SXSW10-Red, White And Blue (2010)

Directed by: Simon Rumley
Written by: Simon Rumley

I missed this one at the actual festival, but Tim League was kind enough to show it again after the festival for those of us who wanted to see something else in the same time slot. Of course, he had ulterior motives as it’s the first (I think) film that he produced.

And, true to form, it wins my vote as “Mist Disturbing Film That I Saw At SXSW.” Then again, I didn’t see Serbian Film, which apparently included baby rape…on screen.

Anyway, Erica (Amanda Fuller from Americanese and a couple of episodes of Buffy) is a bitch. Not only is she a bitch, but she’s a promiscuous bitch. Her first line of the film is, “Look, I don’t stay the night, I don’t fall in love and I don’t fuck the same guy twice.” O….k…. Fuck you, too.

She spreads her legs around Austin, but finally meets her match in Nate (Noah Taylor from Almost Famous). His reason for being nice to her involves pulling the wings off of flies and torturing birds just to see what happens. So…again…why is he being nice to her?

Meanwhile, one of Erica’s conquests, Franki (Marc Senter from Wicked Lake and The Lost), is practicing with his band and taking care of his cancer-riddled mom. His girlfriend, Sarah (Lauren Schneider), just told him that she cheated on him once. He, however, doesn’t tell her that he cheated on her, in a foursome with his band, no less. But he stays with her.

Here’s where the spoilers start, so you may want to skip the next few paragraphs if you ever plan on seeing this movie. I have a feeling, though, that you may never get a chance unless you live in Austin and go to the Drafthouse while Tim is trying to make his money back. I’ll let you know when the spoilers are over.

<———SPOILERS!!!!———–>

Franki has been giving his mom blood for the last six months. When they check his blood the last time, they find out that he has HIV…from the one time that he had sex with Erica. This, of course, means that his mom has it, too. He and his buddies run around town trying to find her. When they finally do, they kidnap her, unfortunately leaving a credit card behind. She ends up telling them that, yes, she knew that she was spreading HIV and she doesn’t care. She was raped the day after her fourth birthday by her mom’s boyfriend, so she’s taking it out on the whole male population.

Eventually, Nate finds out where one of the guys lives and absolutely disturbing, bloody havoc ensues, complete with lots and lots of torture.

<———SPOILERS END!!!!———–>

Ok, it’s safe…for the most part.

From the above spoiler, you would almost think that this was an action film. Some kind of Harry Brown-esque vigilante film. But it’s not that cut and dry. There’s no action in it, but it does get very gory, more in suggestion than what it actually shows. (There are some quick cuts of some pretty awful stuff, but it’s so close-up that it would be hard to tell what was going on if that was all you saw. But you know. Oh, you know.)

This is one of those movies that you just can’t unsee. It’s also one that is incredibly hard to review because you know that it means something…you just can’t really be sure what. One of my friends took it to be a “look what can happen right next door” kind of thing. That could be because it takes place in places that we know: The Broken Spoke, Toy Joy, Spider House…all Austin hang-outs. These people could be the people sitting next to you, drinking a cup of coffee.

There’s certainly some of that. Erica’s past and what she does is certainly a cautionary tale. “Be careful who you fuck around with,” literally and figuratively. But there’s something else at work here. The title is Red, White And Blue. Nate, throughout the end of the film, is wearing an American flag on his back.

Yes, this is a political film. What does America do to its enemies? Even the ones that aren’t as evil as they seem? Franki was the protagonist here. He does an terrible thing at the end, but can you blame him? Erica basically killed him. But Nate swoops in and…well…there you go. Nate (America) ends up being the baddest bad guy around.

Funny that it takes a Brit to make this movie and an Australian to play the role. Simon Rumley’s last film was pretty damn good. (It also looked like it had a MUCH higher budget than this film.) The Living And The Dead played Fantastic Fest a few years back and I thought it that it was great. Much like this film, though, it had an ending that could use a little explanation. I would have loved to have been at a screening during the festival to hear what he had to say about it.

Speaking of Q&As, this film had an interesting one, so I heard. A lady accused Simon and Tim of making a film that exploited molestation and rape and kind of made fun of it. I’m not sure what film she saw, but the one I saw made those things out to be the horrible acts that they are. Acts that changed a woman’s life and the lives of everyone that she encountered, and not for the better.

It’s a film that has to be seen to be believed, but it is NOT for everyone. There were some people at my screening who happened to be in the film because they were at The Broken Spoke the night it was being filmed. I don’t think that they quite knew what they were getting into. It was a pretty devisive film at the festival, too. It was either one of the best or the absolute worst film of the festival.

I would absolutely be interested in hearing other peoples’ thoughts on the film. Leave a comment if you saw it.