Some People Deserve To Die: God Bless America

When I was growing up one of my father’s favorite movies was Falling Down starring Michael Douglas. The story was about a man who was just so beaten down that he finally snapped and went on a rampage through Los Angeles. While I enjoyed it, it never hit me the same way it did for my dad. I have now found my version of Falling Down. Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America.

God Bless America starts very slow, but it is a good slow. For the first 15 minutes the main character Frank ( Joel Murray ) and the audience are bombarded with some of the worst our media has to offer, whether it be a Housewivesesque show, or a fear mongering political talking head, you will want nothing more than to yell at the screen. While this may sound horrible, you really begin to associate with Frank and his final moment of break down when he decides to say “Screw it all!”, you are right there with him.

The story of God Bless America is essentially a man cracks under the pressures of life and the modern version of “society” and decides to kill people who “aren’t nice”. This mainly includes people from reality shows who have the standard narcissistic attitudes that cause the train wrecks that get the ratings. The killings are less important than the journey throughout the movie. God Bless America must be taken as a whole. This is not a movie to jump in to half way through. The audience needs to take the full ride with Frank and empathize with him.

Bobcat Goldthwait has done an excellent job with the pacing of this film, while it did feel a bit slow compared to something like The Avengers, everything had a purpose and led to a payoff. For me, the most poignant part of the movie was as the final scene ends and the screen fades to black with the words “God Bless America”.

If you have the same hatred for the “famous for being famous” crowd that I do, I would suggest you see this movie. I give it 14 shotgun blasts out of 3 Nene Leakes.