''The Killing of John Lennon'' is a 2006

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

about

Mark David Chapman Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955) is an American man who murdered former Beatles member John Lennon in New York City on December 8, 1980. As Lennon walked into the archway of his apartment building at The Dakota, Chapman shot Lennon from a ...

's plot to kill musician

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. The film was written and directed by

Andrew Piddington Andrew J. Piddington (born October 18, 1949 in Romford, Essex) is an English film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. Career He directed films such as '' Shuttlecock'' (1991), '' The Fall'' (1999), '' The Dinosaur Hunters'' (2002) ...

and stars Jonas Ball, Robert C. Kirk and Thomas A. McMahon. A British-American co-production, it was not released in the United States until 2008 and received much less attention than the similarly themed American-produced independent film ''

Chapter 27 ''Chapter 27'' is a 2007 Biographical film, biographical Drama (film and television), drama film depicting the murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. It was written and directed by Jarrett Schaefer, based on the 1992 book ''Let Me Take You ...

'', released the year prior. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Premise

The film follows

three months prior to the Lennon assassination and contains flashbacks to Chapman's earlier life and upbringing, while also exploring his infatuation with

J.D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in ''S ...

's 1951 novel ''

The Catcher in the Rye ''The Catcher in the Rye'' is an American novel by J. D. Salinger that was partially published in serial form from 1945–46 before being novelized in 1951. Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst ...

'' and the links between this and his motivation for the killing.

Cast

John Lennon,

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

appear as themselves via

archive footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

s from 1960s,

Ted Koppel Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for '' Nightline'', from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005. Before ''Nightline'', he spent 20 years as a broad ...

appears Himself as News Anchor from

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

on 9 December 1980, and

President Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

also appears himself as archive footage from 1981 president attempt assassination.

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 5.01/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Despite a committed performance by newcomer Jonas Ball, ''The Killing of John Lennon'' is ultimately a flimsy character study." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 49 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Killing of John Lennon 2006 biographical drama films 2006 films Biographical films about criminals Biographical films about musicians British biographical drama films The Beatles in film British films set in New York City Films about John Lennon Cultural depictions of Yoko Ono Cultural depictions of the Beatles 2006 drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films

Premise

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links