''The Killing of America'', released in Japan as , is a 1981

mondo film Mondo film is a subgenre of exploitative documentary films. Many mondo films are made in a way to resemble a pseudo-documentary and usually depicting sensational topics, scenes, or situations. Common traits of ''mondo films'' include portrayal ...

directed by Sheldon Renan. The film was premiered in New York City in February 1982 and was shown at the 2013

Fantasia Festival Fantasia International Film Festival, also known as Fantasia Fest or simply Fantasia, is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on fantasy, horror, sci-fi and cult genre films. Regular ...

Synopsis

''The Killing of America'' focuses on what the director feels is the decline of the United States. It features interviews from Ed Dorris, a retired sergeant of the

Los Angeles Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff, sheriff's department in the United ...

, as well as

Los Angeles County Coroner The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner is the medical examiner's office of the government of the Los Angeles County, California, County of Los Angeles, California. It is located at the Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Boyle Heights nei ...

Thomas Noguchi is the former chief medical examiner-coroner for Los Angeles County. Popularly known as the "coroner to the stars", Noguchi determined the cause of death in many high-profile cases in Hollywood during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He performed ...

. The documentary also shows several interviews with convicted killers such as

Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ; born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a younger brother of American president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 U ...

as well as footage of murders and news broadcasts. It connects the beginning of America's woes with the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onas ...

and posits that hope of recovery was snuffed out when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 (the film features footage from the

Zapruder film The Zapruder film is a silent 8 mm film, 8mm color motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder with a Bell & Howell home-movie camera, as United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on N ...

and news footage from the night that Robert Kennedy was killed). According to the film the 1960s saw the rise of "sniper"

mass murder Mass murder is the violent crime of murder, killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more ...

ers who were often white, well-adjusted people that killed people seemingly at random (exemplified in the film by the murders of

Charles Whitman Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer and United States Marine Corps, Marine veteran who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and ...

). The 1970s saw the rise of what the film calls "sex killers",

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

s such as

Ted Bundy Theodore Robert Bundy (; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989), known colloquially as Ted Bundy, was an American serial killer who kidnapping, abducted, raped and murdered dozens of young women and girls between 1974 and 1978. His ''modus ...

and

John Wayne Gacy John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered at least thirty-three young men and boys in Norwood Park Township, Cook County, Illinois, Norwood Park Tow ...

who also raped and sexually abused their victims. A section of the film also analyses the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in 1979, in which a 16-year-old teenager opened fire on a group of children and staff from her window opposite an elementary school in San Diego, injuring 9 people and killing the school's principal and a janitor. The last part of the film goes over the

murder of John Lennon On the evening of 8 December 1980, the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles, was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. The killer, Mark David Chapman, was an American Beatles fa ...

and ends with footage from a

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

vigil for the slain musician. The narrators' last lines are: "Two people were shot at this Central Park vigil. While you watched this movie, five more of us were murdered; one was the random killing of a stranger."

Cast

* Chuck Riley as Narrator *Ed Dorris *

Elmer Wayne Henley Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. (born May 9, 1956) is an American serial killer and accomplice to murder convicted in 1974 of the murder of six of the twenty-nine known victims of the Houston Mass Murders, which occurred in Houston and Pasadena, Texas, ...

Edmund Kemper Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948) is an American serial killer convicted of murdering seven women and one girl between May 1972 and April 1973. Years earlier, at the age of 15, Kemper had murdered his paternal grandparents. Kemp ...

Release history

''The Killing of America'' was initially released in Japan in September 1981. It made its United States debut in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in February 1982 at

The Public Theater The Public Theater is an arts organization in New York City. Founded by Joseph Papp, The Public Theater was originally the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954; its mission was to support emerging playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: ...

but did not receive a commercial release in the United States. It did receive a home video release in Britain. The film received a wide release in Japan, where financial backers reportedly pressured Renan to add footage of peace vigils for

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

as a way to make the documentary less depressing. Years later the documentary would receive a 2013 North American release at ''Fantasia Festival'' in Canada. ''The Killing of America'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in February 2002 and re-released in October 2016 on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

Reception

Critical reception for ''The Killing of America'' has been mixed. ''

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

'' gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 5, remarking that "Rather than an in-depth study of the reasons for and effects of the rising murder rate in the U.S., the director has chosen to emphasize the violence and the need for

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms and ammunition by civilians. Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, bu ...

to help lower the appalling amount of mayhem that distinguishes the U.S. from its European counterparts." In contrast, in the book ''The Horror Film''

Mikita Brottman Mikita Brottman is a British American non-fiction author, scholar, and psychoanalyst known for her interest in true crime. Her writing blends a number of genres, often incorporating elements of autobiography, psychoanalysis, forensic psychology, ...

considered the film to be "one of the more thoughtful and fascinating examples of the mondo genre".

References

External links