Red White and Blue (2010)

"Red White & Blue" is an example of independent cinema that uses a grand plot and makes everything work with subtlety, very strong performances and a rarely seen type of narrative that adds to the effectiveness of this horror/suspense drama.

The intro shows us a trailer trash brunette named Erica who sleeps with different men every night in a small Texas town. In the apartment compound where she lives, there's Noah who is a well-meaning bearded dude who will help her when she gets fired from her job as house cleaner. Erica rejects his acts of kindness at first but will later give in because he really is a stand-up guy (aw shucks). Conflict arises when one of the men who Erica had a one-night stand with discovers she left something behind that has potential to ruin his entire life. That sounds vague, but I'm afraid that is as far as I can go because more details mean less thrill punches. Trust me though when I say it has a really good story intelligently wrapped around the tropes of horror/suspense movie conventions.

The cinematography projects a dark and warm atmosphere that would probably taste like honey but would feel like it has an aftertaste of poison. Huge credit should be given to the Texas setting which is pretty idyllic. I didn't think for a second that Leatherface resided in the area. The BGM that is mostly comprised of piano arrangements works effectively as it has resemblance to what was successfully used in Takashi Shimizu's "The Grudge" and "Marebito." It sounds pretty but you also feel the sense of dread f***ing up your psyche.

Simon Rumley carefully peels out the layers of his characters by providing concise moments of well-written dialogue exchange and encapsulating the poignancy in the two leads' portrayal. It rings true in the dramatic scenes of Amanda Fuller (Erica) and Noah Taylor (Nate) together where they blew the roof off. I mean, the acting displayed here alone deserves a loud praise.

This is one of the more mature horror movies I have ever encountered, and it definitely is one that I could say one of the best from the genre that I have seen in the last five years. What a f***ing gem.

Fmovies: That's what this movie is: torture porn. True, the first two thirds of the movie are your basic indie flick about lost, tormented souls trying to find comfort on each other, or in the most desperate acts. Nothing spectacular, nothing new, but more or less well done. And completely irrelevant. Nothing of the character's dramas is left when things start rolling.

The last half an hour is obviously what the director intended to leave in our memories. And it is pure gratuitous exploitation. The viewer is just being thrown from one torture scene to another, expecting the level of violence to keep increasing(and believe me, it does). When the last confrontation between two characters is about to begin, all the viewer can think is how graphic and sickening it is going to be: no emotional tension is expected, and none is given. The fact that the violent third act takes much less time than the drama doesn't change the fact that it is the violent stuff that Red White and Blue is about.

It is obviously not a case of a movie becoming something else in the end. What happens is precisely the opposite: the long set-up is just an excuse for sickening stuff at the end. That will give the horror fans a chance to say they enjoyed a film with character development, and that they are not just fans of the gross stuff, etc. Pure BS. This is as much an exploitation film as I Spit in Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust, Last House on the Left and the like. Yes, I am degrading this movie from its artsy pretensions to the genre it really belongs. You make enjoy this if you are a horror fan, but don't fool yourself.

I'n a longtime horror fan. I like my horror movies intense, bloody & down-to-earth. If they're too slick, if everything from the story & pace & acting, to the editing & sound production, slots together too perfectly, I will admire the film, but not be moved by it. I started watching "Red, White & Blue" thinking it was a "psychological suspense thriller," because that's what Netflix told me it was. Much to my delight, it's a flat-out (non-supernatural) horror movie that satisfies my taste. It's also a multifaceted revenge tragedy—a study of how one initial act of violence (the rape of 4-yr-old girl) spins out a world of suffering, which leads to many unfocused acts of revenge, one of which eventually triggers a much more pointed episode of revenge, which in turn triggers a veritable *rampage* of revenge—so well-acted & so engaging, it practically bores a hole in your brain.

One brilliant thing about this flick is that all of this takes place in a central Texas setting which is as real as the sun is hot. I'm a Texan, so I should know. Don't you hate movies that start out telling you they're located in a specific geographic locale, then some aspects of the setting—the character's accents, for example, or the license plates on cars, or a city skyline—are broadcasted so loud & clear you get sick of 'em, but many other, more telling, aspects—like the architecture of the houses or the sounds of the birds or the kinds of trees, even—are all wrong? It distracts you from your immersion in the story! This movie is just the opposite: we see a hint here, a hint there, of where the events are unfolding, but unless you recognize specific streets & buildings of one lowdown area of Austin—I didn't, because I don't know Austin that well—the fact that you're in Texas seeps rather gradually into your awareness. Even the fact that one character has an obvious tattoo of the state's outline only means that *he's* a Texan. But by the end, when a big Texas flag flapping gently in the wind in someone's front yard prompts you into a reverie about what the title of the movie signifies, you are so grounded in place, it deeply underscores the gritty, down-to-earth flavor of the whole flick. That also contributes to how the story's tragedy, while ramifying out to include dozens, even hundreds, of people, feels as tightly concentrated as a watch spring.

I must warn you that the real story you're watching—as opposed to the mere events—will also take a while to seep into your awareness. And that this can be kind of annoying. At first I thought that the film was lagging because our initial point-of-view character wasn't being very well acted. But once you understand why the character is like that, you'll appreciate the subtlety that Amanda Fuller brings to the role. Same goes for Eric Senter's character, who comes across as such an irritating dweeb he's hard to look at—and then you get *his* story.

Noah Taylor's character, on the other hand, is so fascinating from the get-go, you won't be able to take your eyes off him. He just about pops off the screen, that's how intensely he burns.

After all was said and done, I appreciated, in retrospect, the way the way the movie starts out so slow as to be almost meandering, then starts to pick up speed, accelerates some more, and then quite suddenly slams into the rampage I referred to earlier. But still, for all of the

Red White and Blue fmovies. Emily (Amanda Fuller) is a drifting through life soul, who fills in the void of her existence by having sex with pretty much any guy she meets. She strikes up a hesitant platonic friendship with Nate (Noah Taylor), a psychopathic Iraq war veteran. Nate doesn't seem too pushed on laying her, and seems to prefer to regale her with left field tales of him torturing animals as a psychopathic kid.

Franki (The Lost's Marc Senter) is a rather immature musician, with dreams of making it big, all the while caring for his cancer stricken mother. A drunken encounter with Emily will set off an event which will have horrific consequences for them both. This in turn will trigger off a horrible, brutal and uncompromising revenge...

Unfortunately, I can't reveal anything else about this film without spoiling things, as it takes time to get to its revelation. Red White And Blue is a very slow burning character study piece, which makes its third act all the more shocking. This is NOT an exploitation flick, and any fans of exploitation revenge films should very much bear this in mind, as the film takes over an hour to setup the circumstances for its revenge payoff. However, it's a damn good film in its own right, with excellent performances all around, and an unusual outlook on its characters.

Emily for example is at least partly at fault for the consequences which effect her, and Franki is no typical screen villain here, but is rather a likable everyman. Nate, while clearly a psychopath is however in no way proactively aggressive, and basically nobody concerned fills in the required role one would expect for revenge films. Basically, it's an art-house film as far as I'm concerned, but it works.

The film itself looks great, with the first slow burning half consisting of bus stops, blue collar lunch areas and seedy looking dodgy bars, and it has a nicely gritty warts n all white trash vibe to it.

Again, fans of exploitation or shallow revenge films, take note, as this will not be what you're expecting, particularly from its misleading youtube trailer, but my advice is to stick it through, as it's a great revenge film, and a great film in its own right, that manages to shock in its third act via its sheer uncompromising nature

8/10. Won't be to everyone's tastes but I personally quite liked it, and anyone who liked Shane Meadows Dead Man's Shoes should find much to like here.

I have to say that this movie grew on me after I watched it... mainly because I watched it with wrong expectation. In comparison to Rumleys last movie "The living and the dead" it doesn't catch you with visual and sound effects and its not revenge movie either. "Red white and blue" is a pretty bleak drama that for most of its time focuses on showing the lives of three characters. The focus is on the characters and there is not much do distract from them except for the strange time skips in editing which at first annoyed be but have a more than logical reason in the movie. Everything relies heavily on the actors and I think for an independent movie they made quite an effort here.

Rumley denies painting anyone in this movie good or bad. You have to watch an endless spiral of pain and wrongs that never seem to make a right but there is always a reason for actions that on first sight might seem illogical. The way the characters are interwoven and the similarities between them are slowly coming to light while the plot turns into a revenge movie culminating in some pretty drastic measures is brilliant. The movie is gritty and brutal in parts but I think Rumley managed to play these elements in a way that works psychologically and not visually. The way the story is told is excellent and the finale is not a lame twist that turns everything upside down but makes you realize you have been watching a revenge movie from the first frame onwards. I think Rumley put a lot of thought into this movie and it deserves that people sit down and take a little time to think about it too.

This film reminded me mostly of Audition and how the mood changes from drama to sinister to disturbing.

The film follows the sexual goings-on of a young girl named Erica, who we believe to be troubled in some way or another. She has a friend, Nate, in whom she can confide and who appears to be genuinely concerned for her. A side-plot, about a semi-successful garage-band, runs in parallel from the point they all get in the sack with Erica, on a drunken band team-building exercise. These two plot lines come slamming back together in a big way, just after the middle of the movie.

Once this film gets going, it really grabs hold of you and doesn't let go, until after the gut-wrenching climax. The build-up is slow paced but justifiably so, as it needs to bring true depth to the characters, otherwise the latter half of the story wouldn't work.

Unlike movies where the good and bad guys are clear cut, this one really blurs the edges, so that we're never quite sure who's in the right and who's not. I'm saying this is a good thing for this movie, because it really makes the viewer question the morality in each scene and find it harder to predict where the movie us is ultimately heading.

There's little I would criticise. What it does, it does very well - all credit to the director and cast.

I wouldn't categorise this as a horror (unless we count Franki's earrings), it's more of an intense drama/thriller but Red White and Blue is one of the best films I have seen this year and would recommend it to anyone who has the stomach for this sort of thing.