The Killing of John Lennon (2006)

The Killing of John Lennon: Directed by Andrew Piddington. With Jonas Ball, Mie Omori, Krisha Fairchild, Gail Kay Bell. A dramatization of Mark Chapman’s plan to murder John Lennon.

“I saw this movie at the 2007 International Film Festival of Rotterdam. The director was present at the screening for a Qu0026amp;A. I saw a finished cut, u0026quot;straight from the Avidu0026quot;, but with at least partly a temp soundtrack.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePlot summary: This is a dramatized telling of the events surrounding the murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. Chapman (Jonas Ball) is the central character here. We follow his footsteps in the months before and after the killing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have recently seen the documentary The US vs John Lennon (2006), It filled a gap in my knowledge about Lennon in the 70u0026#39;s.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie, u0026quot;The Killing of John Lennonu0026quot; is not a documentary, rather a nonfiction drama. It answers some of the questions about Lennonu0026#39;s death that I still had ofter seeing u0026quot;The US…u0026quot; The challenge with this type of story is of course: how do you keep a movie interesting when the protagonist is so obviously not a very nice character. I like how this was handled here. There is a good balance between keeping a healthy emotional distance from this criminal, while keeping things interesting. Ted Demmeu0026#39;su0026quot;Blowu0026quot; (2001), a similar type of movie about a famous drugs criminal did not have this balance,. I think, where u0026quot;The Killing…u0026quot; does.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirector Andrew Piddington states in the opening titles u0026quot;All of Mark David Chapmanu0026#39;s words are his own.u0026quot; This is important to know, I think, because we get to hear Chapmanu0026#39;s words during most of the movie. In dialogs and in voice-over as he recalls the events. It is clear that Piddington has put a lot of research into this, though , He obviously used other sources besides Chapmanu0026#39;s testimony.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe end result is a well-made film. Jonas Ball is almost constantly on-screen, and he gives a very believable performance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEven though this was (as the director told later) made with a very low budget, it feels very well produced and expensive. The creation of the time period is very well done. The cinema scope photography is flawless. I also liked the score, but what I heard was at least partly a temporary soundtrack. E,g, for scenes in the car and taxicab a piece from u0026quot;The Thin Red Lineu0026quot; (composer Hans Zimmer) was used. The director said this would not be in the final film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe only flaw that I can see, is that after 3/4 of the movie, it started to feel a bit longish. All in all a very worthwhile watch: 8/10.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eScreenplay Trivia: The movie was made without cooperation by Chapman (or Ono, for that matter. All of Chapmanu0026#39;s testimonies are public, so that was used to get Chapmanu0026#39;s words.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eProduction Trivia: The entire project took 4 years to realize. Much of that went into research and getting financing.”