Who else saw themes of religion and morality in this film? (spoilers)

I can't recall the exact words of the conversation with Rocky and Alex, but I remember she said something about how a lady bug gave her hope during her detainment being trapped in the car by her mother as a child. She tells Alex she would have her tatoo colored once she makes it to Cali with her kiddo.

Then there was that conversation with Slang (Stephen Lang) about how when a man accepts there is no God then there is nothing he can't do- perhaps representing how he had come to embrace his own version of justice. Everything he did had a justifiable and even moral reason in his perspective: beating the *beep* out of the thieves because they robbed his house (reasonable to many people), detaining the woman who ran over his daughter so she could breed the daughter he lost (getting more *beep* up), and attempting to detain Rocky so she could be held accountable for her sins by raping her for who knows how long (super *beep* up).

It was almost as if any form of higher morality (conventional laws or some kind of religious moral code many claim to have) had left the Blind Man. You could almost suggest that he symbolizes what man devolves into without any kind of moral code to bound his behavior.

Of course it was easy for Rocky to become religious when she was on the verge of being raped for eternity in Slang's basement, but 'there is never an atheist in the fox hole,' as they say.

Then there was Alex. To me he represented the love that Rocky never had, that her mother nor father nor white trash boyfriend Money could or would give her. I've always heard and seen that unfortunately children from abusive households often have the sad fate of gravitating toward partners with the same flaws because that is the love they have come to known.

You could even see Rocky having some of those negative characteristics as her degrading influences (thinking she deserves the money more than the blind man because of her own plight and using her sex charm to reel Alex into the heist)

So later in the film, after Alex cheats death by hedgers (which indeed like many posters have been saying received a cheering clap from the audience) it almost felt like divine intervention. If he was to be kept alive just long enough to prove his love to Rocky before he met his inescapable fate in that forsaken house he was damn well going to do so, and he did, giving his resurrection a purpose.

When Rocky's attempt to escape during the dog chase scene gets foiled by her greed to keep the money and she's dragged back in, perhaps this is when she truly realizes she has kind of been a bitch and apologizes to Alex's lifeless corpse for luring him into this mess that would ultimately result in his death.

This is also perhaps when she realized Alex was the only one who truly loved her.

Next she sees the lady bug, directing her eyes to the security remote Alex put in place and informed her of, and she's given the same hope that she once had when she was imprisoned by her own mother as a child, a hope there is something better on the other side, a hope to cling onto. Taking advantage of this providence, she escapes.

In conclusion, I see this movie to have a fusion of several themes that at times seem semi religious: eye for eye justice, sacrifice, resurrection, forgiveness, and providence. It seemed that though Rocky had been immoral by a many standards, the Blind Man's retribution was on a scale that was beyond her pay grade.

I'm "not preaching the gospel" by any means, but I wanted to bring up an aspect to this movie I hadn't seen discussed yet. Being somewhere between a agnostic and a theist who has a strand of Christianity in there somewhere, I always appreciate subtle themes of religion in a film that offer hope and not push indoctrination.

Did anyone else pick up on these kinds of themes.


I could beat Paul Anderson any day!