American Gun | DVD Review

AMERICAN GUN ties five separate stories together to show the widespread effects of gun violence in an average American city. The majority of the plot lines, or at least the most significant ones, are introduced in the opening sequence. A high school principal (Forest Whitaker) disciplines a student about bringing a gun to school by forcing him to face the violence he’s encountered in his life. The mother (Marcia Gay Harden) of a student, who walked into that same school three years prior and shot and killed several students, gives her first television interview. Reappearing between these two characters’ plights is an older gun salesman (Donald Sutherland) polishing his wares. And when the sequence comes to a close, the distraught mother asks about when she can expect her check for the interview. As the film unfolds, more characters are revealed from the policeman who was on the scene for the high school shooting (Tony Goldwyn) to the killer’s younger brother (Chris Marquette) to gun shop owner’s granddaughter (Linda Cardellini) who would rather be anywhere but working in the stock room of her grandfather’s shop. The film shows promise and is particularly difficult to watch when imagery of frightened students scramble for their lives amidst panic and confusion. However, sloppy filmmaking quickly emerges and distracts the viewer, making the melodrama come across more as disproportionate than focused on any one target.

First time writer/director Aric Avelino constructs a story that strives to show the adverse effects of gun violence by not focusing too heavily on the guns themselves. Albeit a noble approach, he ends up having to fill his space with exaggerated sub plots that are thinly tied to the initial acts of violence. Consequently, his attempts at subtlety are shot down by over acting (Marcia Gay Harden, can you do nothing more than cry excessively on command?). Further ruining his effort are awkwardly executed jump cuts and poor composition, giving the film an unfortunate amateur feel.
A topic like gun violence does not need to be shoved down our throat; it is harrowing enough to be subtle. The DVD itself contains only one special feature in addition to language selection and subtitles. A “Making of” featurette attempts to give insight into the filmmaker’s motivations. Only the 8-minute feature, produced by IFC films, is more an infomercial than actual insight. Avelino and a few of his actors discuss the themes that drew them to project before clips from the film play out the thoughts they just shared. The clips don’t reveal anything about the filmmaking process; they only serve to create intrigue in the film. As functional as that is in between films on the IFC television channel, it’s pretty pointless in this context seeing as how you’ll have finished watching the film before getting to that.

Avelino closes the feature by saying how he feels it is AMERICAN GUN’s honesty and realism that makes it special. Sadly, and I say that because the topic is sad, relevant and ripe with potential, these attempts at honesty and realism are so obvious that everything feels staged.

Movie rating – 2

Disc Rating – 1.5