Product Details

• Actors: Jonas Ball, Mie Omori, Krisha Fairchild, Gunther Stern, Robert Kirk
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Ifc
• DVD Release Date: August 5, 2008
• Run Time: 115 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0018PH3K6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,625 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Mark David Chapman, a 25 year old security guard in Hawaii, bought a plane ticket to New York with the intention of killing the world's greatest musician and dreamer: The Beatles' John Lennon. Camping outside Lennon's apartment in New York waiting for an autograph, Chapman's childlike obsession with this "celebrity phony" descends into madness. Both gritty and dreamy, The Killing Of John Lennon is a stunning examination of a stalker's mind just before the kill.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The killing from Mark Chapman's point of view, June 26, 2008

By	John Schulze (Texas) - See all my reviews

This film is strange. It retraces Mark Chapman's motives that lead to his killing of John Lennon in 1980. You are invited into a maniac's head to witness thoughts that are begotten in the depths of his mind. All spoken words and verbalized ideas that are put into the main character's mouth actually belong to Chapman himself: no writer's distortion. One can ask the rhetoric question, do we need to increase Chapman's ignoble renown?

John Lennon appears only as Chapman gets opportunity to see him personally. Of course, as a viewer, you know the forthcoming tragedy in the finale, and the film abets suspense by reminding you occasionally how many days or hours left before the murder. You find yourself meditating upon every turn of Chapman's mind, but in the end you realize nothing could save Lennon from this determined psycho. You witness all his weak, ludicrous motives, and don't expect that you'll feel any sympathy for him. No, understandably there's no touch of the sorrowful greatness of a tragedy: the story is told from Chapman's side.

The film is very well made, the camera work and casting are excellent. Jonas Ball playing Chapman is perfect; all characters Chapman encounters with - from street girls to taxi drivers - are greatly developed. Paradoxically, Hawaiian colours and atmospheric musicscore complete the eerie feel of the story. It's not a movie to watch over and over again but I highly recommend it to everybody who is interested in this tragedy and who appreciates good acting.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, December 19, 2008

By	A. Bell - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

as a lennon fan, i was extremely reluctant at first to see this film. However after some prodding by beatles friends of mine who had seen the film, i decided to rent it and was astounded with how brilliant the film was. Everything from the casting to the directing was top notch. I really enjoyed jonas ball as well as the slew of impressive supporting actors who lended their keen talents to the screen. To me personally, aside from Jonas, who is fantastic, I found the psychologist and the taxi driver to be extremely talented supporting acts as well. All in all I found the Killing of John Lennon to be an extroardinary film and I recommend it highly.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Detailed Look At The Mindset Of An Icon's Assassin...In His Own Words., December 7, 2008

By	Eric Ericson "RedSabbath" (Venice, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

Deeply informative dramatization of Beatles' John Lennon murderer Mark David Chapman from his start in Hawaii to his incarceration in New York. Newcomer Jonas Ball plays Chapman without going too far over the edge, though at times people who are familiar with the appearance of Chapman would wonder why they picked an actor who is at least thirty pounds less than the real McCoy. But what really got me about this film is it was written with Chapman's own words through police interviews and private memoirs. But when the filmakers decided to use the actual locations that where Chapman and Lennon walked twenty-five years earlier, they didn't account for the backgrounds would now be totally different, and a sharp eye will notice a 70's-make cab for instance driving by the 2006 ABC Network's JumboTron and it's newly lit-up Times Square. Even though these may take you out of the movie, it's the dark and insane words of Chapman that will keep you in. In fact, it's so detailed that the actual assassination doesn't take place till an hour and ten minutes into the movie, and yes, it's extremely hard to watch, even 25 years later.

I'd like to comment that I personally feel that as a society, we shouldn't turn these types of killers of famous people into stars themselves, forever attaching them to the person who truly earned that fame to begin with. But that is the nature of the beast. You'll find no sympathy or concern for Chapman after watching this, but it does explain very well his method of madness.
(RedSabbath Rating:8.0/10)