Review of The Killing of John Lennon (2007) by Shirley D — 07 Sep 2008

The Killing of John Lennon has a haunting eeriness to it, lent by the fact that all of the voice-over narration is made up of the actual words of Mark David Chapman. This adds a cool element of realism to the film, that everything you see and think about Chapman at least has its grounding in reality. This might have been the best way to portray the character stylistically (rather than a documentary).

The problem is that the film also has its periodic moments of surrealism, probably to effect the "journey into the mind of a mad killer" aspect of Chapman's personality. It makes the aesthetic of the film consistent but seems to somehow cheapen the narrative at the same time. It lightens the film's impact, containing it as an artistic statement, which seems to cheapen Chapman's madness rather than enhance it or understand it.

The movie never dives much deeper than an exploration of actual events framed by the words of the man himself, and while that in-and-of-itself is interesting, this is more of a character study rather than a plot. This is more about the killer of John Lennon, rather than the killing. And as a character study, I would expect more of an exploration than is present here. The film works for a great backdrop on which to draw one's own conclusions and ask one's own questions... but does little in the way of answering them or positing any of its own.

The Killing of John Lennon misses the mark as far as being a "journey into the mind of a killer" one would expect it to be, but works well as a "presentation of the mind of a killer." Worth a rental at the very least.