10 Awesome Films That Never Got The Cult Following They Deserved
4. God Bless America (2011)
The Film:
This mish-mash of political satire and black humour follows a middle-aged insurance salesman named Frank Murdoch. The movie begins on a bad day for Frank: he is fired from his job for obtaining the address of a colleague so that he could send her flowers, and he is then told that he has a brain tumor. Alienated from his daughter at the hands of his ex-wife, Frank decides to end it all, but has a last second change of heart after seeing something on TV.
A teenage girl on a reality TV show is causing a scene because her father bought her the wrong kind of sports car, and it inspires Frank to pull the gun out of his mouth and use it on her instead. With nothing to lose, Franks embarks on a vigilante mission to seek out and put down everything that is wrong with America today in often hilarious (and always brutal) fashion.
Why It Never Got The Cult Following It Deserved:
It is hard to put your finger on why a following never sprung up around God Bless America, a film that was something of a cross between cult hits Leon and Natural Born Killers with the added dark humour of Bobcat Goldthwait. The director is known in indie-circles as a purveyor of acerbic black comedy, though everyone else knows him as the one with the gruff squeaky voice from Police Academy.
Goldthwait's acting work in farcical comedy might have been the reason God Bless America was never taken too seriously by the casual film fan, though critics pointed to cracks in the film itself. Words like cheap, gory, and heavy-handed were mentioned several times by critics, though these (along with disparaging reviews) are all hallmarks of a cult classic, so what happened?
Perhaps the main factor in God Bless America's lack of a merited following is the sheer range of people that it manages to offend. Frank and his partner in crime Roxy lampoon every section of popular culture imaginable, to the point where pretty much anyone with an interest in anything mainstream will be branded worthy of death.
There is almost a shaming of the audience going on here, with anyone that has ever glanced at Twilight novel or watched a reality TV show in for a particularly hard time. For those willing to take it on the chin, however, the film becomes a cathartic experience that should have been shared by far more viewers.