God Bless America Reviews

Despite a fairly small viewership, Bobcat Godtwait's pitch-black comedy "God Bless America" has proved to be somewhat controversial since it's release, which was no doubt what Goldtwait intended. Rumors abound about it's 'glorification of violence,' 'tasteless content,' and so-called 'Liberal agenda.' So here I am to weigh in my two cents.

First of all, the allegation that the film is political propaganda is pure bollocks. Despite the mockery of extreme right-wingers and 'Obama-as-Hitler' ridiculousness, "God Bless America" proves to be, like it's protagonist Frank, largely politically neutral.

By the beginning of the film, Frank (Joel Murray) is enraged and psychotically angry. Drinking and fantasizing about killing the inconsiderately loud next-door couple and their baby does little to quench his increasing blood lust.

To most people, Frank seems like a quiet, mild-mannered middle-aged man. But in his head Frank lives a much more violently intriguing life, as most of us do. Divorced, father to a bratty little child who cannot be bothered to spend time with him, Frank is fed up with what he perceived as the downfall of American society.

But it is not until he is diagnosed a inoperable brain tumor and loses his job that he finally snaps, cashing in his military service and targeting the b**chy star of a reality TV show, Chloe (Maddie Hasson) of "Chloe's Sweet Sixteen."

Joel Murray is outstanding as Frank, but Tara Lynn Barr is less impressive as Roxy, the sixteen-year-old girl who accompanies Frank on his killing spree. Roxy has feelings for Frank that are not reciprocated, and the platonic relationship between the two is one of the main points of the film. That and a whole lot of anger.

"God Bless America" has lots of satisfyingly bloodthirsty violence, a great soundtrack, and equally bloodthirsty satire as Frank and Roxy dissect modern American society. The fact that we sympathize and are to some extent compliant in the killings does not keep me from loving this movie, and is instead and interesting manipulation of audience loyalties.

Joel Murray proves he is every bit as good if not better than his brother Bill, and his rage and disgust is palpable. Roxy is a slightly annoying and overly sadistic sidekick, but some of her lines are funny and her presence is crucial to the plot.

So is Frank right? Have we become an ugly and cruel society? I would argue that the ugliness is intrinsic to human nature period, American or not. I think other countries have slightly higher standards when it comes to film and television programming, but I also think that the need to shock and degrade is in our genetic material, whether we live in the US or France or Timbuktu.

Nevertheless, I recommend this movie to people who enjoy the darker side of humanity presented in film. My dad argues that to like a movie like this, you must HAVE a dark side, which doesn't say much to the fans of this movie. But one could also argue that some extent, your reaction to this kind of comedy shows what kind of person you are. For better for worse, I am a fan. That is all.

I liked the structure of this movie and even a lot of what it had to say as social commentary. However, the blase-blase attitude the film had about killing should have been one of the things Frank had a problem with...movies and entertainment that have devalued life to the point where so many of these Jersey Shore watching types might have no compunction about picking up a gun and 2nd Amendment-ing people without so much as shedding a tear. After that unbelievably long sentence, let me just say that God Bless America was a fairly interesting film and I encourage people to acquire their own take on the points being made.

I wonder why it had so limited theatrical release. It is fun to watch, it has guns, a lot of shooting, a lot of good jokes, etc. It has all ingredients of a blockbuster except of zillions of computer generated images. But more or less nobody had a chance to see it in a theater.

There are not only guns, but also knives and killings and a lot of blood. All this is to be taken at the same time lightly and seriously. The main characters, Frank and Roxy, kill only bad guys, but for them the bad guys are not the usual blockbuster villains, but fairly common people. If you cannot stand a lot of blood, stay away from this movie.

Tara Lynn Barr plays Roxy with charming spontaneity and joy. Joel Murray plays Frank a little bit heavy, but probably, the script is at fault, not he.

The movie is definitely not about a killing spree of a middle-aged man and a teenager, although it is fun enough as just such movie. On the first sight it is a modern remake of “Falling down”. But “Falling down” is about an insecure, threatened man; Frank is neither, and this is what makes the movie funny.

For me, the movie is about a person who lived long enough to be fed up with the society, and cannot take it anymore. It looks like a lot of people are fed up. The only unrealistic assumption of the movie is that they act out their discontent in a very bizarre way, but the movie is not realistic in the first place. There is an old French movie about the same kind of person in a similar position, “Demons of the South” (1979). The storyline is quite similar. It is hardly accessible now. I wonder if the writer-director is aware of this movie. Is “God bless America” simply a sort of remake of “Demons of the South”? Or two directors come to these troubling ideas independently?

There are flaws. All prolonged moralizing speeches by Frank, and all current at the time of filming politics should be cut out. Such things should be implied or just hinted at by a few words. The satirical version of the TV programming should be replaced by the real programming. Actually, all this still can be done, and some director's cut can be released. I am not giving it the 10 rating only because of these flaws.

Highly recommended, both as a pure entertainment and as an occasion to think if something is wrong about all of us (not just in America, “Demons of the South” is a witness).

That's right, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, yup, the crazy guy from the Police Academy movies.
If I had known that at the beginning of the movie I may not have watched it either (sorry Bobcat), I'm glad I didn't, because I watched it, loved it and was blown away when I found out who wrote/directed it. I greatly enjoyed this movie (probably not for everyone, dark humor for sure) and will be re-watching at some point soon.Thanks Bobcat and I'm sorry for my initial prejudice. Getting type cast is a B*$%&.