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THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON Send This Review to a Friend
Writer-director Andrew Piddington, abetted by an eerie performance by Jonas Ball as assassin Mark David Chapman, takes us into the warped mind of the man who shocked the world in 1980 by shooting to death music icon John Lennon. “The Killing of John Lennon” is a creepy movie that is effective for the way in which it enables us to see the mental distortions at work and leading up to the event that turned a nobody into a somebody.
The screenplay is taken from various interviews and transcripts, thereby providing a sense of authenticity as we follow Chapman in his twisted identification with the book “The Catcher in the Rye” as a catalyst for his self-understanding and motivator toward his violent act against Lennon, whose music the killer admired even though he thought Lennon a phony. Ball’s voiceover, mostly in a dry tone that contrasts with the turmoil in his brain, provides the narrative that accompanies shots of the protagonist on locations in Hawaii, where he lived with his wife, and Manhattan, where he came to do his dirty work. Film clips are also used to provide further authenticity.
The film, off-putting yet compelling, becomes less absorbing after the build-up and the assassination as the authorities explore Chapman’s reasoning and motivation. This section is anti-climactic, yet it is perfectly valid to include in an effort to complete the portrait and show what happened to Chapman afterward. (He is still in prison.)
Seeing the film brings further realization of how someone whose life is a cipher can gain notoriety by destroying someone famous, and in political situations with stakes higher than the Lennon murder, even change history. Piddington has done an excellent job in exploring the sick thoughts behind the event that brought so much sadness into so many lives, and Ball’s performance captures Chapman as a walking nightmare. An IFC Films release.
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