The Killing of John Lennon

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, 2006, 112 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

The name Mark David Chapman was etched into public memory on December 8, 1980, when he fatally shot music legend John Lennon. Even today, interest in 25-year-old Chapman’s motive is curbed by horrified outrage. Andrew Piddington’s drama uncovers the murderer’s psychologically shattered personality, developed through years of obsession with his idol and artefacts as innocuous as Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. The narration is provided by Chapman, played by Jonas Ball, and offers not only an exceptionally focused probe into the inside of an unhinged personality, but also a more general study of human loneliness, futility, and desperation, which can be unexpectedly discharged in an act of “high-profile” violence. In this sense, Piddington’s film, an independent production three years in the making that uses the most authentic locations possible and amateurs or unknown actors, echoes Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) or Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994). The film won the Special Jury Prize at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

About the director

Andrew Piddington began in British television in the 1980s where he contributed to a serial about the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Poirot, 1991) and biographical films (for example about the writers D. H. Lawrence, Daphne Du Maurier, and Malcolm Lowry) among other projects. In 1991 he debuted with the psychological drama Shuttleshock starring Alan Bates. He also made waves with the thriller The Fall (1998 – nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Direction). His interest in The Beatles was evident in his television movie Midnight Angel, which focused on the “fifth Beatle”, Stuart Sutcliffe. Piddington has directed more than 30 television movies and has also worked as a producer since 1992, when he founded his own production company, Picture Players. In 2002 he produced and directed The Dinosaur Hunters, which won a BAFTA Award for special effects.