God Bless America (film)
God Bless America is a 2011 dark comedy film that combines elements of political satire with black humor. The film was written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, and stars Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr and Mackenzie Brooke Smith.
God Bless America had its world premiere on September 9, 2011, at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released On Demand on April 6, 2012 and in theaters on May 11, 2012.[1]
Contents
God Bless America
Promotional poster
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Produced by Jeff Culotta
Written by Bobcat Goldthwait
Starring Joel Murray
Tara Lynne Barr
Mackenzie Brooke Smith
Melinda Page Hamilton
Music by Matt Kollar
Cinematography Bradley Stonesifer
Editing by Jason Stewart
Studio Darko Entertainment
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures
Release date(s)
September 11, 2011 (Toronto)
April 6, 2012 (United States)
Country United States
Language English
Plot
Frank Murdoch (Joel Murray) is an insurance salesman living in Syracuse, New York, who is sick of how America has fallen to a state of idiocracy based on pop culture, talk radio, and internet influences. After a boring evening of watching television, including the reality show series, Tuff Gurlz, where a foul-mouthed woman (Guerrin Gardner) throws a used tampon at another for defecating in her food, and an episode of American Superstarz (a direct reference to American Idol) where a singer named Steven Clark (Aris Alvarado) is cruelly humiliated by the judges for his horrible singing voice, much like the case of William Hung, Frank contemplates killing his rude and inconsiderate neighbors, whose screaming baby mixed in with his own insomnia and chronic migraine headaches give him a lack of peace in his own home. His ex-wife, Alison (Melinda Page Hamilton) is a stupid, shallow woman who has custody of their daughter, Ava (Mackenzie Brooke Smith), who has become a hideous whiny spoiled brat. Making matters worse, he has just been fired from his job at an insurance company, simply because an innocent gesture of kindness towards a female co-worker was misinterpreted as sexual harassment, and he is informed by his doctor he has a terminal brain tumor that is nearly inoperable, but the doctor's seeming lack of concern only drives Frank further into depression.
Frank tries to commit suicide with a pistol he owns, but stops when he watches a reality show starring Chloe (Maddie Hasson), a spoiled teenager, who launches into a profanity-laced tirade when her parents mistakenly buy her a Lexus sedan instead of a Cadillac Escalade for her birthday, and has an epiphany. The next day he steals his neighbor's Camaro, drives to Chloe's school in Virginia and handcuffs her to her own steering wheel at gunpoint. After a failed attempt to ignite her gas tank, he kills her by shooting her at point blank range. One of Chloe's classmates, Roxanne "Roxy" Harmon (Tara Lynne Barr), witnesses this and comes to the same realization as Frank that people have become stupid and need to die. Roxy follows Frank back to his motel where he is once again preparing to commit suicide, however she prevents this by convincing Frank that the media would inevitably paint him as a homicidal stalker who only killed Chloe because of an unrequited sexual obsession. Frank explains to Roxy that he only wants bad people to die, people who have committed blatant acts of cruelty and stupidity against their fellow man. To alleviate Frank's thoughts of suicide, Roxy suggests they kill Chloe's parents and he agrees. Frank shoots Chloe's father (Larry Miller) and after a brief chase, Roxy stabs her mother (Dorie Barton) with a kitchen knife. Roxy convinces Frank to take her along to keep her away from her drug addict mother and abusive rapist step-father. They then decide to go on the lam to continue their killing spree. After buying new clothes at a thrift store, they visit a movie theater to watch a documentary about the 1968 My Lai Massacre. During the movie, several rude teenagers enter the mostly empty theater and begin talking loudly and using their cell phones. Frank and Roxy shoot and kill all but one of them, as well as another patron (Toby Huss) who refrains himself from picking up somebody with the reason that he's working and tries to film the shooting with his cellphone. Afterwards they kill several others, including a man who double-parks his car, zealous religious protestors who step on the rights of homosexuals and other religious and personal freedoms that America should stand for, and Michael Fuller (Regan Burns), a popular but abrasive neo-conservative political television commentator (an obvious parody of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly).
After hearing about Steven Clark's attempt to kill himself apparently due to his infamy on American Superstarz garnering him a huge cult following and reappearance on Superstarz (likely to debunk the bad press), Frank contemplates taking over the show. Frank then receives a call from his doctor telling him that there was an earlier mix-up with Frank's MRI results, and that his migraines are probably the result of simple stress and hypertension, rather than cancer. Elated that he's not dying, Frank decides to move to France with Roxy to avoid prosecution for the murders they've committed. While eating in a diner with Roxy, Frank is propositioned by a pervert who mistakes Roxy for an underage prostitute and Frank as her pimp. Frank tells the pervert he has the wrong idea and leaves the diner. Later, Frank discovers in a news report that Roxy's real family and life are far different than she described; when he sees a loving mother and father (Andrea Harper and David Mendenhall) in an upper middle-class neighborhood looking for her on television. Roxy confesses that she lied to Frank about her life back home. Her parents are really normal caring people, however their conservative views clash strongly with Roxy's liberal ideals. Angry that she lied to him, Frank parts ways with Roxy, giving her the Camaro he had stolen from his neighbor. Frank then strangles the pervert who had accosted him earlier in the diner, and takes his truck. Meanwhile, Roxy returns back home to her family.
Frank buys an AK-47 assault rifle from an illegal arms dealer (Mike Tristano), and makes his way to the American Superstarz studio, killing off several cast members and holding the judges and contestants hostage for humiliating Steven. But after making a brutally honest speech in front of the camera about the ridiculousness and selfishness that is promoted in today's American society and on TV, Steven reveals that the real reason he attempted suicide wasn't out of humiliation, but because he'd never be on TV again. When the S.W.A.T. team arrives, Roxy joins Frank on stage surprisingly from the audience, and they proceed to shoot Steven, all the judges, contestants and the audience before they are gunned down by the police, falling very much like their symbolic Bonnie and Clyde.
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