Kaitlin Alfvin

Guncrazy

Year: 1992

Director: Tamra Davis

Guncrazy is a drama and in a twisted way somewhat of a romantic. Drew Berrymore plays the role of a sexually abused teen (Anita) who, has grown up with no guidance. They show the run-down town in which she lives by doing multiple establishing shots showing all the houses, dusty roads, broken cars, etc. Finally we see one last establishing shot of the school before showing the classroom in which Anita is sitting inside.

When Anita finally meets her Pen-pal Howard most of their conversations are filmed over the shoulder so that the viewer can feel as if they are in the conversation. As Howard and Anita begin to get closer and they take to the roads the camera shows this through a series of moving pans as they drive past police cars on the highway. The director introduces the city that Anita and Howard come to much like how he introduced the rundown town Anita is from. He does this again through a series of establishing shots fading in and out into each other.

For the final scenes of the film Howard and Anita as Howard gives up his life to hopefully renew Anita’s after the crime spree they left on. As we see Howard walk down the stairs of the house they had broken into he starts shooting at the police, immediately to find himself shot in the chest multiple times as he tumbles down the stairs. The strongest shot of the movie is the reaction shot Anita is given after Howard tumbles down the stairs. You can see the pain in her face as she loses the one man that respected her.