The Killing of John Lennon (2006)

Director:

Andrew Piddington

Writer:

Andrew Piddington (writer)

Release Date:

7 December 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

I was nobody until I killed the biggest somebody on earth.

Plot:

A dramatization of Mark Champman's plan to murder John Lennon. |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | John Lennon | Security Guard | Album | Prostitute

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Jonas Ball	...	Mark Chapman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joe Abbate	...	Taxi Driver
Gail Kay Bell	...	Psychiatrist
J. Francis Curley	...	Security Guard
Nicole Delorey	...	Record Shop Girl
Sofia Dubrawsky	...	Jude
Krisha Fairchild	...	Chapman's mom
Vera Felice	...	Prostitute
James Hadde	...	Scientologist
Zero Kazama	...	Scientologist Leader
Robert C. Kirk	...	Det. John Sullivan
Thomas A. McMahon	...	Spiro
Mie Omori	...	Gloria Chapman
Joe Rosario	...	Police Inspector
John Sierros	...	Reporter
Anthony Solis	...	Gun Salesman
Tom Zolandz	...	Goresh

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Australia:MA

Company:

Picture Players Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: After Chapman signs his name as John Lennon, his co-worker notices it and starts to walk out after him. The next shot is a long shot from outside the building, showing the co-worker still standing behind the desk. Then in the next shot he is walking out the door again.

Movie Connections:

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Soundtrack:

I Love To Love

Decent

Killing of John Lennon, The (2006)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The first of two films looking at the murder of John Lennon in the past couple of years. This one here tells the story of Mark Chapman (Jonas Ball) starting three months before the murder and a year afterwards. This here is certainly a little better than Chapter 27 but both movies have major problems, which in the end means that neither are worthy of the subject matter. On a technical level this one here is pretty strong with its nice direction and performances but I think it's tries to do too much. The movie covers a pretty long period but it kept hitting me as a been there done that feeling. We've seen countless movies trying to get inside the head of a crazy person and this is where the movie fails. I never did feel as if we were inside Chapman's mind no matter what crazy sayings were coming out of his mouth or how many times he read from The Catcher in the Rye. This here makes the first thirty-minutes really drag as we are seeing Chapman in Hawaii as he slowly comes to realize that it's his destiny to kill the ex-Beatle. When things get to New York the movie picks up a bit but we still have to listen to Chapman talk, talk and talk. The most interesting part of the story being told happens after the 77-minute mark when Lennon is killed. Unlike other films, we get some rather graphic details of the murder with all five bullets shattering through Lennon. I'm sure some fans might find it hard to watch these moments but we also continue with what Chapman did after the murder. Everything involving what happened minutes and hours after his arrest are very well done and are quite interesting but soon we get more dragged out scenes of talk. I'm positive there's a very good movie to be told here but perhaps someone should look at the murder away from Chapman's eyes. Ball delivers a fine performance as Chapman and others in the cast fit their roles just fine. In the end there's a lot of interesting footage here and it's very well made but there's also a lot of weak stuff that really kills it.