Red White & Blue (film)

Erica spends her nights trawling the bars and beds of Austin, Texas. Emotionally withdrawn, her only form of human contact is a series of one-night stands. She lives in a flophouse where she does the cleaning in exchange for room and board. This arrangement with the landlady is discontinued when new boarder Nate moves in, and Erica finds herself in urgent need of a regular income to pay for her stay. Feeling responsible, Nate helps her land a job in the DIY store where he works. Distrustful and reluctant at first, she gradually warms up to the mysterious Nate, who uses an anecdote from his childhood as a metaphor to justify his protective demeanor towards Erica despite his psychopathic tendencies. He also claims to have been honorably discharged from service in Iraq and is apparently considering a job offer by the CIA. Despite his air of danger and Erica's difficulty in leaving her promiscuity behind, the two form a hesitant bond.

Franki Morrison, a young, hot-headed wannabe rock star, learns on the eve of his band's departure for a European tour that he is HIV-positive. This affects his mother as well, since he had spent months donating blood to her for her cancer treatment. Distraught by the news and its implications, Franki realizes he mist have been infected by Erica, the only woman he had unprotected sex with during the past six months. His two bandmates had also partaken in the foursome (shown in the film's initial scenes) but test negative. However, their loyalty and that of another friend named Ed leads them to assist Franki in tracking Erica down and forcefully taking her to his home. Erica tacitly admits that she was deliberately exposing sexual partners to HIV but justifies her actions as a response to the rape she suffered as a child by her mother's boyfriend.

When Franki's friends reluctantly leave him alone with Erica, Franki rapes her and keeps her hostage over the next few days. When he learns his mother committed suicide because of her exposure to HIV, Franki stabs Erica in a fit of rage. He and his three friends try to drive her to the hospital, but she dies in their car before they can take off. One more time out of loyalty, her body is dismembered offscreen and Franki's friends agree to dispose of the parts in separate locations.

Before they can do so, Nate uses his CIA contact to track them down. He tortures and murders all of them, including Ed and his family, revealing himself to be a skilled and sadistic army interrogator. His last victim is Franki, whom he skins alive after retrieving Erica's head. He finally decides to turn down his CIA contact's offer for a job and moves to his sister's place in Tallahassee, Florida. Halfway through his drive to Florida, he buries all of Erica's remains and burns everything that reminds him of her, including a picture of their wedding a few weeks earlier.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse star Robert Hall worked on the film as Editor.[3] The film was shot in Austin, Texas in the Alamo Drafthouse – 1120 South Lamar Boulevard, Beauty Bar – 617 East 7th Street and The Highball – 1142 South Lamar Boulevard, New Guild Co-Op - 510 West 23rd St.[4] Noah Taylor, Amanda Fuller and Marc Senter played the leads in the Rumleyvision project.[5]

Red White & Blue premiered on January 29, 2010 as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.[6] It was featured in several American film festivals: On March 16, 2010, it appeared in the South by Southwest;[7] On March 27, 2010 it appeared in the Boston Underground Film Festival; and on July 17, 2010 it appeared in the Danger After Dark Film Festival. The film will run on the Fantasia 2010.[8]

The film won the Best of Fest Narrative Award at the 2010 Boston Underground Film Festival.[9]

Pop artist and producer Richard Chester composed the official score.[10]

• Official website
• Red White & Blue at IMDb
• Red White & Blue at AllMovie
• Red White & Blue at Rotten Tomatoes
• Red White & Blue at Metacritic