The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) Movie Information:

The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) Directed by: Andrew Piddington The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) Written by: Not available at this time The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) Cast: Jonas Ball

The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) U.S. Distributor: IFC Films The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) U.K. Distributor: The Works

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The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) Synopsis:

A true independent, the widescreen look of Andrew Piddington's latest feature belies its modest budget: no shabby exploitation-style thriller, it's instead a supremely well-crafted, handsomely made meditation on the relationship between celebrities and their public - as well as a journey into the twisted mind of killer Mark David Chapman, from his background in Hawaii all the way to his final, fatal rendezvous outside the Dakota Building in December 1980. (All Chapman's dialogue comes from his own journals and statements.)

The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) Movie Review:

There's a creepy tone to this subtle thriller that really gets under our skin, as the filmmaker painstakingly recreates the last three months before Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon. It's thoroughly disturbing but so psychologically complicated that it really makes us think.

During the presidential campaign in September 1980, 25-year-old Mark Chapman (Ball) develops an unsettling obsession with phoniness, voraciously reading The Catcher in the Rye and settling on John Lennon as a symbol of the problem with society. How can a millionaire ask us to "imagine no possessions"? Mark's wife (Omori) and mother (Fairchild) don't take this obsession seriously, even when he abruptly quits his job, buys a gun and leaves his Honolulu home for New York City. On 8 December, he guns down Lennon in the doorway of his apartment building.

The film doesn't end there; it follows Chapman to Bellevue and Attica, where his mental state degrades further into fantasy. And this full arc of madness is seriously chilling, played to perfection by Ball, who brings to mind the brilliant film portrayals of Eric Bana in Chopper and Charlize Theron in Monster. Like those two films, this isn't a sympathetic dramatisation; it merely shows us the complexity of the person at the centre of the story, forcing us to see a human being behind the villain.

Piddington shot completely at the original locations using only dialog from the public record. This attention to detail gives the film an unsettling authenticity that's echoed in the unfussy, almost home-video production style and understated performances. Several scenes echo Scorsese's Taxi Driver, one of Chapman's other inspirations, while the constant voiceover (taken from Chapman's interviews) gives us chilling insight into his the mind of a stalker.

This is a man in the grip of a dark internal frenzy, unable to make a clear decision or to sort out his feelings for his family, strangers and the world at large. None of this excuses his actions, but it does make us think about how society deals with people like this. And it also asks hard questions about our celebrity-obsessed culture, which glorifies our heroes' hypocrisy and encourages us all to become stalkers.

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The Killing Of John Lennon (2007) review written by: Rich Cline