The Gun (from 6 to 7:30 p.m.) (2003) User Reviews

A provocative and entertaining thriller!

[drewzer · 8/10 · 26 September 2003]

The Gun is a compelling and thought-provoking thriller that captured my attention from the first scene. An amazing contribution to the Montreal Film Festival, each scene of the film was shot without any cuts. What an ingenious and inventive idea in filmaking! This revolutionary and novel approach to cinematography makes a viewer truly enter the film and revel in the real-time feel.

Throughout the film there were plenty of plot twists, which delivered a powerful message regarding guns in America.

This movie follows a gun, which in the opening scene of the movie, was dropped on the side of a dusty, deserted road. Soon picked up by a biker, the Gun finds itself in a myriad of situations. Follow the gun from 6:30 to 7:30 and you will find yourself caught in the midst of an exceptional, exciting film.

A technically and artistically superior film

[cyberslinger · 29 September 2003]

The Gun in my opinion is a very important piece of filmmaking that I fear may be slightly misunderstood to the general viewing audience. Upon reflection Alenikov and Company had quite a few obstacles to overcome which they did. One shooting a film in real time. The story takes place in 1.5 hours and therefore the film is 1.5 hours. Second and the most difficult is only 15 scenes using one steady cam to capture all of the action in one continuous shot. Now thats tough. It's more like directing a live play but then with the added difficulty of having to add the camera and lights so that the flow is natural and so is the look. This is what impressed me more than anything. Alenikov is truly an artist. I don't think many directors whose names are recognized today could have pulled it off the way he did.

This film is a must see for any aspiring director and/or DP and even actor who wants to see how someone thinks out of the box in approaching a film. Very interesting stuff. I would like to get a copy of this film so I can review each scene and see exactly how he did it. When I originally watched it I kept finding myself asking "How did he do that?" "Where are the lights?" It was pretty impressive.

Definately see this film and don't forget what the preperation is to pull something like this off. I'd love to see what Alenikov could do with a big budget.

-Cyb :)

Great Concept, Awful Execution

[artblose · 1/10 · 3 September 2003]

I was quite excited when I saw this film in competition at the Montreal Film Festival. Along with Elephant and a few others, I thought the issue of American gun violence/culture would be treated intelligently and in a fashion compelling for film-goers. The press-release promised (in not so many words) a `Red Violin' for the gun-violence crowd, something to make us ponder our NRA-shoot-em-up mindset in this country.

After waiting until after 9:15 to be seated for a 9AM screening (what technical difficulties they would have encountered is beyond me), we were finally let into the venue to see the film on DV (where did the advertised 35MM print go?). I think I just answered my first question.

The result is an abhorrent mess. We get the "gun", in a vignette with the most unrealistic "biker' I have ever seen (and I do know more than a few). The film then lapses into irrelevant "character development" only because the characters are either a. stereotyped, b. losers, c. stereotyped losers, and/or d. racial caricatures. It takes another 30 minutes to get to the plot movement, and once we are there, we wish for the inane conversations between the couples and/or the bikers and pawn brokers.

The film finds it's conclusion, but not without leaving any cliché untried. I didn't care for the white-trash characters who came in contact with the gun, and the depiction of the minority characters should have the NAACP crying foul immediately. All these people WOULD chase after a gun, because they are at the bottom of the societal trash-heap, and would look for an opportunity wherever it was found. Placing the action a level up would have at least provided some soul-searching on the part of the characters.

The biggest problem is the promise unfulfilled. The plot outline was great. In the hands of a P.T. Anderson or Gus Van Zandt, it could have been a powerful piece. But due either to bad screenplay, direction or both, the thing is an unmitigated mess that needs to be ignored at all costs.

My bigger question is who at the MFF thought this was competition material. Better bury this on Showtime at 3AM.

Art Blose

Great concept, horrific execution

[pbickford-12-824870 · 2/10 · 24 June 2021]

Hoped for a "24"-style, tense, real-time drama. Instead got 90 interminable minutes of amateur acting, writing, and directing. While I cheer for the ambition of this one, it was simply a mess of a film.

Big for nothing

[Againstme · 1/10 · 4 September 2003]

The Gun is probably the worst film I've ever saw. The comedians direction is very poor, the dialogs sounds like they were written by a 13 year old teenager, the plot (what plot?) is another "suspense" in which it is very hard to get into. Finally, nothing in this movie is any good. A big thumbs down to everyone involved and particularly to the Montreal film festival who presented this movie IN COMPETITION!

An in-depth view of the obsession for a gun

[legaleagles · 10/10 · 8 August 2003]

The Gun takes Vladimir Alenikov's vision into the shadowy world of obsession, and no one underscores the price of obsession better than the talented Jack Forbes, as Victor. Fraught with good intentions and overwhelmed by the relentless pace of urban living, Victor clamors for a solution, only to find that his problems are just beginning. Jack Forbes' performance is so subtle, compelling and real, combined with the steady-cam no-cuts filming technique, we really feel like we're living out the 90 minutes with him. This should be a break-away film for Jack. Tim Colceri plays AJ, an energetic strip bar owner, and the chemistry between AJ and Victor is both entertaining and heart wrenching. Vladimir's direction of this foray into the minds of everyday people is seamless, inspired and innovative. Cinematographer Kirill Davidoff, through the steadicam of Chris George, is remarkable as it winds through the story in continuous no-cut shots of unprecedented lenght and complexity, all the while in perfect focus and lighting. Jeremiah Hasseman is interesting in the role of Gene, the unruly and unemployed transient, and as a newcomer holds his own in this production. Tamara Tara, as Anna, Victor's hapless wife, shows her range from disdain to distraught to desperate, finally landing in the sypathetic laps of the audience. Val Dillman is delightful as Christie, the alluring and endearing stripper who seduces Victor and tosses Gene out on his ear. And Robert Harrell III is convincing as Lamar, the street-person thief. The Gun is a ground-breaking film for all involved, and should be a winner.

INCREDIBLE!!!! grabs the audience right into the character's mind

[stylinchicxoxo · 10/10 · 27 September 2003]

I thought this film was absolutely amazing. I haven't seen such a brilliantly made film in a very long time. It represents what filmmaking is really all about. I'm sure this film will become very successful and known all over the world winning numerous awards. I can't wait for Vladimir Alenikov's new works of brilliance.

new wave cinema

[dalt28 · 9/10 · 29 September 2003]

Great! I am 100% agree with the President of Montreal World Film Festival Serge Losique who told: "The Gun" will be a great cult movie". What a movie!

I saw the movie twice in one day and I saw that the cinema language is definitely changing - technically and aesthetically. Good job, guys! Jimmy Dalt - professional

Great artistic achievement, art-style movie.

[krustar · 10/10 · 13 January 2006]

In my opinion "The Gun From 6 to 7:30 p.m." is a really great movie, technically and artistically professional (I agree with Cyb).

I have been affected from the beginning for the whole duration: utmost visual realistic and truthful story.

Audience is drawing into a real life (like a documentary). It's a true people' life-story, not fiction, consistently engaging and intriguing because of the real-time: talented independent filmmakers taste us with the ordinary reality of what is really going on, and it's make us ponder about the cost of human's life... The Gun is like a delay-action bomb - very outspoken, philosophical, and lamentable movie. If you are interested in the type of art-style, slowly-driven, and very professional film - see The Gun.

[e-mail] (KK, Actress/Producer)

very well done, worth your time to watch

[tata91364 · 10/10 · 19 January 2006]

i was impressed by the movie, very well done and shot. very important subject too, makes the watchers think and analyze their life style and problems around them. highly recommended, actors are very good too,their very natural manner of acting makes one feel like being inside the movie and around the heroes in it. how do we live, do we make our life and other people's lives around us easier or do we use them and lose them? do we know how to love? are we able to love and make commitments? are we responsible for our decisions? who is? are we nice to people? are people nice to us? are we scared of people? are we in danger? do we feel like being in ganger? and therefore should ONE own a gun, and if "yes" how do we use it and when? now days it's a hard question, there is no exact answer to it, don't you think? at least the movie is an offer to a movie watcher to start thinking about this issue, if he or she never have before.

Witty execution; Excellent concept

[incspartan · 10/10 · 17 January 2006]

I saw the film at MFF. It's pure art-house. A vision of one man. You either love it or hate. But if you stick with it, the film nonchalantly creeps up on you with its captivating, brilliant camera-work and non-intrusive, yet powerful message. It's an important film to see in this day and age and it makes a perfect sense why our less-violent northern neighbors chose to screen this piece of art IN COMPETITION. The film is original and unique, which makes it worth checking it out. The filmmaker has a strong voice and opinion and he's not afraid to show it. Last summer I was watching at least 2,3 movies a week in theaters and after a few weeks all of them started to lose identity and became to blend together. They're all done in the same Hollywood fashion. The only difference is the plot, which sometimes, is not all that different at all. Out of my 2 months long movie run only 1 or 2 films stood out and that's it! Most of them I don't remember. "The Gun" however, I'll remember for a long time. It's food for thought. It's provoking and intelligent. We need more diversity, more opinions and more films like this.

An engagingly simple, thought-provoking tale of a L.A. pistol that irresponsibly, inevitably ends up in the wrong hands.

[ayscough_ink · 4 October 2003]

Vladimir Alenikov's The Gun is a brilliant fiction take on the necessary evils and possibly deadly consequences of gun "ownership". Shot in 15 simple real-time takes, it quietly follows the gun through various people's hands over the course of 1 1/2 hours, from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. It's like a "road movie" for a pistol which is found by a biker and pawned to the next slime bucket and misplaced by yet another directionless loser. Critics at the Montreal film festival disliked the "losers" element and found it difficult to connect to the cold, often listless characters such as the typical musician who can be summed up by the old joke: what do you call a musician without a girlfriend? Homeless. Characters both related and unrelated to each other are as intentionally disparate at the disengaged family members in Pasolini's Teorama. This brilliant fiction tale borders on the anti-gun sentiments in the Oscar-winning doc, Bowling for Columbine, yet its one female character (the protagonist's wife, Anna) has a stalker which makes one realize that guns are often a necessary evil in America, despite Michael Moore's convincing diatribe. The story unspools as slowly as Teorama which would be a detractor for action-seekers and a plus for those inclined to a deeper understanding of guns in America. And there is an incredibly erotic banana-eating scene that is worth the wait even you're an action buff. Terrific U.S. outing for Russian exile, writer, editor and director, Vladimir Alenikov. -- suze (former Variety film critic and current communications consultant)

Visual Experience

[misterbrains · 10/10 · 3 February 2006]

The lure of this film is the visual technique. The extensive SteadCam work takes you on a cruise through seedy North Hollywood - not all that far from the infamous North Hollywood Shootout of 1997 - following an elusive gun.

Many of the characters are no different than fish. The current takes them places, their own thoughts and desires are just reactions, no foresight. A biker simply finds a discarded gun and sets the film in motion. Then everybody finds it and loses it. The main character, Victor the cabbie, is too easily influenced by whatever swirls past him, from the pro-gun radio talk to the purchase of The Gun (not even caring that the price keeps going up). When he meets an old acquaintance, the strip club owner, he loses track of his ever-so-important gun while ogling strippers. The whole idea of responsibility is lost on this clown, this fish, as he putzes around with a dangerous weapon in a sack. He's convinced that it's his salvation from imaginary dangers. Not quite.

The only redeeming characters are the women - what else is new. While none of them come into contact with The Gun, they have to endure the idiots who desire it and the consequences of their actions. The danger is not The Gun, it's the aspirations of those who covet it.

The film is politically noncommittal, pro- and anti-gun people should be able to glean something from it. I'd hope both camps could at least agree that morons should not own guns.

Powerful movie! I wish we saw more films on this subject come out in the US!

[mashasun · 9 December 2003]

I thought the movie very powerfully reflected the gloomy, sinister and murderous nature of guns. The film expressed brilliantly the fact that guns inspire and cause murder. Period.

Vladimir Alenikov's film grabbed me immediately and kept me hostage for the whole duration. They way the film was shot (in real time) makes it feel very real, it's like you are watching the events happening in front of your eyes. The creepy character of a musician boy who takes possession of the Gun is outstanding; his crazy smile after he spooked first people with his power because he had the Gun still stands in my eyes and gives me goose bumps. Powerful movie! I wish we saw more films on the subject come out and in the US the viewing of this film, should be mandatory! Great Job! Masha Tsiklauri