“Red State” (2011) — Read Along
“Even the Nazis think this guy is nuckin’ futs!”
Breaking with tradition of my “Read Along” series of articles on favourite films of yesteryear I will be reproducing my entire spoiler free review of “Red State” rather than an excerpt as (a) I can (b) I’m allowed to and (c) this is my church. So please help yourself to the chocolate biscuits and dig deep when the collection plate passes your way. Every little helps.
Also breaking with tradition I’m going to lay out the premise of my “Read Along” concept first rather than last and so without further ado:
What follows shortly is the entire spoiler free review of “Red State” I originally penned and published over a decade ago and within a much larger opus blog article on every film within the career of American filmmaker Kevin Smith. Hopefully with an appetite duly whetted for more, you dear reader will then have a choice. You can either:
(a) Read my entire review of “Red State” via the first link below the reproduced review but this time with an altogether different opening and original pictures.
(b) Treat yourself to any and/or all of the first 12 films in the career of director Kevin Smith and my spoiler free love-in treatment of them all.
(c) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos as I read my own spoiler free review of the film (@TheBlackfordBookClub), hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (d) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (e) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix of doom.
Oh, and (f) There’s a link below to Volume 5 of my “Essential Film Reviews Collection” (where you’ll find “Red State” among many, many more) packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon.
All 7 volumes are FREE to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
My love-in appreciation of Kevin Smith’s masterpiece:
I watched this film on the opening day of cinema release such was my eagerness to see this as quickly as possible and in a self imposed double bill with “Drive” (another astonishing film starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan) but this film deserves love all of its own:
With no real opening credits we are immediately into the film, driving past a picket of a funeral by the Five Points Trinity Church, all carrying “God Hates Fags” and similar banners, reminiscent of the type carried and used by the the Westboro Baptist Church today in Kansas. As we drive by we get two fleeting glimpses of the Five Points Trinity Church Pastor, “Abin Cooper” (Michael Parks). Arriving at school, we meet three of the film’s main characters “Travis” (Michael Angarano), “Billy-Ray” (Nicholas Braun) and “Jared” (Kyle Gallner) and a full on classroom discussion of the Church is instigated, giving the audience a full back story. Both inside and outside of the classroom it’s immediately clear the three boys are close friends and via the internet they’ve managed to arrange a long held dream: sex! A woman in the nearby district of Coopersdell has advertised and invited the boys that evening. Drinking and driving en-route, they have a minor crash but are determined to make the meeting and enjoy the evening as planned.
But on arrival, everything is not quite as it seems.
There are many astonishing supporting and cameo performances in this criminally underrated 88 minute film of genius from Kevin Smith, with Melissa Leo as “Sara” the true stand out. Her joint scene with daughter “Cheyenne” (a brilliant Kerry Bishe) is equal parts stunning, frightening and scary as hell. Cheyenne’s role develops with the film, but Melissa Leo as devoted family Matriarch Sara is brilliant and fully deserved an Oscar nomination that sadly wasn’t forthcoming. “Sheriff Wynan” is brilliantly played by Stephen Root, “Abigail” (Betty Aberlin) a church member forever knitting and praying in the congregation is excellent but as are the many cameo roles within the church itself including “Caleb” (Ralph Garman), “Mordechai” (James Parks) and “Esther” (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith).
Away from the church is another brief cameo for a returning Kevin Pollak as “Brooks” and last but definitely not least is John Goodman as ATF Agent “Joseph Keenan”, who (as ever) excels, especially in his quieter, more measured moments. A picture of poise, deliberation and dedication, it’s a wonderfully understated performance. All of these superb performances pale in the shadow of Abin Cooper, and an astonishing performance from Michael Parks.
“Abin Cooper” (Michael Parks) The Pastor of the Five Points Trinity Church, and a performance from Michael Parks that was unbelievably overlooked for an Oscar nomination. Seemingly gentle and smiling, yet with a building and brooding menace as the minutes tick by, his southern USA accent a drawl and sometime unintelligible. Parks is just a brooding fire, building and building and it’s the performance highlight of a fantastic career. Parks clearly gave this everything, leaves nothing behind and it really shows. Everything is there, pacing, dancing, singing, admonishing, shouting, extolling, and his use of gestures and body language are sublime. His opening sermon, brilliantly written but expertly performed, is a joy. The sermon itself is shot from numerous angles and cut to give wide shots of the church and congregation, from above and below Parks, close up and extreme close up. An often used shot is from below, looking up at Parks with the Trinity Church cross directly above his head.
His opening sermon is dissected below:
Cooper’s sermon and Michael Parks’ performance opens with a slightly obscured overhead shot of the sparse congregation enjoying a joyous session of community singing and soon the camera swings gently onto Cooper’s smiling and happy face. This is reflected in his congregation all of whom are happy and joyous but more importantly in awe of their Pastor. The congregation is small but a tight knit band of multi generational families and numerous children all hanging on Pastor Cooper’s every word of scripture. His Sermon opens with a continuation of his smiling and content appreciation of their singing, their togetherness as a Church and their recent picket of a funeral that gained national coverage.
Striding gently across the stage the camera cuts between a genteel Cooper and his congregation and a real warmth and togetherness is evident, as is the continuing jokes and smiles and involvement of the children as one is seen to show their “Popeye muscles” and another, in a brilliant juxtaposition of the situation, mouths “I’m a good climber”. The juxtaposition continues as the smiling and happy congregation continue even as a young man in a cage nearby shouts “Will somebody please let me the fuck out of here”.
“Satan” is silenced with an electric cattle prod and the Sermon commences in earnest.
“Welcome Family!” continues Cooper, now always shot with various Five Points Trinity Church crosses behind him and nearly always from below looking up and often in extreme close up. You are drawn to Michael Parks’ eyes continually as he continues to stride gently but with purpose across the stage. Referring again to “scripture” and Noah’s flood ridding the world and starting again, Cooper continues to engage with his congregation as he preaches about preparing for the future and of people practising carnal sins against God’s wishes. A child responds with “Amen Grandpa” before Sara exclaims “Preach it Daddy” as Cooper, his smile and genteel approach now replaced with a snarl, continues to preach on “sins”, homosexuals and tellingly “I fear God. You better believe I fear God”. Varying between wide armed gestures and arm crossed indignation, Cooper builds his sermon to a frightening level of intensity, lamenting continuously the world’s “wickedness” and sins as Sara again, looking to the Heavens and to her Father proclaims again “Give us some knowledge Daddy. Give us some knowledge”.
Forever flicking between righteous anger and indignation, singing, dancing and smiling with his congregation Cooper (a wider shot encompassing the entirety of the stage of the various Crosses behind him) circles a tall object draped in a white sheet, secured to one of the many crosses. He refers again constantly to homosexuality, wickedness and sins against God’s wishes and “rampant fornication” before, his Sermon building to a crescendo, referring to paedophilia, pestilence, plagues and typhoons before tellingly reinforcing his view of an “End of Times”. The white sheet behind him moves slightly and with various cuts we see the young man now awake in the cage and frightened out of his mind.
“Cheyenne, you mind taking the children out of the lessons because it’s gonna get grown up in here”.
After walking with his children and grandchildren to the back of the church and closing the door behind them the camera follows Abin Cooper in a rolling shot back to the front of the stage. Now snarling at his adult congregation he removes the white sheet to reveal a tightly wrapped and ball gagged man secured tightly to a cross. The tension continues as Cooper’s Sermon intensifies, listing the man’s crimes and his punishment to follow. Sara, silently praying in the congregation and gently rocking back and forth, the camera cuts back to Cooper, pointing to Caleb and Mordechai as he strides back towards to his organ and signals the grisly death of this sinner with a final exclamation “For the wrath of God, is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness”.
Taking a gun from inside a Bible, Caleb shoots the man on the top of the head and the camera immediately cuts to Sara, arms aloft in prayer, before Mordechai cuts the dead body loose, dropping it through a trap door. Here we see two further young men, scared out of their wits and bound together, awaiting their fate. The young man in the cage shouts to the other two bound in the cellar, all three unable to comprehend how and why they are in this grisly and utterly frightening situation. The caged man is dragged to the cross and bound tightly, wrapped and ball gagged as was the previous man exclaiming “I don’t want to die”. Cooper, now seated and calmly playing the organ responds
“You’re already dead, sinner”.
The sermon continues…….
To begin with, this is not a usual Kevin Smith film!
Apart from very minor cameos there are no returning actors reprising previous roles or references to previous Smith films or Jay and Silent Bob. There is one major aside to this, the Director himself, so see if you can spot him! The other major difference is the camera work and editing (both by Smith), with the use of a Steadicam (or similar) for many scenes, up close scenes, chase sequences etc. This heightens the tension of the film and puts you as the viewer right in the middle of the film and is brilliantly and expertly done. There are numerous blurred or obscured shots (through a fence or wall or cage), deliberately and effectively so. The editing/cutting is also often between two opposing type images, giving a good versus bad, light versus dark effect, aptly demonstrated during Abin Cooper’s initial sermon, cutting from the Pastor to the congregation, often children playing or mumbling about being “a good climber”.
Another departure is the lack of a cinematic score which is replaced, but only very fleetingly but very effectively with a haunting almost subconscious hum and perceptible heartbeat in certain scenes, but apart from this excellent use, there is no further score. There is also a minimal soundtrack with the stand outs being Michael Parks singing Abin Cooper’s religious songs on the organ. Regular collaborator and Director of Photography David Klein returns and deserves great credit, as does Cabot McMullen for Production Design. The Director himself deserves enormous credit for a number of reasons and certainly for getting his film, his vision and his picture made and distributed. It’s a tour de force of film making and an incredible film and Kevin Smith also deserves credit for the editing, which is sublime, tight and propels this 88 minute film along perfectly.
A horror film?
Another film on religion and dogma?
Trying to avoid spoilers as best as I can, but Keenan (Goodman) is obviously reluctant to follow his Boss’ order to confront the church compound (there’s plenty of gunfire in the trailer so I guess you know there’s some kind of attack) and this reticence is surely a reference to the FBI/ATF failures at both Ruby Ridge and Waco in which the “Authorities” were clearly over zealous and murdered numerous innocent people. Post 9–11, Patriot Act and the labelling of “domestic terrorists” and the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) are clearly themes too, as is the USA Constitution and especially Freedom of Speech and the right to bear arms. Writing this in January 2013, these themes are never more prevalent or as prescient than they are today.
Highly criticised by industry critics?
So what’s new for a Kevin Smith film!
It’s an 88 minute work of art, it truly is. But then again I’m decidedly biased but if Quentin Tarantino is quoted as “I fucking love this movie!” then what further recommendation do you need?
Thanks for reading. If you like the premise of this absurd idea of “Read Along”, then you might also enjoy:
