Packing Heat

Although Video Librarian reviews a very wide range of materials, our policy has always been that we don't do "girls and guns"-meaning no sex and violence exploitation films (unless, of course, they make big money at the boxoffice). Ironically, girls and guns is precisely what Packing Heat is all about, but this interesting documentary is neither sleazy nor corpse-ridden. Directed by Wendy Rowland, Packing Heat is a stylish, invigorating look at the pros and cons of women carrying handguns. Interviewees include: Paxton Quigley, a former Playboy PR person who now has the ability to, quoting Dirty Harry, "blow your head clean off your shoulders" (a spokesperson for Smith & Wesson, Quigley's favorite gun is the cinematic immortal .357 magnum); Nancy Floyd, who chose a .38 special because it looks like "the gun in Thelma & Louise"; and anti-gun feminists who argue that guns are part of the problem not the solution (in Australia, circa 1992, deaths by handgun equaled 13; gun-happy America, by contrast, weighed in at 13,220). Packing Heat takes a volatile issue and approaches it in an even, non-sensational manner, providing opinions on both sides, while offering a fair amount of humor (I found one interviewee's argument for self-defense pretty compelling: "I'm not the kind of woman who would pick up a rolling pin; I'd use a gun.) Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)