Review of Red State (2011) by Zachary M — 07 Apr 2016

Okay, let's get something straight. There are ways to write a metaphorical piece of art, and there are bad ways to. Animal Farm for example, is a metaphor for communism and it works. Why? Because it gives you interesting characters and most important, it never takes time to stop and say, "Hey guys this is just like communism." Red State does.

At one point in the movie a teacher references the Westboro Baptist Church, the obvious inspiration for this movie, and says in affect, "Yah those guys are bad, but not as bad as these guys." That's not how you do a metaphor. You can't compare the thing you're trying to write about with your fictional work and make it seem thought provoking and intriguing. It would be like making a movie where the plot was an allegory for the Holocaust and then having a person in the middle of it say, "Wow, this is just like the Holocaust only worse." That's bad script writing.

The movie does have some strong character acting in it, and the stuff with the government agents is a much better allegory for the government's bumbling of the Waco Texas disaster. That being said, it's not enough to save the film as a whole.