Banned in America
Reviewed By : AVL

Release Year : 1998

Directed By : N/A

Written By : N/A

Starring : Various poor unfortunate people

Related Links : IMDB

 

Yay, yet another of these compilation movies of suicides, shootings, accidents, and people generally meeting their end in grisly fashion. If you've seen one of these films you've seen them all, the usual voyeuristic look at various poor, unfortunate bastards in various states of suffering. And, to prove how tasteful it all is, and that it's a serious documentary, it's set to some hardcore dance music.

Quite a bit of the footage in this one had already turned up in other places - most likely the Faces of Death series - before this was ever released, so for any fan of this 'genre' it will likely be treading familiar and oft repeated ground. We see violence like this, only perhaps a little more censored, on the news every day, I'm sorry to say that it hasn't the power to shock, that our violent culture has deadened the impact.

Narration, as usual, manages to feel flippant, with some poor fecker leaping out of a building, crashing to the ground, and getting a voice over of "Ow, that's got to hurt". Later on the narrator goes on to say, with a slight trace of horror in his voice, that the internet is full of such violent images. Shock, horror, ban the interweb, I mean, it's so obvious this is better than that, it's a serious piece of documentary film making. The tone of horror sits awkwardly with the closing summary that we have a right to see such images.

Anyways, even as this kind of film goes, this one is pretty lame. A lot of the footage has turned up in other places, there's an extended sequence of animals being slaughtered which was probably thrown in just to annoy the animal rights brigade, and a long scene with a drunks friends playing vicious pranks on him. Any possibility of me believing this had noble motives and wasn't just a crappy, cheapo mix tape of human suffering went out the window at that point, a feeling further compounded when we are treated to drug taking natives and a man with elephantitis of the testicles.

Meh, take it or leave it, don't go out of your way for it, there's nothing here of note.