Living for 32

Living for 32 (2010)

*** (out of 4)

Good documentary taking a look at the life of Colin Goddard, one of the few survivors from the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. Goddard would be shot four times but he would thankfully live and today he fights for stronger gun control laws to keep guns out of the hands of people with a history of mental issues. The title refers to the thirty-two people who were killed at Virginia Tech that day and overall the film does a good job at showing the horrors of that day as well as what an uphill fight it's going to be to actually get a few of these laws on the book. Goddard starts off by going back to Virginia Tech and showing us where he was when the firing started and then he goes into chilling details about what he remembers from that day. After being shot four times Goddard discusses how he kept on hearing more and more shots and just by the number he knew that many people were going to end up dying. We're with him when he talks about learning who the killer was and there's a pretty creepy sequence where Goddard watches one of the shooter's videos that he left behind. I think the most entertaining and dramatic moments are the discussion of the actual shooting. The second half of the picture shines a light on the gun shows where it's rather easy to get your hands on a firearm and you really don't have to show much identification. To play devil's advocate, the only time we see these shows are when they're able to buy guns without the proper I.D.. I'm sure there were times where they were denied but that's not shown here. LIVING FOR 32 has a pure message to give and it does a nice job at that. This certainly isn't groundbreaking but it's a good little film about surviving and trying to get things changed.