EBERT & ROEPER GIVE AMERICAN GUN TWO THUMBS UP!
RICHARD ROEPER:
Next we have another film. It’s “American Gun,” with standout performances from Forrest Whitaker, Marcia Gay Harden and Donald Sutherland. Now yes, with that title this movie is about senseless violence in this country, but it’s not a liberal lecture about the inherent evil of firearms. It’s too smart for that. It’s intense, is a sometimes shocking look at the gun culture and how it affects three communities. Unlike “Crash” and “Nine Lives,” the stories here never interconnect. We just jump back and forth between three settings, including a town in Oregon a few years after a Columbine-like massacre.
CLIP
RICHARD V/O:
That’s Marcia Gay Harden in a brilliant performance as the mother of one of the shooters. Meanwhile, in the Chicago segment, Forest Whitaker is a beleaguered principal at an inner-city school.
CLIP
RICHARD V/O:
Donald Sutherland plays the owner of a gun shop in Virginia. Linda Cardellini is his granddaughter Maryanne, who’s never quite comfortable in the shop.
CLIP
RICHARD:
Now that’s the one segment that kinda feels incomplete. After Maryanne’s friend is assaulted, it appears as if Maryanne is going to literally take matters into her own hands, but the story just quietly fades away. Not so with the stories in Chicago and Oregon. Whitaker has a drawer in his office just for the guns he confiscates every week. He tries to engage his students, but he hardly notices when his own young son discovers the body of a murdered prostitute. The Oregon segment, which could have been a full movie unto itself, is the most compelling and the one that will stay with you the longest. Thumbs up for the film as a whole.
ROGER EBERT:
Well thumbs up from me too. And you know, these stories do not have closure. They don’t have happy endings. Marcia Gay Harden is the mother of the kid who shot up the school. Now her younger son has to go to the same school.
RICHARD:
Yeah, yeah.
ROGER:
And she’s trying to deal with, how she can handle that in a reasonable way because, after all, like has to go on. At the same time a cop, who was there on the day of shooting, has a lot of problems. Forrest Whitaker is just so touching as this man who is under the burden of trying to run this high school, where this is nothing but one crisis after another.
RICHARD:
Right.
ROGER:
And the movie itself, just, it’s about the human nature of these lives, rather than some plot that’s gonna…
RICHARD:
…Yeah, we’re not following one gun, as it goes from one crime scene to the next. And you mention the cop Tony Goldwyn, who’s been in a lot of good movies, going back to “Ghost.” Is very good as that cop who is kind of again a pariah of the community now. Cause like, you know, there’s parents who are saying he could have done more. And really the dynamic between the mother and son, because yes she still has this other son, but they’re never gonna be able to escape this and they are trapped in the community. They don’t have the money to get out. It’s so well done.
ROGER:
One other thing. Donald Sutherland as the gun shop owner is not some right wing gun nut…
RICHARD:
…not at all…
ROGER:
…who’s selling. He’s a really nice, sweet, intelligent guy who doesn’t sell any guns to wrong people. Or do any bad things.
RICHARD:
He’s even trying to talk the one woman into a smaller gun that she’d be more comfortable with. And she’s like, “No, I want this one.” I mean, all those little touches.
ROGER:
But at the end, when the door closes, on the door, it says, “Used guns for sale.” Or, “We buy used guns.” And you think, you know, where have the guns been used?
RICHARD:
This is the way the world is right now.
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JOINT COMMENT FROM THE PROGRAM SUMMARY
ROGER EBERT:
Okay, recapping the movies on this week's show:
We split on "INSIDE MAN"
RICHARD ROEPER:
Well I liked it. And I don’t know why you didn’t recommend it. With all the things that are so terrific in that film. The performances, the directing, the writing. Other than that, yeah fine give it a thumbs down.
ROGER:
Thanks. We didn’t hear you say that before.
RICHARD:
Thank you very much. Just reminding the viewers of what they should see this weekend.
ROGER:
And two thumbs up for "AMERICAN GUN."
Two thumbs up for "LONESOME JIM." Those are two we think should see. We agree on that. And you are sensationally and spectacularly wrong about “L’Enfant.”
RICHARD:
Well I agree with sensational and spectacular part about me.
********************************************************************************************
RICHARD ROEPER:
Next we have another film. It’s “American Gun,” with standout performances from Forrest Whitaker, Marcia Gay Harden and Donald Sutherland. Now yes, with that title this movie is about senseless violence in this country, but it’s not a liberal lecture about the inherent evil of firearms. It’s too smart for that. It’s intense, is a sometimes shocking look at the gun culture and how it affects three communities. Unlike “Crash” and “Nine Lives,” the stories here never interconnect. We just jump back and forth between three settings, including a town in Oregon a few years after a Columbine-like massacre.
CLIP
RICHARD V/O:
That’s Marcia Gay Harden in a brilliant performance as the mother of one of the shooters. Meanwhile, in the Chicago segment, Forest Whitaker is a beleaguered principal at an inner-city school.
CLIP
RICHARD V/O:
Donald Sutherland plays the owner of a gun shop in Virginia. Linda Cardellini is his granddaughter Maryanne, who’s never quite comfortable in the shop.
CLIP
RICHARD:
Now that’s the one segment that kinda feels incomplete. After Maryanne’s friend is assaulted, it appears as if Maryanne is going to literally take matters into her own hands, but the story just quietly fades away. Not so with the stories in Chicago and Oregon. Whitaker has a drawer in his office just for the guns he confiscates every week. He tries to engage his students, but he hardly notices when his own young son discovers the body of a murdered prostitute. The Oregon segment, which could have been a full movie unto itself, is the most compelling and the one that will stay with you the longest. Thumbs up for the film as a whole.
ROGER EBERT:
Well thumbs up from me too. And you know, these stories do not have closure. They don’t have happy endings. Marcia Gay Harden is the mother of the kid who shot up the school. Now her younger son has to go to the same school.
RICHARD:
Yeah, yeah.
ROGER:
And she’s trying to deal with, how she can handle that in a reasonable way because, after all, like has to go on. At the same time a cop, who was there on the day of shooting, has a lot of problems. Forrest Whitaker is just so touching as this man who is under the burden of trying to run this high school, where this is nothing but one crisis after another.
RICHARD:
Right.
ROGER:
And the movie itself, just, it’s about the human nature of these lives, rather than some plot that’s gonna…
RICHARD:
…Yeah, we’re not following one gun, as it goes from one crime scene to the next. And you mention the cop Tony Goldwyn, who’s been in a lot of good movies, going back to “Ghost.” Is very good as that cop who is kind of again a pariah of the community now. Cause like, you know, there’s parents who are saying he could have done more. And really the dynamic between the mother and son, because yes she still has this other son, but they’re never gonna be able to escape this and they are trapped in the community. They don’t have the money to get out. It’s so well done.
ROGER:
One other thing. Donald Sutherland as the gun shop owner is not some right wing gun nut…
RICHARD:
…not at all…
ROGER:
…who’s selling. He’s a really nice, sweet, intelligent guy who doesn’t sell any guns to wrong people. Or do any bad things.
RICHARD:
He’s even trying to talk the one woman into a smaller gun that she’d be more comfortable with. And she’s like, “No, I want this one.” I mean, all those little touches.
ROGER:
But at the end, when the door closes, on the door, it says, “Used guns for sale.” Or, “We buy used guns.” And you think, you know, where have the guns been used?
RICHARD:
This is the way the world is right now.
********************************************************************************************
JOINT COMMENT FROM THE PROGRAM SUMMARY
ROGER EBERT:
Okay, recapping the movies on this week's show:
We split on "INSIDE MAN"
RICHARD ROEPER:
Well I liked it. And I don’t know why you didn’t recommend it. With all the things that are so terrific in that film. The performances, the directing, the writing. Other than that, yeah fine give it a thumbs down.
ROGER:
Thanks. We didn’t hear you say that before.
RICHARD:
Thank you very much. Just reminding the viewers of what they should see this weekend.
ROGER:
And two thumbs up for "AMERICAN GUN."
Two thumbs up for "LONESOME JIM." Those are two we think should see. We agree on that. And you are sensationally and spectacularly wrong about “L’Enfant.”
RICHARD:
Well I agree with sensational and spectacular part about me.
********************************************************************************************
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