If You Ask Me

When I first saw this challenge posted, I knew I wanted to participate, but it took several days to decide on a topic. Ultimately, movies were the only logical choice, because they are such a large part of my life. Movies produce laughter and tears, fear and courage, lust and disgust, etc. Likewise, films may intentionally or unintentionally evoke memories and the strong emotions associated with those memories.

This type of reaction is what I wish to discuss today, and the culprit is Kevin Smith's Red State.

First, I went into this movie cold. I'd heard a little bit about it when Smith auctioned the distribution rights to himself at Sundance, but I really didn't know anythng about the plot.

Second, since it was included in the Horror/Thriller section at Netflix, and it is Kevin Smith, I was expecting a lot of gore and a few laughs.

Man, was I wrong.

In Red State, Smith tackles Fred Phelps and the Westboro band of inbreds, the ATF disaster at Waco, and the conservative party's interpretation of religion. He does it extremely well, I just didn't expect it to be so goddamned scary!

There was quite a bit of gore and unsettling, oppressive violence. However, to me, the most frightening scene in the movie was:

The Sermon

YouTube has disabled embedding, so I can only supply a link.

Those nine minutes hurtled me back to my youth, attending an Assembly of God/Pentecostal church, and perfectly illustrates how one person can use a little nugget of scripture to manipulate people into believing anything, and use God to justify hate.

Kevin Smith is an excellent film maker, and his topics are 100% guaranteed not to be boring. Michael Parks is one of the most underrated actors of all time, and I think he should be in every movie made from now on.

Regardless of your political/religious views, this movie will make you take a long look at society and yourself. I highly recommend it.