****SPOILERS*** Somewhat disjointed movie broken down into three segments about how gun violence changed the lives of a number of Americans who were victimized by them with the exception of the one about gun store owner Carl Wilks played by a snow white haired looking Donald Southerland. It's Wilks who's granddaughter Many-Ann, Linda Cardellini, had undergone a traumatic experience back in her Virginia Collage dorm when her best friend Cicily, Schuyler Fisk, was knocked out by and raped by fellow collage student, Andrew Caple-Shaw, after he slipped a date drug into her drink. The only thing that guns have to do in this segment of the film beside Carl running a gun shop in having him teach Mary-Ann how to properly shoot one and prevent what happened to her friend Cicily not to happen to her.The segment with burnt out inner Chicago high school principal Mr. Carter, Forest Whitaker, is more on the ball in how guns effect those who are involved with them. Trying to keep peace in his school Carter's home life is falling apart with him ignoring his wife and child in order to get honor student Jay, Arlen Escarpeta, to straighten himself out and not keep a gun, which isn't loaded, on him at all times. As we soon find out Jay needed the the gun on his after school job at a gas station and liquor store for protection not to mug or shoot anyone. And as it soon turned out it was in not having that gun on him, during an armed robbery, that almost cost Jay is life!The third and most telling segment has to do with single mom Janet Huttenson, Marcia Gay Harden, who's oldest son Robert participated in a Columbine type high school massacre in Ellisburgh Oragan's Ridgedale High school. It's there where Robert and an equally kill crazy and mentally unstable friend of his gunned down some dozen students before killing themselves before the police could arrest or shot them. There's also local policeman Frank, Tony Goldwyn, who's been living with the guilt of doing nothing to prevent the massacre by standing outside the school, waiting for orders from his superiors, while the massacre was in progress. Besides Janet problems her younger son David, Chris Marquette, is now in danger of being thrown out of the St. Anthony private high school in her not being able to pay his tuition and ending up back in Ridgedale High where his deceased brother Robert gunned down some dozen students!Somewhat confusing but still effective movie in how guns in America have changed the lives of those who both use and are the victims of them. Since the shootings in Virginia Tech in 2007 and the Aurora movie house in Denver Colorado and of course the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre last year the movie is far more timely now then it was when it was released back then in 2005/06. That's when it played in just one theater for 10 weeks and made under $25,000.00 in ticket sales.

I watched Crash. I thought it was decent. Oscar worthy? Absolutely not. I watched Babel. I thought it was absolutely terrible. If you go to the comments on that movie, you will find what I wrote about it. I watched Magnolia. Another decent type of these, but nothing I would watch over again. All of these movies got quite a bit of notice. Whether they deserved it or not, I don't really know.But what I do know is that American Gun deserved some serious attention. This movie, which clearly had a lower budget than all of those other movies, was the greatest film of the multiple stories genre.Maybe it's just because I don't consider "racism bad" a good enough message in a movie for the past two decades (except American History X); I think gun violence, especially in high schools, is one of the most important issues in our country. This movie just managed to get under my skin and rip out emotion from me a lot better than most movies I have seen. This movie should have received the Oscar that Crash won. It was completed before Crash. Forrest Whitaker alone is better than every actor and actress in Crash combined.Few films pull off the loosely connected people style very well. It annoys me when a movie filled with A-list celebrities gets noticed because of it. American Gun is one of the few that didn't get that notice and deserved it.

Some people on this site were comparing this movie to crash. At best this is a poor made after school movie. The movie never takes off, it drags, it wanders, it bores you to death. The only thing this movie made me want to do is buy a gun to put myself out of my misery. I watched it for free and I feel like I've been cheated. I should have been happy when it finally ended, but I was only left wondering why I had wasted the last hour of my life watching this movie. I noticed that there were about 20 songs in the credits but I must have been so numb with boredom that I can't recall a single line being played. Each song must have been uniquely unremarkable. The cherry on the top of this little masterpiece was Donald Sutherlands character, he easily could have been replaced by a rambling old man with senility taken off your local public transportation line.

I disagree with the people who think that nothing sticks out in this movie.I saw it and was amazed at some of the things that were said and shown.Sure, there may have been some exaggerated intensity, but isn't that sometimes necessary to prove a point.Do you think that the real lives of people who have to carry guns to school, are robbed at gun point, or live a threatened life are calm, relaxed, or peaceful? No. Those lives can be full of anxiety, violence, and much intensity!I think this movie provides a great view of something that is ripping apart our society before our very eyes.Hats off to the film makers!