Guncrazy *** (1992, Drew Barrymore, James Le Gros, Joe Dallesandro, Michael Ironside, Ione Skye, Jeremy Davies, Billy Drago, Robert Greenberg) – Classic Movie Review 2568

Director Tamra Davis’s propulsive and dangerous 1992 loose remake of Joseph H Lewis’s 1949 film noir favourite stars Drew Barrymore as Anita Minteer, a sexy but disturbed high-school girl who is sick and tired of her life in an American small rural town. She suffers repeated sexual abuse from both her classmates and her absentee mother’s trailer park scum husband Rooney (Joe Dallesandro), who lusts after her and rapes her.

But, as part of a school assignment, Anita starts a correspondence with a lonely young prison inmate called Howard (James Le Gros), whose letters stir up desires for violence and guns. She becomes infatuated with him.

[Spoiler alert] She buys a firearm and persuades her stepfather Rooney to show her how to use it. After he rapes her again, she shoots him to death and hides the body. She then sets about getting her new boyfriend out of jail on good behaviour and, on his release, marries him.

She decides to show him her stepfather’s remains, which Howard helps her dispose of. Anita drags him with her on a downward spiral of sex and violence, finally embarking with him on an indiscriminate shooting spree.

Bursts of action and moments of dark humour break through an often tense and thoughtful story, with clear nods to Bonnie and Clyde (which was influenced by the original Gun Crazy) and Thelma and Louise. (1991).

Matthew Bright’s screenplay is expertly chilling. The performances are powerful and persuasive. Davis’s explosive crime-drama thriller turns cartwheels to involve us in the lives of this psychotic young couple, and the result is undeniably stylish and dynamic.

This extreme, unremitting movie of poetic doom is compellingly acted and imaginatively made, with great attention to detail, camerawork and lighting set-ups and plausible motivations. It is not an easy watch, and it leaves behind a bitter taste, just as it was intended to do.

Just like the original, it is low budget – $800,000 this time. But it was not a hit, taking only $114,500 at the American box office and left to recoup its money on home video.

Barrymore was Golden Globe nominated as Best Actress.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2568

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