From My Cold Dead Hands [Fantasia International Film Festival Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

From My Cold Dead Hands opens with a guy poorly playing the National Anthem on a trumpet while firing his handgun for percussion. The sight of it is absurd, but also disquieting. Guns and America have become conflated in the minds of many people, so that even remotely opposing the former can earn one accusations of hating the latter. This documentary, which screened at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival, is a 64-minute mash-up of YouTube videos that collectively offer a glimpse into American gun culture.

The structure of the movie is shrewd. Director Javier Horcajada uses a video of two earnest gun enthusiasts going down a list of reasons why owning lots of guns is a very good thing. After each point they attempt to make, he counters with a string of videos that contradict that point. Many are hilarious, others chilling. Included is a stunning montage of people accidentally discharging guns and/or non-fatally shooting themselves during ill-advised stunts. Commercials for gun-inspired products like a bottle opener fashioned from real AK-47 bullets are included, too, as are comically bizarre clips in which people celebrate their love of weaponry. One young woman creates a Disney princess-inspired musical number set to The Little Mermaid’s “Part of Your World” that extols assault weapon ownership.

A majority of the videos in the movie are downright goofy. By assembling them, From My Cold Dead Hands makes the point that there are gun owners and then there are gun nuts. The gun nuts, like the trumpet player at the beginning, feel some kind of compulsive need to let the world know how much they love their firearms. What comes out is an impression that these are individuals who get a feeling of power from shooting a gun – a feeling that is otherwise non-existent in their lives. Fetishizing guns is a way of upping their self-esteem because they can smugly identify themselves as patriots and influencers.

Although there are lots of outrageous moments to elicit laughter, the film intermittently leaves you shaken. Most notably, there’s a section showing children who have been indoctrinated into the gun-worshipping mindset. Among them is a little boy of about 8 or 9 who’s thrilled when his dad buys him his first piece of body armor. Another is a girl whose rifle-toting father makes her assemble and disassemble several different types of handguns while blindfolded and being made to spout pro-gun/anti-government propaganda. You can’t help but wonder what they will be like as adults. Either way, it’s clear a generation of gun lovers is dutifully prepping the next generation.

Of course, not everybody who owns a gun is a nutjob. Nevertheless, From My Cold Dead Hands indicates that a not-inconsiderable percentage of them are at least a little on the kooky side. Perhaps the most indelible sequence is a homemade music video in which a woman writhes half-naked on a bed, singing along to a profane rap song while a muscular man grinds on her, makes her simulate oral sex with a pistol, and then achieves (simulated) orgasm on her face. The couple is making it clear that playing with guns is a turn-on, something the other folks in the documentary seem to agree with, even if they’re not saying it as explicitly.

From My Cold Dead Hands takes its name from the famous speech made by actor/NRA president Charlton Heston, a clip that is featured here. The phrase is revealing, as it indicates a person puts their gun ownership above all else. In an increasingly crazy and violent world, that’s an unnerving thought. Using YouTube videos to make the case that fetishizing firearms could be deleterious to society proves to be a profoundly effective tactic. The gun community speaks for itself.

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