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The first 30 minutes or so of Red State are terrific. The experience during the first act is similar to that of getting a spectator's seat in the gallows of hell. The portrayal of religious fanaticism during these initial scenes is so hard-hitting, and the scenes reek with delightful malevolence and intensity. If Kevin Smith's ONLY aim with this film had been to criticize Christian fundamentalists who take their faith to the unspeakably low lengths that the characters in Red State do, the events of that first half hour would've gotten expanded into a full-length motion picture, and I'd probably be telling you that this is one of the boldest, most savagely great pictures of the year. There's no doubt about Smith's mastery at criticizing extreme religious conservatism. Unfortunately, there's another target at which Smith chooses to aim his arrows here, and he fares considerably less well at it. The remaining hour of Red State consists of depressingly unenticing scenes that take aim at how poor a job the U.S. government and its uniformed forces have done at handling situations of terrorism. There's no doubt that it's an extremely relevant and interesting subject for purposes of criticism, but the caliber of Red State's commentary on that subject feels like straight out of the brain of a 13-year-old. Add to that an unnecessary amount of annoyingly staged shoot-out sequences and a TERRIBLE penultimate scene in which U.S. officials explain everything away in order to hit you over the head with the film's message as hard as possible, and you've got the very definition of a film that goes way downhill after having gotten off to an amazing start.
It's another day at school for Billy Ray (Nicholas Braun), Jarod (Kyle Gallner) and Travis (Michael Angarano). Sure, there's a thing on the news about "some gay guy" who was mysteriously beat to death, and there's a group of Christian fundamentalists who belong to the Five Points Trinity Church and are doing a lot of protesting and calling all the heathens out for their sins, and yada-yada-yada, but since they're teenage boys, they don't really care much about any of that - they're more interested in sex. In fact, they're using a Craigslist-type web site to see if they can find themselves a woman who's willing to let them all bang her, and what do you know, they find one who lives in their same county. There's some apprehension, but obviously, the desire to get laid trumps it, and they head over to the woman's house. Turns out it's Sara (Melissa Leo), who's definitely older than they thought, but they tell each other that she's still "better looking than they expected," so they'll settle for it. Sure enough, though, it's all a trap - and soon, the three guys are taken into a place of horror in which they're to be judged for "the sin" that they'd been gearing up to commit. Gone is their earlier indifference towards those religious nutjobs whom they saw protesting earlier, as the three teens are now prisoners of the Five Points Trinity Church, which is led by Sara's father, Abin (Michael Parks), whose idea of how to punish the "sinners" he captures is as teeth-chattering and vile as it gets.
I can't say enough about the greatness of the sequence of scenes during which the boys are physically captured in the church while listening to Abin speak to his congregation. If there's one aspect of Red State that never, EVER ceases to be great, it's Michael Parks' amazing, bile-spewing performance. You see, his Abin may not believe in "peddling the soft faith" that other churches do, but as he says the horrific things that he says during his sermon, there's not a moment during which he fails to ooze the level of conviction that we're used to seeing from a real-life, enthusiastic church minister. Of course, Abin says things that, to any reasonable human being, are absolutely AWFUL, but what's amazing about Parks' performance is that he absolutely makes us believe that those sitting in his congregation fervently believe in him. Credit also has to go to all the actors sitting in the congregation (mostly playing members of Abin's family) whose reactions to Abin's words are perfectly executed. Any time that the three boys cry for help, Abin's followers react the way a farmer would react towards an animal's yelps of pain while it's being slaughtered. It's all executed very, very well. But while Parks' performance is astounding all the way to the end, I can't say the same for the rest of the film's aspects.
A filmmaker who decides to take aim at how American forces have dealt with religious fundamentalism and terrorism is definitely making a bold and respectable decision. But for me to commend the actual EXECUTION of it, it would need to be handled with a level of intelligence higher than that of a pot-smoking college kid. The over-extended and unnecessary shoot-out sequences are bad enough on their own, but when Red State finally poses the question of WHY the U.S. has decided to go about things the way it has, the line it uses to explain it is so incredibly simple-minded and juvenile: "What do you think this is? September 10, 2001?" I find it very difficult to believe that the person who wrote that line is the same person who wrote all the terrific vermin that Abin spoke during his sermon earlier in the film. The ultimate message that American response to terrorist threats has been that of simply doing what they deem fit (even if it's morally or legally wrong) is something that one can easily have gathered from watching the news during the last 10 years. Therefore, it's a message that lacks insight and only scratches the surface of something that's a lot more complex. Aside from the never failing greatness of Parks' performance, the only other good aspects to be pointed out about the film's last hour is that there are a few well-executed and well-shot chase sequences, and that there are times at which certain characters are killed when you don't expect them to, which gives the whole thing a flavor of unpredictability. Nevertheless, unpredictability doesn't really taste that good when you're still trying to get over the disappointment of the film's early greatness vanishing as soon as it shifts gears at the half-hour mark.
I'm a strong believer in the philosophy that, if people are going to present a critical assessment of a subject, they should definitely have something more than layman's knowledge of it. I get the feeling that you could have a terrific conversation with Kevin Smith about the evils of Christian extremism, but not so much about the evils of the Homeland Security Department. Since Smith doesn't have enough to say about the latter subject, he exposes us to painfully long scenes of gunfire that offer nothing in the way of interest or insight, and start leading to the downfall of Red State. If all you have to say is "Man, the government is corrupt," then as much as I may agree, it's not something that's really worth saying - people know it already, and it's also something that has already been said more effectively in plenty of other films. I'm as liberal as can be, and I agree completely with every message that is delivered in Red State, but unlike other people, I can't give credit to something ONLY because I agree with it. It's very shallow to do that. The more important consideration, especially when it comes to cinema, is not WHAT is said, but HOW it is said. In the case of Red State, there's a magnificently impetuous ardor to the way in which Smith communicates his first-act musings on the hellish depths that can be reached by God-fearing lunatics. It's too bad I can't say the same for what comes after that. If the people behind Red State had all realized how great the material of the first act was and had simply continued on with it, the film would be an absolute winner and the great Michael Parks would be in line for an Oscar nomination. I won't forget his performance come the end of the year, but unfortunately, I also won't forget the fact that his brilliant rendition of God's wrath deserved a much better film.
5/10
