Tuesday Night is Film Night is here yet again! The week just rolls by so quickly, it doesn't feel like it's been 7 days since the last film! (Which was The Blind Side incidentally).
This week we pile headlong into the gritty, real life story, portraying a small part of the life of Mark David Chapman, as he plots and commits;
The Killing of John Lennon
Clearly, we all know what happens in this film. The story is well documented, but do we know what was going on in the mind of Mark David Chapman? This film tells us, using the exact words of Chapman gleaned from subsequent interviews and testimonies.
Chapman is portrayed superbly by Jonas Ball, in his first feature film. He captures the paranoid, psychotic killer very well, including the mood swings, and inner demons which drove Chapman to his crime. Most of the words that describe what is going on, are provided through a narration or commentary provided by Chapman (Jonas Ball), which runs parallel with the on screen action. All of which have been drawn from interviews with Chapman since the murder.
Kudos should also be given to the writer and director; Andrew Piddington, who takes the facts and dramatises the story very well, with superb editing, hand held camera work and some very good audio techniques, giving an eerie quality to the narration that runs throughout the film.
If you have a fascination for the story of The Beatles and John Lennon, then this is definitely worth a watch. It's not an action thriller, is is an introspection of Mark David Chapman examining his state of mind, his fixation for the J. D. Salinger novel; The Catcher in the Rye and why Chapman identified with the central character; Holden Caulfield so much, and then subsequently wanting to remove the "phoney" John Lennon.
It is a good factual film, although somewhat surreal in places, but it provides a background to the story of John Lennon's murder. but in no way glamourises the killing or sympathises with Chapman, who quite rightly is still locked up.
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