Heart of America

Rating:
Summary: A great wake up call
Review: This movie is a great wake up call for how high school can be. Most high schools aren't as extreme as the one in this movie, but there are high schools out there that this could happen in.

Rating:
Summary: wake up and smell the coffee!
Review: Well, this movie can be bought on dvd and vhs everywhere here in the Netherlands since almost a year ago now. Kinda strange that it got released in the US only last month, and that it appears to be not that successfull, since this movie got only very few reviews.
Anyway, if that is the case, I want to make clear that it is highly underrated, since it is a very good movie.
Although you'll see the climax coming miles away, this movie still keeps you on the edge of your seat, and makes you wonder which one of the students who are bullied will snap in the end.
The editing is very stylish, since it doesn't run in chronological order, but not confusing in anyway, I thought it was a nice tough. The soundtrack really adds to the emotions the "victims" feel; and by victims, I mean the students who are bullied all over through highschool and then finally snap.
They went through hell, and a bully can't imagine what he is doing to a person. Don't get me wrong, I'm not approving of taking revenge on bullies by killing them, but to be honest, I can understand why they did it.
If you're humiliated, bullied, abused, hit and kicked every single day, year in year out, you're bound to snap one day; a human being can only take this much.
This movie really lets you understand the hell those students are going through, and why they one day pick up a gun, and don't care what they do, even if it cost their own life.
Therefore this is a great movie, well-acted well directed and everyone should see this.
I'm a teacher myself, and can't possibly understand how these things can happen and escalate. I mean, if a student gets picked on every day, it's hard to believe that the teachers don't know about it. So I guess, they DO know, but just don't do anything about it, maybe because they're used to it, and think it's "part of the game".
When students in my class pick on each other, I immediately nip it in the bud, so I got a "happy" classroom, and after the first schooldays the bullying was soon over.
But I guess, it can happen everywhere.
Not only in America this happened, but it already happened 2 years ago in Germany, and last year here in the Netherlands. A student in The Hague snapped and killed a principal.
I think people should act upon this ongoing trend, and prevent other highschool dramas from happening.
Anyway, I'm rambling along about the events in our world, but this should be a movie review; and to come to that, I just think that this movie can be of great influence on students; not in a way, to encourage the bullied ones to pick up a gun, but I think it will convert some bullies and stop them from bullying others. I think unwillingly they will come to their senses and realize what they're doing to other people, and what consequences it may have.
Therefore I absolutely recommend this movie, not only to students, but to everyone, since everyone should know what is going on in the world in in our students' heads and lives.