Customer Reviews

Shooting Vegetarians

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Shooting Vegetarians is a surprisingly thought-provoking film that should be watched by all viewers, from meat-eaters to vegetarians to vegans.

The young hero of our film is Neil, and he is a vegetarian. Our hero initially doesn't appear too concerned with why he's a vegetarian. On occasion, he preaches half-heartedly about the abuse cows endure when they're manufactured for food. Neil's half-heartedness may be contributed to the world's indifference to his convictions.

Either way, his convictions are put to the test when his father presents him with an ultimatum - Neil must work side-by-side with his father in the family's butcher shop, or face being evicted from home by his parents.

Like Moshe (Moses), Neil climbs to the mountain top of the skateboard ramp, faces the Chicken-Gd, channels the Chicken-Gd's wise words, and makes the choice to stand up for his beliefs.

The events that unfold are ambiguously reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Very dark, pessimistic, and altruistic, yet served up with a provocative moral - don't just say you're a vegetarian/vegan, make sure you mean it, and do the right things to protect animals.

Look for a fantastic, avant-garde acting frenzy exhibited by Élodie Bouchez (The Dreamlife Of Angels) as The Happy Coffee Shop Girl, as well as a cameo of actor Will Keenan as Karate Coffee. Keenan appears during the end credits as a karate man asking for a cappuccino at the organic café. You must watch the credits to see his cameo.

and this effort, with low budget, and seemingly low skill levels all around, definitely does not live up to the cleverness of its title. Lead actor Diaz shows a bit of potential, but the script is deadly dull, as is the plot, the camera work, the soundtrack, the costumes, and everything and everyone else. After watching this because a dear friend wanted my opinion, I then viewed it a second time, only at eight times normal speed. Gosh darn, it STILL was dull, only less offensive because no dialogue or music could be heard. Somebody involved with this turkey may yet go on to better movies, but if that happens, that person will likely buy up every DVD of this one he or she can find and destroy them. Skip this, please. There is nothing useful here for or against vegetarians, or for film buffs. Some guy in a chicken suit, prominent here, would have been enough to ruin it for me if the rest of the story was any good, which it isn't. While my friend is still my friend, because he did not much like this either, I regret spending 90 minutes on this DVD instead of watching "America's Got Talent." Sadly, "Shooting Vegetarians" is not a good advertisement for that slogan.

The "Noble hero stands up to evil and goes out in a blaze of glory" plot has been around since Homer. A staple of medieval chansons, cowboy stories, and the Medal of Honor, it is one of our most powerful and inspiring memes. However, when abused, it can degenerate into puerility or downright offensiveness. In this case, it transcends even offensive and becomes vile.

I read about this film somewhere and requested it via Blockbuster. It arrived broken; I re-requested it, and it arrived broken again. (The only DVDs I've ever received broken; and I don't think they mailed the same disc back to me.) I should have taken the hint, but instead I purchased this and spent a painful hour watching. Oh my, where to begin? How many toxic and dangerous thoughts does this film exemplify?

Well, to start with the easy crud. The protagonists of this film are the arrogant, self-important, intellectually challenged malcontents who inhabit far too much of the modern world. Even with scripted words in their mouths they are boring, silly, trite and annoying. They are the poets and the painters? Right...let's see a poem or a painting! No, they are in fact the whiners, who skate and drink organic coffee and attend concerts. And believe in their own, self-evident, importance!

And point two on the small scale annoyances. These losers are apparently all unemployed. Not sure who's earning the dough to buy these concert tickets and organic coffees and grilled soy cheese sandwiches, but it's clearly someone else. The crisis in the plot comes when the father (suitably ogre-like and boorish) demands his son get a job, three years after leaving high school. Imagine that! Dad, who goes to work every day, has grown tired of paying for his son's entertainment and (extra expensive health-food-store-only) food and housing and laundry and cell phone and gas and whatever else? If Neil is unhappy witht he prospect, he can move out! But no, tritely pontificating about the vapidity of the people with moustaches, while living on their largesse, is the modus operandi of this crowd.

But the far more disgusting thought here is that bedrock of all totalitarian thinking; my interpretation of the rules, made up on the spot, trumps all previously established law. I don't like what you are doing? I can justifiably kill you. And be proud of ridding the earth of someone whose moral beliefs I disapprove of. And preen about how righteous I am. And feel as if my life has meaning. So, SPOILER ALERT, though two people are not violating any laws, or even any generally accepted morality, the "hero" can murder them and gloat after his crime. What if his father had shot him for sponging for three years? Would the filmmakers find this admirable as well? No, they understand the "higher morality" oh so well, where boring moustache concepts of order and rigor are tossed aside.

I tried hard to see any trace of irony in this film, to see that they were exposing these pitiful little zeroes for the whopping hypocrites and arrogant thugs they are. But no, I cannot identify any such evidence. I suppose I could watch again with the director's commentary, but the script is so stupid that cannot imagine his extemporaneous remarks could be bearable, even if only for 67 minutes. This is a paean to the most pitiful and shallow characteristics of youth. What a wretched film, which should not be titled Shooting Vegetarians, but rather Shooting Unrepentant Murderers, a perfectly worthy endeavor.

And, I write these words as a vegetarian since 1975.