"The Guardian" was a PSA to apartment and condo dwellers all across the country. This movie may have been set in New York, but they don't have a monopoly on crime. Nowadays we have Ring, Nest, Skybell, and others but those are just light deterrents. With porch piracy as the latest crime craze these devices serve as only a small deterrence for the determined thief. Maybe a missing package here and there isn't enough for us to be alarmed, but what about the more serious crimes? So, there are always extra precautions we can take, it's just a matter of if we're willing to take them or not.
After a couple of brutal attacks in a New York City apartment building the tenants decided to hire a security guard. This was no flashlight carrying rent-a-cop too old to even blow the whistle around his neck, this was John Mack (Lou Gossett, Jr.), gun toting, badass, ex-military security guard always on duty. Oh, he's excellent at his job... maybe a little too good. Well-to-do New Yorkers don't like being overly inconvenienced by pushy autocrats and their concerns about "security" and "safety." Couple pushiness with suspiciousness and at least one tenant, Charlie Hyatt (Martin Sheen) was mistrustful of John Mack.
The drama in "The Guardian" was the growing mistrust Charlie had towards Mack. There was always something a little fishy about him and his actions. It could be that we were seeing everything through Charlie's eyes because no other tenants felt the same way.
The undercurrent of it all was a liberal versus conservative stance on crime. Mack took a very conservative and punitive approach towards crime and criminals whereas Charlie was more liberal in that respect. The movie didn't seek to make one position more preponderant than the other. In fact, it ended on a very ambiguous note. What was the real truth behind Mack? Was he that good, or was there a little more to it? We never find out. We're left to draw our own conclusions of what good security is or isn't.
After a couple of brutal attacks in a New York City apartment building the tenants decided to hire a security guard. This was no flashlight carrying rent-a-cop too old to even blow the whistle around his neck, this was John Mack (Lou Gossett, Jr.), gun toting, badass, ex-military security guard always on duty. Oh, he's excellent at his job... maybe a little too good. Well-to-do New Yorkers don't like being overly inconvenienced by pushy autocrats and their concerns about "security" and "safety." Couple pushiness with suspiciousness and at least one tenant, Charlie Hyatt (Martin Sheen) was mistrustful of John Mack.
The drama in "The Guardian" was the growing mistrust Charlie had towards Mack. There was always something a little fishy about him and his actions. It could be that we were seeing everything through Charlie's eyes because no other tenants felt the same way.
The undercurrent of it all was a liberal versus conservative stance on crime. Mack took a very conservative and punitive approach towards crime and criminals whereas Charlie was more liberal in that respect. The movie didn't seek to make one position more preponderant than the other. In fact, it ended on a very ambiguous note. What was the real truth behind Mack? Was he that good, or was there a little more to it? We never find out. We're left to draw our own conclusions of what good security is or isn't.