Rampage (2009) - 2.5/4

Rampage is the film Uwe Boll's American career has been building toward: as pure an expression of the senseless violence of a video game as one can find in the cinematic medium. After twenty or so minutes of grounding in the life of a young man named Bill Williamson, who is preparing a rampage, we're treated to his non-stop shooting and bombing rampage for the remaining hour of runtime. That hour is bloody and somewhat disturbing, punctuated with moments of wit. That is, essentially, the whole film.

I wonder just how senseless is the violence. The first twenty minutes introduces us to Bill and the two major influences on his life: his parents and his friend Evan. Bill enjoys his American fast food and complains when his fancy coffee doesn't have enough froth. The name Bill Williamson is so fabulously banal it suggests he's the status quo's logical conclusion; it also suggests a relationship to money, as in dollar bills. And indeed his parents represent the status quo as purely as possible. They're decent, organized, American bourgeois; they like arranging dinners and talking about goal-oriented lifestyles, the value of a college education, saving money, and so forth. On the other hand, Evan is a '70s-style left-leaning anarchist, who loathes money, human damage to the environment, overpopulation, yet nevertheless considers himself above fast food. Evan makes politically radical speeches on the internet and, as all politically fringe individuals, is pretty much ignored.

Bill decides to put Evan's anarchic ideas about overpopulation into effect with his horrendous mass-murder. In some sense, the film is a reductio ad absurdum of fringe political ideals: if the ideas we hear lunatics rant on daytime radio were genuinely put into action, wouldn't it be something like this, only perhaps better-organized? Of course, in nations where political fringe has taken to radical action, we've already seen that reductio and its horrifying consequences. On the other hand, Bill's political leanings are not entirely with his radical friend, as he seems to accept all the usual American goals his parents have inculcated in him. What's frightening about Bill's rampage is, in fact, just how oriented toward this goal all of his actions have been. The rampage is planned and invested in with all the meticulous precision of a middle-class capitalist planning his retirement. Perhaps Boll is pointing out the dangers of American capitalism ("Bill the son of Bill"), or praising it for its ability to get done what others can't. Since we're introduced to Bill mid-boxing and Boll infamously challenged his critics to a boxing match, Boll may well be identifying with Bill. The film doesn't give enough information to be decisively one or the other, but Boll's attitude is mostly contemptuous of American bourgeoisie like Bill's parents and their discourse about goal-oriented life, and of a society run on money and fast food. He's also contemptuous of yappy '70s radicals. Perhaps, however, the confused political discourse is mostly an excuse for senseless violence.

The violence is a little jarring, but not nearly as jarring as it ought to be. I found myself a little in awe of the massacre, which is, after all, purely special effects. Much like in a video game, the massacre is a little horrendous and a little amusing: there are no people, just targets. That is somewhat problematic. Ironically, Bogdanovich's Targets, also about a rampaging gunman, is considerably more powerful for its fewer number of targets. In Rampage, the victims are random individuals. The only victims we know are two service people Bill meets earlier in the film and we only saw their less-than-flattering sides. Bill's killing these innocent people is upsetting on one level (we keep wondering, "Why?") and Bill is clearly an evil bastard; but there's little to engage the emotions. The constant shots of Bill's eyes lead us to identify with him: one coldly watches along with Bill as the body count mounts. Compare to Death Wish, where Bronson vomits after his first kill. Bill doesn't flinch during his rampage. He casually mentions being nauseous at one point, yet we never see that. He drinks, makes cruel smalltalk, even, in the film's funniest scene, strolls through a bingo hall shocked that no-one notices him. The film feels like watching someone playing a video game. Perhaps this is an indictment of us: we hear about a bombing in Iraq that kills fifteen and think, "Oh, only fifteen?" then click the headline that reads, "Kitten Born With Six Toes," instead. The detachment is also a flaw in Boll's basic video game aesthetic.

Another flaw in Boll's aesthetic is his inability to hold a steady shot. There are a few moments where the camera isn't wobbling. Those shots stand out. Perhaps Boll intended those shots to stand out. The bingo hall, for instance, has some steady shots. So do the scenes with Bill's parents. Perhaps Boll is contrasting the kinetic and revolutionary energy of Bill with the lifelessness of bourgeois complacency. This would shed some light on the political significance of the violence, if indeed there is any. There are, however, more visually pleasing ways to make the same point. Orson Welles, for instance, kept the camera moving whenever Othello is on screen in Othello; as Iago wears him down, Othello and the camera gradually move less until we only get still shots of Othello. Boll may have wanted some anxious energy in his film, rather than gracefully gliding cameras and logical cuts. That makes sense and he partially succeeds. The experience is nevertheless unpleasant, the effect distracting and ugly.

Rampage is not a great picture, but it's as good as any picture of this particular aesthetic is ever likely to be. What it sets up in the economical first twenty minutes all pays off as we see the rampage come together under Bill's organization. The titular rampage is itself presented fluidly, brutally, and wittily with smart writing and keen, if flawed, direction. And perhaps the most complimentary thing I can say is that there is a point to it all.