[A BREW TO A KILL] UNCLE SAM and American Patriot

Saint Louis has incredibly deep and rich brewing history. Even before Adolphus Busch married Lilly Eberhard Anheuser, Johann Adam Lemp had been running his brewery since 1840. He had been a grocer for two years prior, but customers preferred the lager he brewed. At the dawn of the Civil War, Lemp had about 40 competitors locally.

What happened to those competitors? We know what happened to one. But what happened to the competitors that went out of business? Did any of their recipes survive? Were they passed down to family members? Or do they live on in antique malls and collections?

Desert Storm veteran, Sam Harper (David Fralick) is killed by friendly fire in Grenada. He somehow remains alive long enough to murder the Army men ordered to collect his body. News of Sam’s death opens old wounds on the home-front. His sister, Sally (Leslie Neale) and estranged wife, Louise (Anne Tremko), who have been living with Post Traumatic Sam Disorder, are relieved. But his nephew, Jody (Bill Ogden) is devastated. Jody was the only person Uncle Sam kept in contact with. Constantly writing letters, sharing stories of war and glory. With his father out of the picture, Jody idolizes his Uncle Sam and wanted to be just like him. Sam’s body is brought back for burial but on the Fourth of July he rises to kill any unpatriotic Americans.

I think the biggest problem that plagues Uncle Sam is that it’s not terrible. It is an anomaly in Bill Lustig’s otherwise solid filmography, but there are some ideas worth exploring. What stood out the most on this viewing is how to handle the truth. Especially when it’s ugly and someone may be too young to fully grasp it. Jody has no idea who Uncle Sam really is. Sally can’t take Jody’s defense of Sam and finally shares the legacy of abuse his beloved uncle left behind. But this isn’t a drama, when Uncle Sam has to play by the slasher tropes, that’s when the movie suffers. Most of the victims are goofy, flag burners partying in a graveyard, smarmy politicians, a peeping tom in an Uncle Sam costume, and a sleazy lawyer who dresses up like Honest Abe Lincoln every Fourth of July. In fact some of the only people Sam isn’t out to kill is a boy blinded by fireworks and a Vietnam vet, played by Isaac Hayes. His character is plagued by survivor’s guilt which could have had some resonance if someone else played him (no disrespect to Truck Turner). Am I saying this movie would be better as a drama? Absolutely not, but the melodrama and mid 90s Slasher buffoonery is not a good mix. But perhaps it’s better than the post modern, in-on-the-joke, yet deadly serious tone all post Scream slashers would use.

It is worth noting that Uncle Sam is dedicated to director Lucio Fulci, who died during principal photography. The film ends exactly the same way as Fulci’s Gates of Hell aka City of the Living Dead.

It’s always hard to tell how local news plays out on a national level. Back in the summer of 2008, Brazilian owned brewery In-Bev announced it’s intention to buy Anheuser-Busch, the shit hit the fan. Even though A-B was a Goliath of a corporation, operating 13 breweries in the states and 15 more in other countries, it was always thought of as a “local” company. Everybody knows or knew somebody that had worked in some capacity for them. The news of a potential buyout shocked the Metro area. Miller and Coors had already fallen to foreign investors. Suprisingly, on July 8,2008, A-B reached a deal for InBev to buy them out at $52 million dollars.

One man was so upset he took it upon himself to start a new, American owned brewery. John Beal, a local roofer, set out to educate himself on brewing and find America’s next lager. After three years he launched the All American Beer Company. American Patriot and its sister beer, American Patriot Light, set their sights on the older drinker, who like Beal, had grown up on Budweiser and Busch. And the type of person who didn’t want to see their money line the pockets of a foreign company. The billboard ads all looked like throwbacks to 80s beer ads. The commercial had a distinct 90s flare to them. I’m unsure if that was intentional or not. With their slogan “Taking Back America… One Beer at Time!” featuring the signing of the Declaration of Independence on it’s label, it was a middle finger to A-B, InBev. All the ingredients and materials used were sourced here in the Lower Forty-eight.

American Patriot was brewed in La Crosse, WI at the G. Heileman Brewing Company, former home of Old Style. Contract brewing is nothing new. Pabst Brewing, still an American company, contract brews at Miller breweries. American Patriot never really caught on. The company had wanted to play in the big leagues. Despite people’s condemnations of Bud products in 2008 no one was really looking for an alternative. Or maybe American Patriot was too late to the fight. Quite a few craft brewers sprang up in the years since the buy out. Including some run by former A-B employees. Perhaps the company was too eager to compete with the “Big Three” before earning its stripes.

No official word, that I’m aware of, has come down about American Patriot going out of business. Social media has gone silent. But their website is still up and running. When I was at my local grocery store a couple weeks ago, I saw a few cases of American Patriot. I grabbed a 12 pack. Below it was a small handwritten sign “Last Ever”.