God Bless America
Throughout the entire movie, I kept wondering about who that main character guy was… Turns out he was that almost forgettable guy in Mad Men. My goodness, I am ashamed I didn’t realize that.
With that said, I was constantly reminded of “Mad Men”. Both are trying to make some political commentary while ultimately being mostly entertaining. There is some sort of depth to Mad Men, which says a lot of witty, funny things, but the general setting is rather superficial and limited. The exact same thing can be said about “God Bless America”. Especially at the beginning, Frank makes a few great statements about what he perceives as wrong with society, and comparing talk shows to the coliseum. (I really liked that one.) Roxy says a few things which might sound cliché but ultimately capture her teenage heart pretty well. (“My parents don’t even try to understand me!” Ahaha.) But overall, the whole film is criticizing only a single thing – the stupidity of media, which strongly make you wonder why in the world they just don’t turn off the TV. There is a lot more to be criticized than how shallow media influences people. Most importantly, the film indulges too deeply in what I call “white people problems”. For a film titled “God Bless America”, I find it shocking how it almost seems to pretend minorities barely exist, except for asian girls as sex objects and black people as providers of hip hop music.
However, I like the premise of the film. I like the idea of serial killers who don’t kill because their messed up psychology tells them to (think Dexter) but purely for some political agenda, yet without supporting or being part of some political organization. I was tempted to see the film ever since I saw a trailer coming out over a year ago, and I am glad I finally did.
Another aspect I liked about the film was how it portrayed the relationship between the main characters. Frank makes a pretty good point about how he has no intention of becoming a pedophile, and while he developed feelings for Roxy, he had the decency to only tell her in the moment they were going to die. This brings me to the dramaturgy of the film – it ended in the perfect scene. The whole film was a rollercaster of entertainment and not all that much more, and I am glad that the producers of the film mainly conceptualized the film as such. The story always managed to keep me interested, and strangely reminded me of “Pierrot le fou” where it’s also all about a couple stumbling through the world and running away from the police.
Lately, I have been immensely bored of people who just complain about things. The world might suck, but nobody enjoys listening to that because we all know it. Surprisingly enough, “God Bless America” is fun enough to keep itself interesting and amusing besides the constant nagging of its main characters. Having been able to achieve that feat, I’d say that the film is quite recommendable if you are looking for distraction on a bored evening.