American Gun

Most time we as movie goers like our movies to have specific endings. We need the closure from the characters and from the story in order to make the movie experience complete. Well, if that is the case, you may want to stay away from this little gem of a movie. American Gun is told through 4 stories- 2 stories in the forefront and 2 on the back burner, but what they have in common is they all revolve around guns. The two main stories run semi-similar with each other because follows a mother and son as they deal with the fact that the other boy in the family went on a columbine like shooting spree three years earlier and the other main story follows a high school principal as he tries to keep his mostly ghetto school away from that sort of violence. The two lesser stories follow a smart black teenager as he feels he needs a gun to survive and the final story concerns a college girl working in her grandfathers gun store and how she feels after nearly being assaulted by a frat guy.


For a movie about violence, there is very little violence involved in the actual movie, which only magnifies the intense drama involved. This movie is so intense, at time you feel like the movie is going to burst right through the screen and spill into your living room. Marcia Gay Harden stars as the mother trying to cope with a town thinking she is the reason her son went on the shooting spree and as she tries to keep her other son away from those kinds of things. She shines in the role. Her depression is never over the top and she always feels real. It makes one think about the parents of the columbine children. It makes you wonder what those families go through. Forrest Whittaker is the principal who has sacrificed his home life in an attempt to make a change for the better in a run down violence riddled school. As usual Whittaker adds a touch of subtle line readings in a part that could have easily been a scenery chewer.


If I had any complaints about the movie it would be that the two minor stories are almost not needed for the audience to feel the full impact of the message. However, unlike requiem of a dream, this movie isn't preachy and doesn't need to hit you over the head with its "guns are bad" message. The two key scenes both include Marcia Gay Harden. The knock down drag out argument she has with her remaining son will definitely have you on edge and the near climax of Harden taking on an entire block of parents who solely blame her for the massacre will almost leave you in tears. This movie is not for anyone who doesn't want to think at the movies or anyone who wants their movies tied up in a neat nice package, but if you want something different, go get this movie.