Coup D'Etat (2014)

Coup E'Tat

2014 (tentative), (2.35:1), Drama/comedy/action/crime, color.

Crew
Director/Writer: J.L. Carrozza.

Coup D'Etat, the concept of a bunch of kids who choose to violently overthrow their oppressive Christian school, has been in my mind for years now. It began as a pseudo Quentin Tarantino kind of script that I started poking away at a little before Little Red Riding Hood where the kids sat around and spouted self-aware quotations before engaging in carnage and there were weird obscure references to things only I found amusing. In other words, it was the most cloyingly awful kind of screenplay. I have certainly have nothing against the Tarantino, quite the contrary, Quentin Tarantino can make films, but the numerous knock-off scripts made by adoring fans are often unreadable. Tarantino does what he does well and unless you can take some influence and expand upon it, do your own damn thing, something I learned the hard way I think. When I returned to the concept after some years of physically making films more often I decided to approach it with a much more socially relevant mindset, the story's influences range from Roald Dahl's Matilda to the DePalma/Stone/Pacino Scarface to Battle Royale with a heavy mix of real life influence as well. I wish to apply a strong degree of irreverent scrutiny to American society, especially the early 21st-century Bush days of course. The film tells the story of Ellen, a young girl who is a student at an oppressive Christian school run by the domineering Roald Dahl villain-like Principal Ragner. Ellen's radical left-wing father is jailed for life because he tried to blow up Congress and her mother became a born-again Christian to get her family's forgiveness. She has always been more of a free thinker because her of father's influence, but she complies reasonably well until she discovers her father's diaries in a relative's attic, after which she begins to concoct a plan to violently overthrow the school's staff and convinces most of the students to go along with it.

The whole thing climaxes in a ferocious, lengthy battle to death against a nasty, corrupt police force that will be reminescent of Japan's resistantance against American forces in the Battle of Okinawa, especially as a depicted by Kihachi Okamoto in the movie of the same name. Also worked into the plot is a vicious street gangster named Rufus the Player who Ellen's friend Jim makes the mistake of stealing the weapons used in the revolt from. Like Alison in Wonderland, this script is very much rooted in my own personal zeitgeist with some elements culled from my own experience. It is something of an exploration of my adolescent anger and an even more personal concept and story. Throughout my childhood and adolescence I often tussled with authority figures at school which is where my initial concept came from. I was also attached to a similar mental hospital idea (called everything from Madhouse to Brookwood) also culled somewhat from my own experiences but I decided to drop that one at least temporarily. I may just write it and have someone else direct it instead. The two concepts are very alike anyways, both about young people incarcerated in oppressive environments who decide to rebel. Coup D'Etat will very much be the ultimate American satire and viciously mock the backwards elements of contemporary American society but will also explore both sides somewhat as well. Ultimately the youthful anarchic rage right wing idiocy is often countered with is too often another side of the same coin, it can become another form of fascism. Ellen ultimately destroys her life and her cause by succumbing to her anger and despair instead of being patient and hopeful, which is the only way truly positive and permanent change can be erected.