Red State
I am not a big fan of Kevin Smith. I have only really liked 'Dogma', though I was quite taken with 'Jersery Girl'. One of the reasons I am not all that much of a fan is he is another of those director/writer/actors who believes the hype and this comes through in his films.
(I won't speak of his comic work as who really cares - he is one of those writers who swans into comics when he hasn't got a movie planned and then takes forever to get his work done).
Anyway back to 'Red State'. Aside from the end which seems to just be tacked on because there was no other way to finish the story, I enjoyed the movie. Although it is supposed to be an action movie, most of it is taken up with talk. Not a problem as the talking allows you to get a sense of the characters and gives some air to some of the complex issues on display.
Basically a small fundamentalist christian church in middle America has been busy trying to spread its message by protesting funerals, while also kidnapping and killing undesirables.
The church lures three unsuspecting teenage boys with promise of sex, drugs them and are about to kill them when the police arrive and from there it all goes to hell.
One of the teens escapes, fires off a gun, alerts the copper, the copper gets killed just after he has sent a message to base. The sherrif is still trying to talk to the copper when Abin Cooper (the brimstone preacher - a bravura performance by Michael Parks, who seems to have done a lot but is probably always in the backgroud) lets the sherrif know that he knows that the sherrif enjoys the occasional midnight gay liason and will spill the beans if the sherffif tries to do anything. Sherffif is about to commit suicide (because that can be the only answer) when he notices a circular from one of the law enforcement agencies. He calls them in. They are there within a few hours led by Joseph Keenan, played by John Goodman - who looks as if he has trouble walking but still has a great actors face and voice. Keenan wants to get control of the situation, but that is denied him by one of the hostages (remember them) running out from the church with a gun. The sherrif kills him (well once you have contemplated suicide you may as well just shoot anyone). The the shooting really starts, at which point Keenan is given an order to make sure none of them survive. A few cold blooded kills later and the sound of a roaring trumpet the fundamentalists leave the compound and come out to surrender. Keenan doesn't kill them. Cooper says they have come out because of the trumpet sound means the revelation is here.
Then the end which is Keenan in front of a disciplinary board that basically promotes him while telling him that the surviving members of the church will be imprisoned indefinitely as terrorists with no trial or media coverage. Keenan wonders why the kills order? The answer seems to be 'fuck people like that.' Keenan gets to tell a story about two dogs he used to know who seemingly turned on each other when a chicken leg was thrown to them and that lead to him saying that people do the strangest things when they believe they are entitled but they do even stranger things when they just plain believe. It is one of those 'tales' so beloved of writers like Smith (Tarantino being another) that sounds profound but isn't.
The trumpet sounds? While in the movie the sounds are supposed to be so loud and powerful that they fell a number of the police - it is revealed that they were from an old siren that was being used by some eco-kids (to quote the film) in order to get back at Cooper and his church.
The best line in the movie is delivered by Goodman just when the raid goes south 'Simple has just shit itself'.
The action is done well - much better than Guy Ritchie managed in 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'.
Most of the time the dialogue is believable.
While you are not supposed to root for Cooper and his church - it is also hard for you to like anyone else in the film - this is deliberate and allows for a much more realistic film. Even Keenan does what he is told even if it means the death/ murdering of innocents.
On IMDB the film rated a 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 57% from critics and 58% from viewers
(I won't speak of his comic work as who really cares - he is one of those writers who swans into comics when he hasn't got a movie planned and then takes forever to get his work done).
Anyway back to 'Red State'. Aside from the end which seems to just be tacked on because there was no other way to finish the story, I enjoyed the movie. Although it is supposed to be an action movie, most of it is taken up with talk. Not a problem as the talking allows you to get a sense of the characters and gives some air to some of the complex issues on display.
Basically a small fundamentalist christian church in middle America has been busy trying to spread its message by protesting funerals, while also kidnapping and killing undesirables.
The church lures three unsuspecting teenage boys with promise of sex, drugs them and are about to kill them when the police arrive and from there it all goes to hell.
One of the teens escapes, fires off a gun, alerts the copper, the copper gets killed just after he has sent a message to base. The sherrif is still trying to talk to the copper when Abin Cooper (the brimstone preacher - a bravura performance by Michael Parks, who seems to have done a lot but is probably always in the backgroud) lets the sherrif know that he knows that the sherrif enjoys the occasional midnight gay liason and will spill the beans if the sherffif tries to do anything. Sherffif is about to commit suicide (because that can be the only answer) when he notices a circular from one of the law enforcement agencies. He calls them in. They are there within a few hours led by Joseph Keenan, played by John Goodman - who looks as if he has trouble walking but still has a great actors face and voice. Keenan wants to get control of the situation, but that is denied him by one of the hostages (remember them) running out from the church with a gun. The sherrif kills him (well once you have contemplated suicide you may as well just shoot anyone). The the shooting really starts, at which point Keenan is given an order to make sure none of them survive. A few cold blooded kills later and the sound of a roaring trumpet the fundamentalists leave the compound and come out to surrender. Keenan doesn't kill them. Cooper says they have come out because of the trumpet sound means the revelation is here.
Then the end which is Keenan in front of a disciplinary board that basically promotes him while telling him that the surviving members of the church will be imprisoned indefinitely as terrorists with no trial or media coverage. Keenan wonders why the kills order? The answer seems to be 'fuck people like that.' Keenan gets to tell a story about two dogs he used to know who seemingly turned on each other when a chicken leg was thrown to them and that lead to him saying that people do the strangest things when they believe they are entitled but they do even stranger things when they just plain believe. It is one of those 'tales' so beloved of writers like Smith (Tarantino being another) that sounds profound but isn't.
The trumpet sounds? While in the movie the sounds are supposed to be so loud and powerful that they fell a number of the police - it is revealed that they were from an old siren that was being used by some eco-kids (to quote the film) in order to get back at Cooper and his church.
The best line in the movie is delivered by Goodman just when the raid goes south 'Simple has just shit itself'.
The action is done well - much better than Guy Ritchie managed in 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'.
Most of the time the dialogue is believable.
While you are not supposed to root for Cooper and his church - it is also hard for you to like anyone else in the film - this is deliberate and allows for a much more realistic film. Even Keenan does what he is told even if it means the death/ murdering of innocents.
On IMDB the film rated a 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes gives it 57% from critics and 58% from viewers
Length 98 minutes
Sep 30, 2011
SModcast Pictures
posted by pat at 6:41 PM
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