The Doom Generation (1995)

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nTitle: The Doom Generation (1995)

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nDirector: Gregg Araki

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nCast: Rose McGowan, James Duval, Johnathon Schaech

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nReview:

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nThe Doom Generation is a film with characters that exist onnthe basis of two basic primal human needs: food and sex, that’s all these kids thinknabout, that’s all these kids need. At one point, Amy, one of the mainncharacters in the film tells one of the boys “You’re like a support system for ancock!” Referencing the guys none stop sexual advances. The story for The DoomnGeneration is all about these two teenagers, Jordan White (James Duval) and AmynBlue (Rose McGowan), both of whom feel like they don’t belong in society, likenthey don’t fit. They are the traditional outcasts. Jordan is kind of innocentnin a way, with a look of naiveté on his face while Amy is imposing,nintimidating and strong. It kind of feels like Amy has got the ‘cojones’ in thenrelationship. Everything changes when they decide to go to a convenience storento buy munchies and cigarettes and for no apparent reason; the scene quicklynescalates into a full fledged massacre, complete with decapitation and all.nJoining the gruesome twosome is a guy named Xavier Red (Johnathon Schaech) whomnthey decide to call ‘X’ for short. So Amy, Jordan and X decide to go on a crossncountry trip, running from the law and surviving as best they can by holding upnconvenience stores along the way, Natural Born Killers (1994) style.

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nAnd speaking of Natural Born Killers, this is the film thatnThe Doom Generation mostly resembles, and it makes sense that it should beninfluenced by it, Natural Born Killers made a huge impact in the world when itnwas first released in 1994 because of its relentless levels of violence. ThenDoom Generation is like a low rent version of Natural Born Killers. It’s gotnthe violence and it’s got the sex too, but there are various differencesnbetween the two films. For example, Natural Born Killers is about two lovers onna murder spree through America, but the film is a comment on the way the medianinfluences people, how they distort the truth, how they’ll make heroes out ofnvillains. The Doom Generation plays with the same premise of murderous loversn(all three of them) but it takes the opportunity to comment on human sexuality,nnamely: threesomes, bisexuality and homosexuality. So in a very palpable way,nThe Doom Generation is also an entirely different film than Natural BornnKillers. But of course, this being a Gregg Araki film, it shouldn’t surprise anyonenthat it touches upon human sexuality in one form or another, this seems to benone of his favorite themes. Or rather, what distinguishes him as a director,nit’s his staple. The opening credits say that this is “A Heterosexual Movie by Gregg Araki” which couldn’t be further from the truth! 

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nThe Doom Generation is part of Araki’s “Teenage ApocalypsenTrilogy” a series of films that focuses on the lives of troubled teenagers innAmerica. This trilogy is composed of the films Totally Fucked Up (1993), ThenDoom Generation and Nowhere (1997). All three are about bisexual/gay teenagers.nIn The Doom Generation Jordan and Amy are heterosexuals, but Jordan hasnbisexual tendencies, so when ‘X’, the loose cannon of the group makes somenadvances towards Jordan, suddenly we’re talking about a threesome. Throughoutnthe whole movie there’s this sexual tension between all three characters to thenpoint where you just know that at some point something’s gonna happen betweennthe three, so if you’re not comfortable with these type of scenarios, don’tnbother with The Doom Generation. Gregg Araki, the director of this film hadnidentified himself first as a homosexual, then as a bisexual. They guy even married actress Kathleen Robertson who starred in Nowhere, so the guy plays onnboth teams. This is probably why many of his films have such a strong bisexualnelement to them. On The Doom Generation, the three main characters want to livento the beat of their own drum, they don’t care about society’s rules, they wantnto do whatever the hell they want to do, but how will the world react to their behavior?

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nTotally Fucked Up also deals with that issue of how thenworld perceives gays. In The Doom Generation we meet a group of true bluenAmericans who find homosexuality repulsive, and so suddenly Jordan, Amy and Xnfind themselves in the clutches of these people who don’t accept the trios’ sexualnexploits. This is a theme that’s prevails in many of Araki’s movies, the fearnof gay bashers. Those individuals who hate gay people so much that they arenwilling to incur in violent acts against them. Similar characters were alsondisplayed in Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film in which a group of gay bashers kicknthe living shit out of two gay lovers, even going as far as killing. One of thensaddest things in the world is not being able to accept others for being whonthey are. I mean, you don’t have to agree with another person’s lifestyle, butnto incur in violent acts against people who are not like you is something I’vennever agreed with, and neither does Araki. In The Doom Generation, a group ofngay bashers are represented as being 100% American, even going as far asnsinging the national anthem as they are bashing the skulls of gay people, as ifnsaying, this is the kind of people America is producing. Araki also displaysnthem with a Nazi swastika on their chests; so to Araki, gay bashers are on thensame level of evil as Nazi’s. I understand the allusion, because Nazi’s wherenbasically individuals who wanted everyone to be like them, they didn’t wantnblacks, or Jews, or people who weren’t Catholics, so that comparison isncompletely valid in my book.

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nAt the same time, Jordan, Amy and X also represent America,nif we put their three last names together, they are Red, White and Blue, sonthese three murderous, sexually adventurous individuals are also a product ofnthe U.S. of A. Araki is probably wanting to say we are all products of the samenmessed up society. This is also a theme that is a constant in the movie. “Thisnworld is fucked up” “I sometimes feel the city is sucking away at my soul” and “Evernfeel that reality is more twisted than dreams?” are just some of the many linesnof dialog on this film that accentuate the status quo of society. Also,nthroughout the entire movie, you’ll see these big signs that display messagesnlike “Prepare for the Apocalypse” and “Welcome to Hell”. When these kids buynsomething at a convenience store, and they do visit a few of them, the totalnfor their purchase is always 6.66, no matter where they go! As if pointing tonthe fact that these kids are cursed somehow, or as the title suggests ‘doomed’.nAll these elements add up to a not so subtle way of establishing the filmsnpessimistic (or truthful?) outlook on the world and the way the young people ofnthe 90’s perceived it, funny how things don’t change much from decade to decade, though I think this is something normal, everybody, no matter what generation they are from think the world is ending.

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nUltimately, this trio of knuckleheads might not come off asnthe most likable of characters, in fact, they do some downright despicablenthings, but I don’t think Araki was trying to portray wholesome, goody littlentwo shoes on this movie. In fact, he was going for the polar opposite of that.nHe was going for the most messed up teens he could think of, it feels as ifnAraki was trying to point a finger at the kind of people that are emerging fromnthe society we live in; people with no morals, no rules and no fidelity to eachnother.  Amy, Jordan and X function withoutna conscience. “Guilt is for married old people!“  They are in many ways like animals, existingnon primal needs. And this strong sexual need isn’t displayed in the film as somethingnthat comes only from men, though Amy criticizes X for only thinking of sex,nshe herself has been with a large number of people, most of which she doesn’t evennremember! So it’s like everyone on this movie is a sex maniac! So my friends,nthis is one of those movies that explores a side of sexuality that because of itsncontroversial nature is addressed in films only sporadically, last time I saw anfilm about a threesome was Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) and onnthat one too things go down the drain, I guess the point these type of filmsnare trying to make is that threesomes just don’t work. At one point or another jealousynwill show its ugly head and things will just get sour.

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nRating: 3 ½ out of 5

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