Rating: NR
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 01/02/2008(USA
Release Date: 08/05/2008
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 115 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Ifc
What sort of man kills one of the most beloved musicians in the world, and what prompts him to pull the trigger? Filmmaker
Andrew Piddington explores these questions in this fact-based
drama which examines several weeks in the life of
Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered
John Lennon.
Chapman (played by
Jonas Ball) is a self-obsessed young man who has an emotionally distant relationship with his parents and a failing marriage to
Gloria (
Mie Omori). Unable to hold down a job,
Chapman spends a lot of time at the public library, where he rereads
J.D. Salinger's
The Catcher in the Rye and browses though a photo book on
John Lennon, and the two begin to fuse in his imagination, as he links
Holden Caulfield's grousing about "phonies" with the fame and wealth of one-time activist
Lennon.
Chapman hops a flight to New York City and visits the sights
Caulfield talked about in the novel when not busy standing vigil outside the Dakota, the luxury apartment building
Lennon calls home, with a gun in his possession. The first time
Chapman crosses paths with
Lennon as he's leaving the Dakota, he asks the former
Beatle to sign a copy of
Double Fantasy,
Lennon's new album; several hours later,
Lennon returns home and
Chapman approaches him with a very different intent.
The Killing of John Lennon was primarily filmed in the locations where the real-life events took place, and all of
Chapman's dialogue in the film was taken from his diaries or interviews he's given since his arrest and imprisonment.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
;)
