"ER" and "Falling Skies" star (and Thacher School alum) Noah Wylie puts his celeb status to good use in the indie drama "Shot," which hits theaters on September 22, 2017. Wylie, who also is a producer, plays sound engineer/gun violence victim Mark Newman.
The literally opening images of "Shot" are of an Old West shootout that creates an impression of watching the wrong film. The context is provided roughly a minute later on learning that under-the-gun (pun intended) Mark is working on a Western. The symbolism that begins with focusing on this genre that glorifies gun use continues with Mark enthusiastically promising to enhance the impact of the sound of the gun shots.
We next see Mark eating lunch with his estranged wife Phoebe; their major points of conflict include Mark wanting to take her espresso machine.
A completely random bullet hitting Mark as the pair leaves the restaurant sets the stage for an "ER" style dramatization. We see Mark bleeding out on the sidewalk, the frantic efforts to get an ambulance, the rush on the gurney to the operating room, the surgery, and the period following the surgery.
"Shot" parallels this with the sympathetic story of the shooter. Miguel is a bullied teen who valid angst extends well beyond being physically pummeled. He accidentally shoots Mark while holding a gun that he wants so he can have an upper hand over his bullies. A largely split-screen presentation shows a panicked Miguel dispose of the gun and work his way home as Mark deals with the consequences of being on the other end of the inadvertently fired weapon.
The audience sees Mark struggle with the emotional and the physical impact of his greatly altered life while Miguel has just as much trouble contending with his guilt.
A side aspect of this is the Mark/Phoebe relationship. Having one foot out the door when the once significant person in your life has an enormous setback requires the tough choice of whether to keep walking, stick around fully out of a sense of guilt, or rekindle the relationship based either on realizing that losing that person for good would be rough or on the experience making the victim a better person.
The understandable desire for revenge that Mark experiences climaxes when he and Miguel come face-to-face. Much of the power of these scenes relates to the inability of each character to fully understand the perspective of the other. However, they at least get to see the face of the person who is responsible for a large change in their life.
The impact of "Shot" continues to the very end with scrolled statistics on gun violence in the U.S. and information about addressing that issue.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Shot" is encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy,
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