christchurch shooter

Summary

Reviewer

Libertarian Agnostic

Review Date

Reviewed Item

"The Christchurch Shooting is reminiscent of ‘Rampage’ (2009)"

Author Rating

So, the reason I decided to watch this flick is because someone on a political message board suggested it. The implications of course, being the resemblance to the Christchurch Shooter.

But on second thought, you could perceive this as a manlet rage fest. (The main character literally makes fun of a victim by saying, “You look retarded when you stand up!”) Or perhaps a disaffected white rampage story, similar to how BlackPilled describes “Office Space.” The common theme throughout is how society is messed up, materialistic at the expense of the planet. Against the capitalist bankers. Occupy Wall Street was in 2011 so it seems like this was riding a zeitgeist of people fed up after the 2008 bail out? Donno.

But after reading the Christchurch Shooter’s manifesto, (who bashes capitalists and is a self described Eco Fascist), it seems this film is indeed very relevant. One of the markings on the shooter’s gun was the “Third Position” symbol:

To oversimplify, it’s the nuanced beliefs of National Socialists and Fascists who dislike both Capitalists and Communists.

And of course, “Rampage” conjures up images of right wing death squads like the ones seen in the anime “Jun Roh.” The main character even says, “You think people are equal? Nobody is equal.”

So you’d think that the director is a closet nazi or right winger. Unfortunately, after some googling it turns out he’s a hardcore anti-racist lefty who made a holocaust movie about how evil his German ancestors were. So you can strike that theory. It seems that he’s yet another director who decided to make a psychopathic right winger cliché with no remorse. This is evident when at the end of the movie the main character frames his leftwing political activist friend for all of his evil deeds. Perhaps a social commentary on how the media was demonizing the Iraq War protesters? (You hear news reports about Iraq in the background during the intro.)

If I can be an armchair psychologist for a second, it seems like Uwe Boll has pent up violent fantasies and projects them onto right wingers. Like most leftists do. The film is conflicted, because the main character is not a cartoon villain, and his actions are cathartic for most viewers. But unlike Quintin Tarantino’s recent string of f**k whitey films, (where the main characters ruthlessly kill evil whites), Uwe Boll makes the evil white guy the main character.

For what it’s worth, there’s no feminist/affirmative action/LGBT stuff in it, so that’s nice. There’s hardly a plot though. Just a gore fest.

Oh, fair warning! The shaky camera technique is used through the entirety of this film. Not just the action scenes. Which normally irks me, but in the case of “Rampage” it’s a bit nostalgic and feels fitting.

I was gonna’ say don’t pay to see it because I thought the film was anti-right winger propaganda. But after doing more research on the director, I have no clue. Seems like a cool dude and the film may and his characters may be more multifaceted than I thought. So what the hell, pay to watch if you can.