Last year, pro-life filmmaker Molotov Mitchell released the trailer to his upcoming film, Gates of Hell. I wrote a scalding review of the film based on the trailer, which can be seen here:
Molotov’s response was to make a video that tore into me with some pretty vicious ad hominem attacks. It can be seen here:
People were incensed at Molotov’s video rebuttal. I just took it in stride and decided to wait and see if the trailer accomplished what trailers are meant to do: Present the arc of the movie. Well, it seems that the movie is out and the reviews are coming in. I present here Jill Stanek’s review, which as well contains that of my colleague, Ryan Bombereger.
Here now, is Jill Stanek:
The movie Gates of Hell has been controversial among pro-lifers since its trailer was posted almost a year ago. In February the film was released on DVD “in honor of black history month.”
Set in 2016, Gates of Hell is a fictional documentary that follows a band of black domestic terrorists known as the Zulu 9 who literally set their sites on abortionists and abortion workers after learning blacks have been purposefully targeted for abortion for generations.
Gates of Hell was written and directed by Molotov Mitchell, a gifted pro-life filmmaker who went terribly astray this time.
Things got personal when Mitchell took apart friend and site moderator Gerard Nadal for coming out against the film after watching the trailer. Mitchell mocked Gerard for basing his review on just the teaser, promising there was more to the movie.
There wasn’t. I really wanted to like this film but have watched it twice now and have been deeply disturbed each time. I’m a provocative pro-lifer who likes to push the envelope, but Gates of Hell goes too far.
The film is quite simply about black terrorists who murder any and all abortion workers they can find – an abortionist leaving his house, an abortionist sitting at an outdoor cafe, etc., etc.
The most disturbing scene is when the Zulu 9 burst into a Planned Parenthood, indiscriminately picking off staff in their offices. I could only think of Columbine.
Ryan Bomberger has written a review of Gates of Hell from a black perspective:
I actually had to hit pause several times throughout this obvious shockumentary, because I was repulsed by what I was seeing and so angry that this creation could even be considered “pro-life”. One of my colleagues, and pivotal figures in the fight against the epidemic of abortion in New York City, Dr. Gerard Nadal, was excoriated by Molotov for daring to react to the trailer. Nadal was attacked for somehow misinterpreting the contents of a trailer that accurately reflect the entire movie.
How would I describe the film in a single word? Detrimental.
The glorification of violence, as a means toward an end, makes the film’s primary message appalling. Molotov, starring in his own film as himself, was the only person in this story who was not a fictional character. He cannot claim a fictional nature for the film, but instead one of seeming advocacy with a deeply disturbing and highly suggestive solution to a cause.
Watching the entire movie not only reinforced my own negative reaction to the trailer but also strengthened the argument that the film does not consider the overall racism that it, too, conveys.
I get that Molotov was trying in the most attention-getting way possible to spotlight the atrocity of black abortion genocide. But that is not what people will be talking about.
Molotov owes Gerard an apology.
I give Gates of Hell one star, only for its display of Molotov’s unique story-telling talent. I look forward to the day Molotov channels his creative energies into a project of value to the movement. This one wasn’t.
Several years ago George Tiller was shot in both arms in an effort to stop him from murdering babies. He took this as a challenge and ramped up the rate of murder of unborn children, and reveled in his fame. Another man who hated the wanton murder of innocent preborn children more than he valued his own freedom or his own life itself, stopped George Tiller. Tiller has not murdered any babies since, and his clinic has been closed, and it is much more difficult to get late term abortions in Kansas for any frivilous reason. Kathleen S. forges full steam ahead, as does Obama, Planned Parenthood, and many others, but less doctors and clinic locations than before, and the murder houses are being more closely monitored. If abortion is not stopped in this Nation by legal means, it will drive people to make Zulu non-fiction, in my opinion. Maybe a film like this will cause the baby murder for profit industry to consider the possible costs, while states move ahead like Oklahoma and pass laws that recognize that personhood LIFE begins at conception. Once Congress tells The Supreme Court that Human Life begins at conception, Roe v. Wade will be overturned, and abortion on demand will end. Maybe the other side needs to see some scare tactics until then.
@ Jon Helm: So you are advocating lawlessness to change the laws and murder to change people’s minds? In a time when more and more freedoms are taken away in the name of safety, you’re advocating giving the government more reasons to make us “safe”. That is insanity. You guys lost (in Roe vs. Wade) this battle because you aren’t good at fighting it, plain and simple. Instead of learning from your mistakes, you keep beating the same drum the same way and whining about it won’t change those facts.
You won’t win this fight if you start murdering people for three reasons: it makes your pro-life stance a mockery, you a hypocrite, and nobody in this country will to tolerate a religious war. We have plenty of those with the Muslims. There are plenty of people who are either on the fence or who are at least sympathetic to the pro-life movement. Once you cross that line, you loose both of those people and the war. What you & this movie proposes is barbaric, non-Christian, an un-American. Try practicing your faith sometime.
Melika, you did not read and digest my comments at all, yet you attack me as promoting murder, which I did not. Us guys, as you call us, are winning in my home state of Oklahoma by passing laws that recognize life begins at conception. So far, the laws we pass, such as requiring an ultrasound of the unborn baby be offerred, have been struck down by obstructionist judges. We will keep trying.The George Tillers in this country ARE currently counting their cost for wanton murder. This film, as distastful as you find it, may stop some more George Tillers from simple fear to counter their simple greed. I am sometimes critized as being against Pro-Life principles because I support Capital Punishment for Heinous crimes. In Oklahoma, a young woman was witnessed giving birth from the other side of the lake, then her partner crushed the baby’s scull with a rock. That was a heinous crime. I told co-workers that it was no different than abortion, to which they became very angry, as it is acceptable to many so called Christians. There is no difference. An innocent child was murdered both ways. My oldest brother believes that it is not murder simply because Roe v. Wade made it legal in the USA. Murder will always be murder no matter where it is, and an un-born child will always be innocent. George Tiller was not innocent of murder, as God stipulated what is the taking of innocent blood. George Tiller was GUILTY. Maybe this film will stop some of the wanton murder. God is the judge of my Faith, not you Melika. And by the way, there are many Christians, Muslins, and non-believers in any God that find abortion abhorant.
John,
The end result is a distant second to HOW we get there, and that’s where morality, ethics, and law come in. Once we begin to condone filth such as this movie we have taken a long walk down the road to some wing nut taking it upon himself to take the next step and actually kill someone.
If we’re honest, we can admit that the pro-life movement has attracted its fair share of loons. We don’t need to fertilize demented minds with this sort of compost. The victories in Oklahoma and elsewhere are being won by sane, rational, moral, and ethical pro-lifers. Let’s keep it that way and stay the course.
As you say, we’re winning.
@ Jon Helm: When a person “reads and digests” you comment, it becomes blatantly clear that you approve of this type of behavior. Your response to me confirms such. You make the usual mistake of assuming that because I’m not in your religious camp that I am pro-abortion. I am not. What I am is pro-law. We have lived with the benefits of a safe and stable society because of our respect of Law and Order. No one is going to like all the laws a society enacts, that is one of the detriments of society. You don’t have to agree with Roe vs. Wade, I don’t agree with it on a number of points, but that is the law of the land. If you hunt down a murderer and kill him in cold blood, it is murder. If you kill a doctor performing legal or illegal abortions, that is murder. We don’t have a society if individual people get to decide who lives and dies, we have anarchy and no one is safe.
My criticism isn’t with anyone’s religion, my criticism is the fact that religious people think that arguing abortion from their point of view is somehow going to persuade those who aren’t religious. The people that you, the general Christian population, needs to convince are the multitude of people with a different or no religious outlooks. You don’t do that by saying abortions should be illegal because it says so in a book you find sacred. You especially don’t say that to scientists today. When you are making strides on this point in New Jersey or Mass., I’ll be impressed.
The people providing these abortions feel just as strongly that they are performing a benefit to the women, the fetus/baby, and society in general as you do that they are not. Like Tiller, they will see this movie as a catalyst, a challenge for them to continue doing their good work under dire threats. Martyrdom is attractive to many people. This movie provides the added fodder to criticize, dismiss, and foment fear of religious people. When I say you are fighting this battle incorrectly, I mean it as a helpful criticism from a person who is surrounded by atheist and fair-weather Christians. But hey, don’t listen to the heathen, just keep throwing the Bible in people’s faces and threatening/advocating violence.
Dr. Nadal’s comment (and post of course!) are spot on. The prolife movement cannot go around condoning the murder of abortion staff as a means to stop abortion. We forget that God has already won this battle. It’s how we get to the victory line – by loving our opponents, praying for them like it all depends upon God and working against them socially, politically etc. like it all depends upon us.