True Crime Movies

[kensei]

I may only be familiar with a few of Stephen Rea's movies but I have trouble picturing Santiago from "Interview with the Vampire" or Detective Finch from "V for Vendetta" being in a weird comedy like that. One never knows.

[SRobinson]

T be honest, i haven't seen many true crime movies, one that springs to mind is The Manson Family, made by VanBebber. a tad gory, and surreal, also quite laughable in places

[LTowell]

I may only be familiar with a few of Stephen Rea's movies but I have trouble picturing Santiago from "Interview with the Vampire" or Detective Finch from "V for Vendetta" being in a weird comedy like that. One never knows.

True. He was in a very good HBO production about Chikatilo, speaking of true crime, called Citizen X.

[kensei]

True. He was in a very good HBO production about Chikatilo, speaking of true crime, called Citizen X.

Really. Did he play Chikatilo?

[LTowell]

No, he played a Russian forensics expert who was put in charge of a murder case and sees similarities between his case and others-all the while having the higher-ups telling him that there's no such thing as serial killers in Russia, etc. Very good movie. The man who plays Chikatilo was good as well. Malcolm McDowell played Chikatilo in a movie about a year or so ago that's supposed to be closer to the real story.

[LTowell]

Oh, and Santiago's first appearance in Interview with the Vampire is fantastic.

[sdreid]

Malcolm McDowell played Chikatilo in a movie about a year or so ago that's supposed to be closer to the real story.

Yes, Evilenko my #54. They change the killer's name for some reason but the case is basically the same.

[sdreid]

I see that The Galapagos Affair is due out next year. It looks like a sort-of Nazi White Mischief - wait a minute - concerning Errol, White Mischief was a Nazi White Mischief.

[sdreid]

Also on the card for 2010, Dear Mr. Gacy and Dahmer vs. Gacy. The latter has a scheduled December release date so they're obviously shooting for the 2011 Oscar.

[Magpie]

I saw the remake of Helter Skelter last week. I'd heard a lot of really bad things about it, but I thought it was quite good (then again I saw the the director's cut, so that may have something to do with it) The guy playing Manson was darned good--more Manson than Manson ever was.

[Magpie]

I may only be familiar with a few of Stephen Rea's movies but I have trouble picturing Santiago from "Interview with the Vampire" or Detective Finch from "V for Vendetta" being in a weird comedy like that. One never knows.

Actually, the Stephen Rea movie "Still Crazy" is a brilliant comedy.

[sdreid]

True-crime movies occupy an important position in film history. What is generally considered to be the first feature length film, at 70 minutes, was a true-crime movie of a sort. That release was The Story of the Kelly Gang from Australia in 1906. All the movies before this Ned Kelly rendition were either shorts or serials.

[sdreid]

The other night, I watched the film Slaughter. On the front of the box, it says something like Based on real events. As best I can tell, those events are the Belle Gunness case even though the movie occurs in current times. Am I wrong? At any rate, the film is OK for a time occupier.

[kensei]

True-crime movies occupy an important position in film history. What is generally considered to be the first feature length film, at 70 minutes, was a true-crime movie of a sort. That release was The Story of the Kelly Gang from Australia in 1906. All the movies before this Ned Kelly rendition were either shorts or serials.

I'd always heard that the first feature length movie was "The Great Train Robbery"- also a true crime movie?

[sdreid]

Hi Kensei,

I think The Great Train Robbery (1903) was inspired by an actual case but I'm not sure which one. It was only 11 minutes long though (and that was at only 18 fps) so it wouldn't be considered feature length, at least by today's standards.