Plot Summary
A Virgina gun store owner Carl (Donald Sutherland) sidesteps controversy while running the shop he loves. His new employee, granddaughter Mary Ann (Linda Cardellini) has been pressured to join the family business. Curiosity overcomes her as she becomes seduced by the weapons. In Oregon, Janet (Marcia Gay Harden) suffers through a TV interview marking the anniversary of her older son's high school shooting rampage. She worries for a younger son, now the same age as his brother when he attacked. On Chicago's gritty west side, principal Carl (Forest Whitaker) struggles to keep his high school from exploding as his wife fears for their son. When ace student Jay is caught with a gun, both he and Carl must face choices they never wanted to make. Nominated for 3 Independent Spirit awards, AMERICAN GUN director Aric Avelino "shows an almost tender restraint in his story-telling, not pounding us with a message but simply looking steadily at how guns have made these lives difficult." - Roger Ebert
Credits
Director
Screenwriter
Producer
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
39%- Reviews Counted: 31
- Fresh: 12
- Rotten: 19
- Average Rating: 5.3/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Rotten: This stridently sorrowful polemic against the proliferation of handguns in the United States consists of three fictional vignettes.
Rotten: Skittishly paced and dramatically diffuse, American Gun misfires.
Rotten: Painfully earnest but dramatically inert.
Fresh: While not a perfect movie by any means -- a few scenes feel forced -- there is plenty to recommend it, even beyond the truly great performances.
Customer Reviews
Totally predictable YAWNER fiction
Another typical anti-firearms statement flick, presented and populated by those who would have you believe guns only belong in the hands of professionals who know how to use them best: ACTORS. Movies like this only fuel the panic of the helpless, while conveniently failing to mention that more teens died in cell-phone related motor vehicle accidents in the USA last year than were killed by bullets, including soldiers in Iraq. ("No thanks, no handguns for me today -- I'm saving up for an iPhone so I can really maim some people while I'm driving!")
This film is a important warning.
This is a great movie. You could actually take out the gun shop and insert one hundred other products and just keep doing remakes. Guns are a good start, then knives of course, motorcycles, automobiles, power tools, petroleum products, baseball bats, chain, tire irons, matches, rope, electrical cord as well as hundreds of other dangerous products that people might have accidents with or worse yet, use for nefarious applications. Once we get that licked we can go after the national fenestration association and these psychopathic architects that are building multi-story buildings. WE CAN WIN!! Save america!
A kind of activism
It is interesting, this series of one star reviews by people who have not seen the movie and have nothing to say about its merit as a film and are only interested in attacking its point of view. Pro-gun activism on iTunes? Guys, let up and relax.
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