Tweet
Released by: Olive Films
Released on: May 26th, 2015.
Director: Uwe Boll
Cast: Jí¼rgen Prochnow, Michael Paré, Patrick Muldoon, Kett Turton, Elisabeth Moss
Year: 2004
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Boll's "message movie".
Let's cut to the chase, shall we? HEART OF AMERICA is a pretty lousy film but it's highly entertaining. Boll - here early in his American/Canadian career around the time period of SANCTIMONY and BLACKWOODS - is making a Columbine themed social commentary. Whoo boy.
Boll's crazy quilt version of an American Midwestern high school has freaking Jurgen Prochnow as the principal (with Teutonic accent!), Michael Pare as an English teacher (is this Rock N Roll high school?) and Clint Howard in a wife beater shirt as a drunk dad from hell smacking his demon seed kid around. Yep. We got the requisite Klebold/Harris doppelgí¤ngers in Daniel (Kett Turton) and Barry (Michael Belya) who want to end the school year with a bang. Literally. The whole film is done kinda slice of life and quite haphazard. Mostly point and shoot with occasional bizarre getting jiggy with it camera flourishes, "inept" is the word that most often comes to mind. Plot? Oh yes. Gimme a sec. Bullies mess with geeks. Geeks stew. Geeks plot bloody revenge - and since they have been getting abused for far too long, they are going to mow the innocents down too. Everybody dies - that's the plan.
Boll also over stuffs this mess with multiple confusing subplots but the simple fact remains that for all its earnest posturing and smug sanctimony (you see what I did there?), HEART OF AMERICA is a cash in on the likes of Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT made by a German who never spent 10 minutes inside an actual American high school. Think Lars "never set foot in the USA" Von Trier's worst anti-land of the free hectoring and drop a few hundred IQ points and you've got the jist. Dumb. But worth a look? Like Sarah Palin would say - "you betcha!"
What makes this a hoot is the crazy casting and some thespians giving gusto ham delivery. Clint Howard probably got wood poisoning on the set of this thing but it is glorious. Cooperdick from EVILSPEAK is all grown up now and he's ready to beat some sense into that stupid kid of his. Male model/stick of kindling/mannequin Patrick Muldoon shows up and is actually FUNNY. Pare forgot to read the "this is a turd memo" and plays it straight and soulful. Elizabeth Moss from AMC's Mad Men shows up. Maria Conchita Alonso pops by to snag a paycheck.
In Boll's America high school students are either simps or full blooded psychos. Adults redefine cluelessness on a daily basis. And bad seeds are never under suspicion no matter how obvious they make their intentions. Instead of nuance, we get a lot of tsk tsk undercurrents and a ham fisted scrolling text intro to the film on school violence crafted by the NSA on Xanax. The climax is a poorly paced mess too - and this is where Boll really falls down on the job. SANCTIMONY delivered the blood and thunder in the final reel so what went wrong here a couple of years later? It's like Boll wanted something more "meaningful" and felt going too violent at the end would weaken his message. He blew it. Because as a message movie this thing is an abject failure. It could have been a top 20 exploitation hit parade contender though. As it stands it manages an interesting mix of sleaze, pretension, incompetence and cultural obliviousness.
Video/Audio/Extras:
HEART OF AMERICA was shot in SD and as such is lacking in fine detail. Olive/Martini's transfer is good though considering the source material. The full frame image has good color grading and is stable. Reports on the original aspect ratio of HEART OF AMERICA are conflicting but this doesn't look like its missing anything and the framing looks correct. The English Dolby digital stereo mix handles everything satisfactorily right down to the cheesy metal tunes that pop up throughout the film. Extras? Zero.
The Final Word:
Recommended for bad film fans. Why? Films this downright muddle-headed don't come around that often. Aside from the unsavory aspect of cashing in on a real life tragedy this misguided mess is eminently watchable. Serious film fans and earnest sociologists should steer well clear however.
