The General was presented as a normal view of what people see as an antagonist, especially in a 90's movie. He gave a "I'm better than you" vibe, treating people as if lowly subjects that should obey or get demoted. There was no changing him, no bringing him back. The protagonist has pride himself, but in a way that makes you feel that he is fighting for you. In the end, truth comes out and the town is saved because good triumphs over evil.
In most movies, as in real life, the image of good and evil is usually portrayed in more or less black and white. Evil is clearly evil, good is clearly good. Normally it is not that simple. Think of the term "evil person", who do you think of? I usually think of Hitler. I mean, what can be worse than a man who slaughtered millions and millions of people. Not just people of the Jewish faith, but even more Russians or anyone deemed "undesirable". He must be evil!
I imagine him waking up everyday thinking "I can't stand the good guys, evil needs to win!" But I am sure he didn't. He was fighting for his country, for the fate of humanity by removing the people that were not letting society evolve the way it should, the strong surviving over the weak. He saw Aryans as the hero that will save humanity. He actually thought he was fighting for good! And the country followed him. This is an extreme example, but sometimes even even we can can be mistake evil for good. But good and evil is not always black and white.
Similarly, how we view politics follows the same guidelines. The Democrats are evil, they want to take your rights and allow the government to control the people rather than the people control the government. The Republicans are evil! They want to take away your rights and not allow us set up a society to take care of all people equally! In the fight we demonize each other into making sure that society sees how evil they are, and how good we are.
Scripture sees good and evil a different way. From the beginning God was good, creating a garden filled with perfection where we can be with God. Then we fought to be like God, wanting to determine good and evil ourselves. We failed, and are still failing. Our hearts are now darkened with sin and idolatry, doing what is good in our eyes. So who is evil, Republican or Democrats? Both, and all! We can only see evil by knowing what good really is, and how evil we really are.
The Last Supper is a good example of how we are supposed to view evil in ourselves (Matt 26:24–25, Mark 14:18–21, Luke 22:21–23 and John 13:21–30). When they finished breaking the bread and drinking the cup, Jesus told his disciples that one of them would betray them. When they heard this, what was their response? Was it, "Oh yeah. It has to be Judas! Come on, can't you see how evil he is!"? No, they started to ask Jesus if it was them.
They trusted so little of their own goodness that they would question whether or not they would stay loyal to the Savior of the world, the King of Kings. Jesus, could that be me? This doubt included all disciples that followed Jesus, even the one that said "Where else would we go? You have the words of life!" (John 6:60-71). In reality, they all betrayed Jesus in the end (Matt 26:31).
As a follower of Christ we should all stand ready. The power of sin (and the flesh) is strong. Believers in Christ should not overlook our own weakness, but confess it. When we are weak, He is strong (2 Cor 12:9-10). We spread glory to idols and self, covering our own weaknesses. We do this by redefining what good is, and evil is. So whether you are for the government providing for the people, or the people for the government, all is distorted by sin.
It is through the blood of Jesus that He can restore us to Him once again. He can create a new heart in us that will allow us to love God, and others, how we should. This happens through the conviction of His Spirit. This can only be restored by repenting, by seeing our weakness and sin for what it is and throwing it (ourselves) at the foot of the Cross.
But we still have our fleshly desire that believes that we are good enough, that other's sin is much worse than our own, that the enemy is outside ourselves. The true enemy is the our flesh and the devil. We must spend more time digging for planks than looking for splinters (Matt 7:3-5). If we don't, the devil will win over our heart by telling us that the enemy is elsewhere. This is a sign of a true believer (1 John 1:8).
This is a struggle that I have, the sin of pride. It is so much easier seeing other people's sins than your own, that those verses were for someone else. I like to store them up like a treasure because the more evil I can show in the other person, the less evil I am. Right? Sure wish that that was true but it seems like the truth is more the opposite. The more sin that I see in others, the more sin that I have within myself. That is humbling, but that is not the final state.
Christ can not only reveal the sin in our heart, but restore it. Where Christ is, there is newness, grace, forgiveness, love, truth, and so much more. I know I need this, and I know that He is faithful to provide that for all who are willing to repent to His reign. Then after this transformation we can approach sin with the heart of Christ, giving glory back to Him by responding like Him. Through restoration.
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