed such atrocious crimes that he felt they no longer deserved to live. In some sects of Christianity, Gabriel is also known as the Angel of Vengeance, which also puts Creasy in this realm of representation.
Man on Fire is a film with an overarching theme of vigilante justice and divine intervention, with the true core of this movie being the redemptive power of love.
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