Normally, I’d be writing something Christmassy, but I think I’ll save that for next week. I wanted to write about this a few weeks ago, but wasn’t able to find the time. Why? Because that’s when I saw a movie called God Bless America.
Don’t let the title fool you; it’s supposed to be ironic. This 2011 indie film made a splash on the film festival scene. I vaguely remember hearing about it back then, but completely forgot about it until I visited a friend who was watching it on Netflix. I missed the first five minutes or so, but I was quickly able to surmise what was going on.
This movie, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, is a satire of American culture. It follows an angry man with an apparently terminal brain tumor and his psychotic teenage girl sidekick as they go on a cross-country killing spree eliminating people they find mean and/or despicable. It takes potshots at reality TV, the religious right, and conservatives. Yet for all its sound and fury, it says nothing. In fact, I found this to be the most pretentious and hypocritical movie I’ve ever seen.
It is less a story and more a rambling, angry diatribe where Goldthwait uses the “characters” as mouthpieces. He bombards us with constant monologues declaring that modern American pop culture is shallow, mean, and stupid. I’m inclined to agree on many points, but they don’t need to be pounded into my head every five minutes through profanity-strewn speeches. It’s the sort of thing people—myself included—complain about with Christian-made movies (i.e. constant preaching), but here it seems many viewers applaud it. I say it kills what little story the movie has and buries what good ideas it presents. Even then, the movie feels more like a wish fulfillment than a story. As the so-called “heroes” go on their killing spree—with little or no suspense, I might add—I got the impression this was Goldthwait living vicariously, that he actually wanted to murder reality TV personalities for the crime of being petty.
Therein lies the heart of my problem with the movie. It might be a satire (I use that term loosely because I rarely laughed), but the movie offers no solutions to the cultural problems other than violence and death. In other words, Goldthwait is advocating a Nazi-esque “final solution.” Those who are seen as purveyors of cultural downfall should be killed. Not only is this overblown and unjust, it begs the question, “Why do you think you know who deserves life or death?” I threw that question mostly at the movie’s characters, but it applies just as much to Goldthwait. What makes it worse is there are never any mention of killing truly evil people—serial killers, criminals, etc.—who, I’d argue, do real damage to society. Nope, instead the audience is forced to watch reality TV stars, religious zealots (who are obviously inspired by West Borough Baptist Church), and conservative TV talk show hosts be murdered for being “mean.” All while being preached at by the antiheroes. Heck, they even murder a group of teenagers for looking at their cell phones and talking in a movie threatre!
I might’ve been able to stomach this had the “heroes” realized later that they were becoming who they hated, or perhaps even worse. It would’ve introduced thought-provoking conflict and moral dilemmas. I expected them to commit suicide after realizing how far they’d fallen. Instead, they die in a police shootout while murdering the hosts of an American Idol-type show on live TV.
If the characters’ speeches are analyzed, it reveals many oversights and discrepancies. For someone who purported itself as smart, Goldthwait comes across as a pseudo-intellectual. The characters assume all Christians are mean because they won’t allow homosexuals to get married. Then Roxy sings (not literally, thankfully) the praises of Alice Cooper, saying he was doing things like writing songs about death and wearing dresses before everyone else. At least three times during this speech, I said to her, “And you’d kill him because he’s a Christian.” Frank lounges on a sofa and watches TV only to be bombarded with stupid commercials and shows, but it never occurs to him to shut the thing off and read a book. Each speech seems to indict just about every group one can think of as responsible for America’s downfall and worthy of death, which is bad enough, but then I realized they never attack politically liberal groups. Goldthwait might’ve been able to garner legitimacy if he was evenhanded.
In the end, this movie was an obnoxious diatribe that pointed out scores of problems but offered no hope or solutions. It’s pure nihilism. (I would say more if I could, but that would require I re-watch this dreck).
If you want to see a film that satirizes modern culture that isn’t hypocritical and is actually funny, watch Idiocracy. It won’t leave you feeling like a depressed snob.