Bang Bang You're Dead

It's great to see a movie you think is going to be just awful ... and then is anything but.

The film amazed me by taking the issues of high school kids seriously, even those of kids who are about to commit the worst carnage imaginable. One of the best ways of perpetuating a problem is turning those affected by it and those who do bad things into angels and devils. Bang, Bang, You're Dead rejects this out of hand and gives everything a shade of grey, yet moves back, forgivably, from the logical climax to make a point about the theatricality of school life, much like the play on which it is sort-of-based.

It takes troubled kids out to kill seriously, gives them respect and tries to talk to them - and lets them talk, a lot. It is also a genuine drama, and takes no prisoners when it comes to depicting adult hypocrisy and aloofness. That's pretty subversive. Put it all together and you have a ready-made whipping boy for America's right wing. Yet it is this film that anybody who gives a damn about this kind of situation must see.

This makes it sound like a 1950s advisory film where parents and kids would watch what horrible consequences befell reckless teenagers. But it's much more than that: it's a cunning advisory film for everyone. Nobody comes out clean, but everybody is given the chance to become clean again.

The MPAA gave this an R rating, which is further proof that this pathetic star chamber of industry insiders ought to be disbanded.