Red State (2011)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Red State
Original title Red State
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Kevin Smith
script Kevin Smith
production Jonathan Gordon
camera Dave Klein
cut Kevin Smith
occupation

Red State (also known as Red State - be afraid of God ) is an American Independent Action - Horror - Thriller from the year 2011 . Directed by Kevin Smith , who also wrote the script and was responsible for editing.

action

Driven to school by his mother, Travis notices while driving in the car that the siren of a fire station has been removed and members of the Five Points Trinity Church, an ecclesiastical sect, under the direction of their leader Pastor Abin Cooper, demonstratively during the funeral of a murdered homosexual Youngsters protest for his death. During the first lesson in school, Travis' teacher shares how the city is suffering from the anti-homosexual acts and beliefs of Cooper and his Five Points Church. A while later, Travis' boyfriend Jared reports that he received a group sex invitation from a woman he met on a sex site on the Internet. Together with Billy Ray, another friend, the three borrow Travis 'parents' car and drive to her at the agreed meeting point.

During the night's drive, they rammed into Sheriff Wynan's car, who is having a homosexual affair in his car. The three boys get out, but immediately race on when they register a man at the wheel. Sheriff Wynan returns to the police station, where he assigns Deputy Pete to search for the fugitive vehicle. In the meantime, the three boys reach the agreed place where Sara, the woman from the personal ad, is waiting for them in a trailer. Sara encourages the three to drink courage with beer. Travis, Jared and Billy Ray comply with their request, but fall stunned to the floor when they undress. Moving around in a covered cage, Jared regains consciousness and realizes after identifying Cooper that he is in the sanctuary of the Five Points Group. Cooper preaches a long, hateful sermon to his assembled clan. During the sermon, Cooper reveals a gay prisoner whom they lured through a chat room. Cooper's men tie him to a cross, wrap him completely in stretch film , execute him with a revolver and finally push him through a hatch into a small cavity in which Travis and Billy Ray are already tied to one another.

Cooper begins to hang Jared on the cross shortly afterwards, but is stopped when he sees Pete's arrival at the entrance to the church. To break free from their bonds, Travis and Billy Ray use a protruding bone from the corpse. The noises call on Caleb, who opens the trapdoor to the cavity at that very moment, sees Billy Ray flee and pursues him. Billy Ray is unable to free Travis from his chains and leaves him behind - defenseless at the mercy of his own fate. Caleb chases Billy Ray into a gun room, where the two end up shooting each other. At the same time, Pete, who spotted the suspicious vehicle in the mansion, is appeased by Cooper by making him believe that a family member had driven the car and that he would like to diplomatically resolve the inconvenience. During the conversation, Pete notices the shooting at the church and with his presence of mind calls Sheriff Wynan for reinforcement. However, the rushing Mordechai shoots Pete during the radio call. Cooper then radio contacted the perplexed Wynan himself - and blackmailed him by threatening him, if he should make the incident public, that he would send his wife explicit photos of his homosexual affairs that the church had made of him . Desperate, Wynan calls Joseph Keenan, an ATF special agent . Keenan and his people immediately headed to church.

While the family is in mourning for Caleb, Travis was able to free himself from his bonds and fake his own death next to Billy Ray's body. Travis armed himself and dared to escape from the property, being pursued by the believers. Although he makes it to the entrance of the property, but where he is shot by Wynan, who mistakenly thought he was a member of the sect. While the special unit positions itself in front of the property, Keenan tries to mediate between the parties. A few minutes pass without any reaction from the family. Shortly afterwards, Cooper shoots Special Agent Brooks in the head, starting a wild shooting. In the midst of the hail of bullets, Keenan receives a call from a senior ATF agent who orders him to carry out a violent raid on the sect's territory. After the end of the action, there should be no more witnesses who could report on this incident. Another tactical agent named Harry wrestles with this decision and argues with Keenan about the outcome of the battle. Keenan also have doubts. During the shooting, Cheyenne, the daughter of the cult leader Cooper, escapes from the church, but is stopped by an ATF rifleman who is ordered to shoot her. Cheyenne's mother, Sara, gets ahead of him and shoots him. Cheyenne returns to the house, where she unties Jared and begs him at gunpoint to help her protect the community children. Jared refuses due to the fact that the Church killed his two best friends. When Sara overhears their argument and attacks Jared, the situation escalates - while Cheyenne tries to arbitrate, she accidentally shoots her mother. Cheyenne sends the children to the attic while Jared changes his mind and helps Cheyenne hide the children. Cheyenne and Jared run out of the house where they are stopped by Keenan. They beg him to spare the children and are shot at the same time by the appearing tactical agent Harry, who is now following Keenan's orders. Keenan is visibly disturbed by Harry's action. At the same time, the battle is interrupted by the mysterious, loud trumpet noises. Inspired by the noises, the remaining members of the Cooper family lay down their arms and strut out of their hiding place cheering. Triumphantly, they proclaim the " Rapture, " while the mysterious noises continue to sound. Cooper and his entourage approach the astonished ATF team. Cooper sees in the sounds the kindling of God's wrath . He provokes Keenan and his team by asking them to shoot him and raises his arms powerfully right next to Keenan.

A few days later, during a briefing to high-ranking government officials, reports Keenan that he then Cooper a Sap granted and the rest of the community took into custody. Keenan also reports that the trumpet noises did not represent the rapture, but merely came from the neighbors of the Coopers, a group of marijuana growers. As a kind of prank, the youngsters bought an old fire brigade siren from the fire station free of charge and tied it to their iPod . Then they downloaded trumpet sounds on the Internet and mixed them together. They didn't hear about the shooting next door. Keenan was promoted despite disobeying the superior's orders. Surprised that he was not punished for his actions, his superiors explain to him that their initial decision to kill the members of the ward was personal anyway. In their opinion, the Five Pointers are terrorists, as nobody should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. The remaining members were thus denied the right to a fair trial in court, while they ultimately have to atone for their crimes for life. At the irony that Cooper, who is known for his negative attitude towards homosexuals, is now likely to be raped by other inmates, Keenan's superiors have to laugh.

In the final scene you see Cooper in his prison cell while he is singing to himself. After another inmate shouted “Shut up, old man!”, His voice fell silent.

Original ending

The director Smith said in an interview that in the original ending of the film the trumpets of the apocalypse continue to sound and Cooper's chest explodes first. The remaining supporters and all agents - with the exception of Keenan - suffer a similar fate. When the last FBI agent dies, you see a big angel in shining armor and the apocalypse begins around the surviving Keenan with the appearance of the four horsemen.

criticism

“A cinematic all-round blow by Kevin Smith, who denounces youthful misconduct, religious fundamentalism, but also the overreaction of government agencies. The result is a half-baked genre mix that cannot decide on any direction. "

- Lexicon of international film

“What does Smith want anyway? Does he have something important to tell us - maybe about sex, religion, politics? Yes, the director tells us something between wild firing, sermons and pointless jokes (which were probably meant to be funny). That’s definitely important somewhere. Only 'Red State' is not so important that it is absolutely necessary to get this message across. "

- filmfutter.com

background

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Red State. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Film review by Bastian Glodnick on filmfutter.com
  3. ↑ http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118040736
  4. ↑ http://sitgesfilmfestival.com/eng/noticies/?id=1003088
  5. ↑ http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/kevin-smiths-christian-fundamentalist-horror-movie-fuss/story?id=12745670