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Heart of America

  • 2002
  • R
  • 1h 27m
IMDb RATING
4.4/10
2.8K
YOUR RATING
Heart of America (2002)
Drama

On the last day of school, two bullied teenagers decide to take revenge on their tormentors.On the last day of school, two bullied teenagers decide to take revenge on their tormentors.On the last day of school, two bullied teenagers decide to take revenge on their tormentors.

  • Director
    • Uwe Boll
  • Writers
    • Robert Dean Klein
    • Uwe Boll
  • Stars
    • Jürgen Prochnow
    • Michael Paré
    • Patrick Muldoon
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    4.4/10
    2.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Uwe Boll
    • Writers
      • Robert Dean Klein
      • Uwe Boll
    • Stars
      • Jürgen Prochnow
      • Michael Paré
      • Patrick Muldoon
    • 18User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos3

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    Top cast34

    Edit
    Jürgen Prochnow
    Jürgen Prochnow
    • Harold Lewis
    Michael Paré
    Michael Paré
    • Will Prat
    Patrick Muldoon
    Patrick Muldoon
    • Ryan Brennan
    Birkett Turton
    Birkett Turton
    • Daniel Lynne
    • (as Kett Turton)
    Elisabeth Moss
    Elisabeth Moss
    • Robin Walters
    Maria Conchita Alonso
    Maria Conchita Alonso
    • Mrs. Jones
    Clint Howard
    Clint Howard
    • Artie Lynne
    Brendan Fletcher
    Brendan Fletcher
    • Ricky Herman
    Lochlyn Munro
    Lochlyn Munro
    • Reporter
    Maeve Quinlan
    Maeve Quinlan
    • Becky Schultz
    Elisabeth Rosen
    Elisabeth Rosen
    • Dara McDermott
    Will Sanderson
    Will Sanderson
    • Frank
    G. Michael Gray
    G. Michael Gray
    • Wex Presley
    Kevin Mundy
    Kevin Mundy
    • Tommy Bruno
    Michael Belyea
    • Barry Schultz
    Stephanie MacGillivray
    • Karyn Lewis
    Alejandro Rae
    Alejandro Rae
    • Paul
    • (as Alex Rae)
    Matthew MacCaull
    Matthew MacCaull
    • Donny
    • Director
      • Uwe Boll
    • Writers
      • Robert Dean Klein
      • Uwe Boll
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews18

    4.42.7K
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    Featured reviews

    Crap_Connoisseur

    More Boll Brilliance

    Heart of America, released in Australia as "Home Room", is a well acted and finely crafted film. Uwe Boll tackles a most difficult subject matter with a grace and subtlety that you would not expect from the director of "Alone In The Dark" and "House Of The Dead". Somewhat predictably, Uwe's armchair critics have been sharpening their knives over this film as well. Do these people have anything better to do than rant about a relatively obscure film director's shortcomings? Don't be put off by Uwe's undeserved reputation as the king of crap; Heart of America is a great film.

    Heart of America is one of several films to be inspired by recent high school shooting tragedies. This may sound like a perverse topic for Uwe Boll to examine given his subsequent devotion to making gory horror movies. However, Boll has crafted a surprisingly intelligent and thought provoking film. More impressively, Uwe succeeds where the likes of Gus Van Sant have failed - unlike "Elephant", Heart of America actually makes for interesting viewing. By treating this theme within the context of what appears to be a straight forward teen drama, Boll allows viewers to get to know the characters before plunging into tragedy. This makes the eventual outcome all the more affecting.

    One of the few complaints about Uwe Boll that carries some validity is his tendency to overlook any kind of character development. This makes the in depth character study in Heart of America all the more satisfying. The lives of both the shooters and the victims are explored, which provides a balanced insight into the circumstances that can lead to such inexplicable events and puts a human face to the perpetrators of such acts. The film is interestingly constructed, revealing a group of very different but equally unhappy and disillusioned teens. One reviewer described these characters as stereotypes and I could not disagree more. The characters are almost hyper-real. The drug dealer might look like an extra from "The O.C." but the bullied teenagers, the frustrated teacher and the perplexed principal are all wonderfully realised.

    The acting in the film is mostly outstanding. Once again, Boll has collected a fantastic cast - Juergen Prochnow and Michael Pare are at their very best. It's nice to see a cameo from Maria Conchita Alonso as a school counsellor and Boll regular Will Sanderson is great as the town loser. The younger actors are mostly fine, with the exception of the pregnant girl and the wooden Barbie doll playing the principal's daughter.

    The film works best when exploring the lives of its teen characters. The scenes of bullying and the flashback to the rape of a disabled girl are bleak, gritty and powerful. The look on the brother's face as he hears his idolised sibling recount the rape is devastating. The film loses its way occasionally (what was with the secretary and her bizarre hand gesture to celebrate the last day of school?) but everything is held together by slick editing and a very clever script. I have always enjoyed Uwe's unique directorial skills and he outdoes himself here. I can't wait for more computer game adaptations but after seeing this I hope he squeezes another hard hitting drama into his schedule.

    Heart of America is a riveting film that deserves a bigger audience. This film is eloquent and thought provoking, while still managing to be interesting and entertaining. This movie should be judged on its merits, not the subsequent films of its director.
    7lastliberal

    What's our legacy? We saw, we came, we got p*ssed on weekly?

    I do not know of any other director that has generated so much hatred. There are petitions on the net calling for Uwe Boll to never direct again. Is he really that bad? I am viewing this film, recommended as a good example of his work, with that in mind.

    The film did an excellent job of showing the motivation behind the actions of the boys. The rape of the disabled girl was no different than the physical and psychological abuse of the two boys by the jocks. It was a violation of privacy and of their bodies.

    But, it wasn't just the two boys or the girl who was raped, there was also other plots going on involving teen pregnancy, pressure to have sex, and unfair teachers. Would there be more than two people to explode on the last day? The end result was very predictable and a cautionary tale of what is allowed by school officials and the result of overpopulated schools.

    Bottom line: this was an interesting and engaging movie and Uwe Boll did a very good job of telling the story.
    1sexytail

    Boll is the wrong man to teach this "lesson"

    In Uwe Boll's commentary on the DVD of "Alone in the Dark" he brags about how Ron Howard liked "Heart of America". I really have to wonder what Ron was thinking. Some might think of this film as bold for taking on the hot topic of school shootings, but others (including me) think of it as a travesty for badly dramatizing it. It is an intriguing, important topic, but I've never seen a film successfully tackle it (No, I'm not a fan of "Elephant"). I was in high school when most of the school shootings were happening, so I feel a kind of connection to the subject.

    This film follows various high school kids through their last day of school. We cut between various pre-class conversations in cars, bedrooms, offices, etc. For every character there's a clearly (and mechanically) laid out conflict. Among them are a student who deals drugs, a couple of students who's relationship is ending, a tweaker student, a group of bullies, a teacher who is overly harsh on his students, and the two misfit kids planning the shooting. There are lots and lots of flashbacks (in black and white) explaining how things got this way for the misfit kids.

    Clint Howard shows up as one of the shooter kids' emotionally abusive father. Jurgen Prochnow plays the school principal. And for no reason at all, Michael Pare appears as the teacher in a performance that reminds us all why he's on the celebrity Z list. None of these characters seem all that convincing and the dialog comes straight from an after school special (plus swearing, of course). The writers don't realty seem to understand their teenage subjects, resulting in the same major problem as "Elephant": you don't really come to care about the characters. Flimsy plot combined with irritating characters does not result in a compelling film.

    This subject deserved a much better treatment. However, this is probably the height of schlock director Uwe Boll's career. The characters are irritating, and some of them you wouldn't mind seeing killed, but that's more than you can say for "House of the Dead" or "Alone in the Dark". That said, it is a tedious, insultingly dumb movie which I doubt anyone could benefit from watching.
    6BroadswordCallinDannyBoy

    Uwe Boll does drama. No, seriously.

    A look at the difficulties of high school life. The film takes place during a climatic last day of the school year and through ominous black and white flashbacks there are hints at the trouble that has been brewing.

    Directed by the infamous Uwe Boll this is a surprisingly good film. While the acting is at times second rate and the hard rock soundtrack seems sorely misplaced during some moments, though not all, the film is pretty involving. Mainly through its flashback structure, the audience is placed hours away from a climatic event without knowledge of what will happen and bit by bit the past is revealed and we get an understanding of what is tragically imminent, kind of like in a Greek play.

    There are also a few interesting shots - particularly the opening long take that ventures down a street including in and out of a house. The other major surprise is that Boll is at the helm. His crap video game adaptations are known for their brainlessness but this is significantly different and shows that he has (or at least had) some good film making ideas. The ending is also typical Boll - the film tries to outrun itself by turning into a big political statement and the catharsis seems underdeveloped for the characters and overly large for the film itself. And the kicker is that Boll uses - get this - narrated titles to make that statement. Though the presentation of media coverage was interesting and he should have stuck with just that as there is no need to state the obvious. It is that, and the few other annoyances, ultimately push this what could have been a good hard drama down to the "close but no cigar" category.

    So Uwe Boll took a step in the right direction, but, since then, has somehow decided to take the road more traveled, crappy action movies, and that has made all the difference. 6/10

    Rated R: violence, profanity, drug use, and a rape.
    7SnoopyDogDog

    A run of the mill version of Elephant

    I wanted to watch this one because of Michaela Mann, and I didn't know what it was about. After seeing it was Uwe Boll directing i was a little surprised to so many reputable and excellent actors: Moss, Prochnow, Muldoon, Fletcher, Will xXxX and Paré The movie is clearly about Columbine, just like Gus van Sant's "Elephant" is. However, HoA lacks the quality and artistry of Elephant. And also, it lacks guts, given the conclusion at the end when the reporter DARES to blame computer games for school shootings rather than bullying and availability oof guns. Europe has just as many computer game players, Japan has extreme bullying, neither has a smidge of the American school shooting numbers. So, this movie breathes mediocrity: it's a dumbed down version of Elephant, a straight and very predictable flick. The actual horror is unintentional and comes at the end when several school rampages until 2002 are listed and their death count seem insignificant compared to the rampages in the 2 decades after, Florida, Virginia tech, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Breivik and Dylan Rooff

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Director Ron Howard said he personally enjoyed the film calling it "A very sobering, thought provoking film"
    • Quotes

      Daniel Lyne: What's our legacy? We saw, we came, we got pissed on weekly?

    • Connections
      Referenced in The Important Cinema Club: #405 - Is There a Case for Uwe Boll? (2024)
    • Soundtracks
      Sunshine
      Written by Peter Ries & Dawn Schoenherz

      Performed by Dawn

      Published by FMM Music Publishing

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    FAQ

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • May 17, 2003 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • Canada
      • Germany
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Deadly Trust
    • Filming locations
      • New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Boll Kino Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG
      • Cinemedia
      • Shavick Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $3,000,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 27 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

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