While I was watching Yelawolf’s short film, Gutter, based on the track with the same name from his debut album, Radioactive, I couldn’t help but think of the argument of nature vs. nurture. During the first half of the short film, the boy was nurtured to accept that violence was ok in life therefore it was his nature that he would kill without any kind of emotional reaction. Even though I would say this is an extreme case, isn’t this how life is?
Have you ever heard someone’s story and it makes it abundantly clear why that person acts the way that they do? I have, tons of times, but sometimes you see that same person break against their natural order and defy what you expect them to do. As I was watching Gutter, I kept waiting for the killer to break their natural order and finally it happened when the skateboarding kid ran into him. This is not to say that he murdered every person he came in contact with, but it showed that innate quality to restrain himself while also striking fear and anticipation into the viewer.
Gutter is not masterpiece, but I applaud Yelawolf for attacking the issues of violence coming from the suburbs, and the psychology that despair not only comes from poor neighborhoods, but all neighborhoods despite their income.