{"id":4541,"date":"2011-09-07T14:23:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T21:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?p=4541"},"modified":"2015-03-10T10:03:16","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T17:03:16","slug":"godstuff-red-state-wins-take-a-bow-silent-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2011\/09\/07\/godstuff-red-state-wins-take-a-bow-silent-bob\/","title":{"rendered":"GODSTUFF: “Red State” wins. Take a bow, Silent Bob."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n<\/p>

Don\u2019t believe most of what you\u2019ll hear about Kevin Smith\u2019s<\/a> new movie, \u201cRed State.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not an angry tirade against religion, nor is it an attack on Christianity guised as a horror flick laden with gratuitous violence.<\/p>\n

Smith has described \u201cRed State\u201d as a horror film, and it is that, but not in the conventional \u201cNightmare on Elm Street\u201d iteration. There is violence for sure, but nothing approaching the unrelenting bloodbath of, say, \u201cThe Passion of the Christ<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In much the same way that Smith employed bathroom humor and the profane rantings of his \u201cprophetic\u201d characters Jay and Silent Bob<\/a> to obscure the deeply spiritual message of\u00a0 his 1999 masterpiece \u201cDogma,\u201d Smith uses shock-and-awe violence in \u201cRed State\u201d to bring viewers into the fullness of his commentary on the nature of belief, religious fanaticism and insipid hatred masked as piety.<\/p>\n

The horror of \u201cRed State\u201d is not the body count wrought by machine-gun-toting church ladies or federal agents with orders to use deadly force to empty a fortified cult compound. Rather the true horror of Smith\u2019s film is in the fundamental beliefs that give rise to such atrocities.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s anger or bitterness (if it is present in this film) is righteous and reserved for worthy recipients.<\/p>\n

The complex plot of \u201cRed State\u201d centers around the vicious rhetoric of Abin Cooper, the chillingly genteel and wholly sociopathic leader of Five Points Church, a small, family-run sect that lives on a rural compound somewhere in middle America.<\/p>\n

The audience is introduced to Cooper (Michael Parks) and his flock as they conduct a vitriolic protest \u2014 waving signs that read \u201cGod Hates Fags\u201d and the like \u2014 at the funeral of a murdered gay man.<\/p>\n

Five Points bears more than a passing resemblance to the real-life, extreme-right wing nut Fred Phelps<\/a> and his abominable Westboro Baptist Church<\/a>. While Smith readily admits that Westboro was the inspiration for his fictional sect, the film explicitly says that Five Points is not Westboro.<\/p>\n

Phelps and his lot are \u201csewers not doers,\u201d says Agent Joseph Keenan of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms<\/a> (played by John Goodman in one of his finest performances on the big screen). Phelps spews hatred but he\u2019s not physically dangerous; Cooper and his congregation are stockpiling illegal firearms.<\/p>\n

The Five Pointers believe they have a divine imprimatur to kill \u201csinners\u201d for the greater good, and they reserve their most violent hatred and sadism for homosexuals, whom they blame for all of society\u2019s ills Smith says he took Phelps\u2019 rhetoric and followed it to its logical extreme.<\/p>\n

That is precisely what makes \u201cRed State\u201d so horrifying.<\/p>\n

While the graphic violence is shocking \u2014 including the execution of a gay man bound by plastic wrap to a large cross the church sanctuary \u2014 the most chilling moments of the film come in long sermons and monologues delivered by Cooper in his grandfatherly, folksy drawl.<\/p>\n

Cooper quotes the same Scripture and sings the same hymns that are familiar to most churchgoing Christians. But he hears something so diametrically different and demonically twisted than the vast majority of Christian believers do.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s psychotic gospel is swollen with hellfire and brimstone, rooted in the fear of a vengeful God who demands bloody retribution for the offenses of humankind.<\/p>\n

This is not a condemnation of Christianity and its true gospel. Rather it is a powerful critique of how the real message of the Christian faith<\/a> is mangled, distorted and sacrificed on the altar of fear and loathing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear God,\u201d Abin tells his flock, in a low, gravely growl. \u201cYou better believe I fear God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Religious fanaticism is not the only target of Smith\u2019s brutal condemnation. When a standoff between ATF agents and Five Points quickly devolves into a violent cataclysm (explicitly recalling the 1993 fiasco at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas), Smith critiques the horrors of an overreaching, inhumane government that cares more about avoiding bad press than the lives of innocents trapped inside the compound.<\/p>\n

Goodman\u2019s character is the only one with a shred of decency in the entire narrative. His moral compass, although not exactly finely calibrated, still finds a true north. But not in time to prevent catastrophe from unfolding.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cRed State\u201d is a thrill ride, with many twists, reversals and surprises. Not the least of Smith\u2019s suprises is the appearance of an AK-47-wielding Betty Aberlin \u2014 the actress best known as \u201cLady Aberlin\u201d of \u201cMister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood,\u201d a role she played from 1968 to 2001.<\/p>\n

Smith, 41, no doubt grew up watching sweet Lady Aberlin in the land of\u00a0 make-believe. (This is Aberlin\u2019s third appearance in a Smith film. She played a nun in \u201cDogma\u201d and a Catholic school teacher in \u201cJersey Girl.\u201d) Her turn in \u201cRed State\u201d is such a shocking departure from our childhood\u00a0 memories that it adds a whole other layer to the horror.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed State\u201d is masterfully unique, with a plot and execution unlike any film in recent memory. (Take a bow, Silent Bob.)<\/p>\n

It is also an articulate and deeply faithful cautionary tale about the dangers in believing our own goodness to the detriment of others.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just do the strangest things when they believe they\u2019re entitled,\u201d Agent Keegan says in the movie\u2019s money quote.\u00a0 \u201cBut they do even stranger things when they just plain believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRed State\u201d vividly reminds us that some of the most insipid acts of evil have been perpetrated by people who believed they were acting on the side of goodness, righteousness and God.<\/p>\n

And that to stand by and do nothing while horror unfolds it to condone it.<\/p>\n

A version of this column originally appeared via Religion News Service<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The horror of “Red State” is not the body count wrought by machine-gun-toting church ladies or federal agents with orders to use deadly force to empty a fortified cult compound. Rather the true horror of Smith’s film is in the fundamental beliefs that give rise to such atrocities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1037,68,1038,1039,1040,1041,1042,1043],"class_list":["post-4541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godstuff-2","tag-betty-aberlin","tag-christianity","tag-fred-phelps","tag-jay-and-silent-bob","tag-kevin-smith","tag-passion-of-the-christ","tag-red-state","tag-westboro-baptist-church"],"yoast_head":"\nGODSTUFF: "Red State" wins. 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