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While Scripture exhorts us not to laugh at the folly of another human being, comedy such as this exaggerates human behavior so that we laugh out of recognition. We've all stumbled once or twice out of a desire for personal gain. In a year when television studios are offering a plethora of reality-based shows and new game shows with enormous cash prizes, perhaps Rat Race is a well-timed reminder that money is not the answer, and contests that appeal to our baser appetites bring out the worst in us. Laughing at these desperate, cartoonish money-grubbers is probably a lot healthier than tuning in, week after week, to the addicting soap operas of real people behaving reprehensibly in hopes of winning the world's rewards. In the end, Rat Race may even be more honest.

While money-chasing goofballs get the spotlight in Rat Race, American Outlaws wants us to believe that bank robbers are our heroes.

"Bad is good again," boasts the tag line for this new Hollywood western—as if vigilante justice had ever gone out of style on the big screen! Audiences love to have an excuse to root for bad guys. They act on whims, whether selfish or generous, assuring us we can feel good about doing the same. Audiences also love to see the Law and the Establishment defeated. Forces that bring order limit us, to some extent, and this is easily portrayed as a crime against the all-American ethic: the pursuit of happiness. It can be troubling to look at America's movie heroes and see how consistently they represent rebellion and anarchy in the name of love. Even if the authority they are fighting is portrayed as villainous, after heroes have saved the day, they rarely offer any kind of alternative "order" that will provide security or stability for the people they act to support. (That's why God's law is so wonderful; obeying it is a liberating thing. The more we follow, the more we are set free from what binds us.)

American Outlaws takes this tradition of rebel-rousing to an audacious extreme, making a noble hero out of the legendary, murderous bank robber Jesse James (portrayed here by Collin Farrell). It's no surprise the film draws fire from religious media critics.

Movie Parables' Michael Elliott feels the movie makes off with the audience's sense of morality: "Not since Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid has bank robbery looked so appealing. We couldn't ask to see a more charming bunch of bandits. In fact, this film would have us believing that thievery is downright noble." He especially criticizes the glamorization of Jesse James. "[Colin Farrell's] Jesse could be a poster boy for manners and politeness if it wasn't for all that sanitized killing that the film discreetly keeps at a safe distance. Despite the fact that they committed crimes, killing people in the process, we are manipulated to root for these good 'bad guys' and for their success."

Similarly, Focus on the Family's Bob Smithouser responds with Scripture: "Isaiah 5:20 warns, 'Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.' Situational ethics create sympathy for immoral people, inspiring the audience to root for vengeful young outlaws because they're not as inherently evil as the bad guys working for the railroad." Beyond the ethical issues, Smithouser finds this western dilapidated, dusty, and doomed to fail: "Clearly targeting the MTV crowd … Outlaws is yet another case of style over substance. And even the style feels tired. It's not an awful movie, but a hectic one inhabited by characters who look and act like they're on their way to a western-themed frat party. Yet for all of its obvious demographic calculations, American Outlaws fails to realize that most teens find westerns about as attractive as snakebite." Likewise, the U.S. Catholic Conference calls it an "awful western": "Giving the famed bandit's fabled story a weak comedic spin, director Les Mayfield's pathetic attempt is slow and aimless despite the many overdone action sequences." At Preview, Paul Bicking finds that it boasts "the fun and action of classic westerns" but sends the movie to the gallows based on "frequent shootouts and crude dialogue" rather than situational ethics.

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August (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45