Customer Reviews

Talhotblond

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

i watched this on MSNBC, recorded it on DVR and watched it again. Last night it was on yet again and i watched a short bit of it, which sent me off on yet another internet search to read more about the case. The story is appalling and fascinating. While it seems utterly bizarre, at the same time, the film illuminates the fact that this kind of thing probably is going on all the time, not the tragic outcome that this story is about but the situation that led to that outcome--these must be rather common, people much like these people in this true story, similar situations and feelings. The internet has taken over the role that TV once played, where almost everyone was glued to a TV set in all their spare time, to fill those empty places in life, to entertain and distract, to excite and uplift, to experience vicarious or pseudo-adventures, to blur the line between fantasy and reality. Increasingly everyone is on the net and many are engaged in the activities these people were involved in, in other words, it's fairly normal. In this case, a serious anger management impulse control problem (not that uncommon in society) came into play resulting in a tragedy. So this story carries cautionary lessons, but one of the loose ends that the story leaves me with is, what could be done to prevent something like this from happening? I'm not sure. The film raises far more questions than it answers.

Extremely well produced story of deceit, lies, the internet, sex and murder. For the "who-dunnit" fans, this is a must have!

Incredible film making.

Anyone who has an internet connection should know this story.
Anyone who knows anyone with an internet connection should know this story.

Words can not accurately describe how moving the film is. You will FEEL the story.

This story boggles the mind. Even in this day and age. Absolutely shocking and unbeleivable. You won't be able to take your eyes off the screen. I recommend you don't.

This documentary is mysogyne in its purest form and produced to raise money for a personal campaign. Two grown adults use virtual personas as 18 year olds and have a virtual relationship. A young man inadvertently gets caught up in the game, male virtual persona gets agressive and threatening so female virtual persona warns the young man that the male virtual persona may be dangerous, male virtual persona kills the young man. Yes, you guessed, it was ALL the womans fault for being inticing! Made my blood boil that the woman was portrayed as the instigator.

Talhotblond is a documentary that focuses on a tragic love triangle among three people who met online. Though the people involved seldom met in person, their emotional attachments to their relationships were intense. The "relationships" involved layer upon layer of deceit.

The film explores human identity - "real" and created. This is a fascinating and relevant theme, given the popularity of virtual communications. This film disturbs the viewers and leaves them with a lot to think about after it ends.

Also, Talhotblond is a unique film in that the story is told in printed words more than in pictures. The instant messages sent by the three "lovers" scroll across the screen to reveal the story. The filmmakers intersperse comments from a clinical psychologist, cops, lawyers, and one of the protagonists. The comments from the psychologist are particularly insightful.

The film is about the right length at 75 minutes. Filmmaker Barbara Schroeder tells the story in an interesting way that continually surprises the viewer.

As a reviewer, I'm pretty stingy with my five-star ratings. But Talhotblond deserves nothing less. This is a fascinating documentary that takes the viewer uncomfortably close to the heart of darkness.

Talhotblond is an intense, revealing view inside the mind of people who's alter-egos get the better of them. The online fantasy which leads to real life tragedy is too unexpected to reveal - I don't want to ruin the punch-line and you need to see the movie to really appreciate the story and its twists and turns.

There is also a subtext issue of justice which marks the space between law and morality. All that is lawful is not moral, and the edge where these two meet is worth avoiding if you wish to live a decent life. It is remarkable, however, that our days are more filled with the lurid than the uplifting, but every newspaper and TV reminds us "if it bleeds, it leads." The unsung heros of our world are people doing good, but their stories are not nearly as transfixing as those doing evil.

Great film; excellent musical score; well written. It a slice of real life laid bare with precision. See this movie.

My goodness, I was riveted the entire time. Worth every minute I spent. I watched this six months ago and I still recommend it to friends. Most people today chat on the internet. A lot of them have profiles on dating websites. Everybody lies online!!!

An interesting tale spun by life's reality. This true story speaks volumes about today's sex absorbed, self conceited immoral culture. We've killed God, so we have only our own bankrupted moral codes to guide us, and they are sorely inadequate.

Anybody who loves lurid, real-life homicide cases with mind boggling revelations will crave this skillfully made documentary about a cyberspace femme fatale who turned two grown men against one another. These two guys participated in Internet chat room sessions with an 18-year old hottie. Forty-seven year old factory worker Thomas Montgomery, currently serving a 20-year stretch in Attica Correctional Facility in New York, was an unhappily married man with two daughters aged 12 and 14-years old. Montgomery was suffering from impotence when he met Jessica in an Internet chat room purely by accident. Montgomery masqueraded as an 18-year old battle scarred Marine sniper named Tommy when he learned that Jessi was a West Virginia high school senior. He fooled the poor teenager into believing that he had deep feelings of love for her. Jessi reciprocated similar feelings of affection. The web-based romance began in May 2005. Jessi sent him photos of herself in a bathing suit, videos of herself set to a ballad, red-lace panties, and a sterling silver "key to my heart" chain. Their chat sessions degenerated pornographic prattle. Meanwhile, Montgomery's suspicious wife Cindy discovered her husband's perfidy and contacted Jessi with the truth about Montgomery. Before long Jessi hooked up with a college student named Brian. Eventually, this twisted relationship incorporated all three and Montgomery learned that Brian worked part-time at the same factory, the tool plant, Dynabrade in Clarence, New York, where he had been working for 12 years. One evening while 22-year old Brian sat in his truck in the factory parking lot, Montgomery approached the vehicle without warning and fired three shots from a .30-caliber gun into the driver's side door, killing Brian. The jealous older man was stunned when he learned the truth about sexy young Jessi and how she had lead him on in a bizarre love triangle. This is a chilling cautionary tale of what can occur when you chat will the wrong folks in cyberspace. First-time writer & director Barbara Schroeder does a splendid job of assembling the facts in a piecemeal fashion with the actual participants, including candid, on-camera interviews with convicted killer Thomas Montgomery, clinical psychologist and attorney Dr. Rex Julian Beaber, Erie County prosecutor Ken Case, Erie County Sheriff Ron Kenyon, Oak Hill, West Virginia Sgt. Lee Kirk, Tim Shieler, and the father of the Internet teen vixen. The revelations here will curl your toe-nails and make you think twice about entering an Internet chat room. Indeed, truth is again stranger than fiction! "Talhotblond" received the Best Documentary award at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival. Incidentally, the title refers to the screen name that Jessi used in Internet chat rooms.