Killing Of John Lennon

The film is the story of the events surrounding the murder of John Lennon by Mark Chapman (Jonas Ball). The film uses Chapman's own words and the actual locations, as it takes us through the lead up to the killing. The film gives you an insight into his background in Honolulu, a place Chapman is desperate to escape and to go and achieve 'something'. He comes over as a man constantly on the edge of madness and it is no surprise that he chooses to do something stupid. Rather than do the sensible thing and top himself, he chooses to kill Lennon for no reason other than that he feels Lennon was a bit of phoney. This chain of though is inspired, somehow, by J.D. Salinger's 'A Catcher in the Rye'. Chapman travels to New York to carry out his task where he even uses the identity of the book's central character, Holden Caulfield. If Lennon was a phoney then what does that make Chapman. He rings an 'escort' to spend his final night of freedom with, as Caulfield does in the book. He assumes he'll manage to meet and kill Lennon the next day, which he duly does when he eventually encounters him at his apartment.



I thought the film dragged a little because Chapman wasn't that interesting and nor was his life. I thought the story lacked depth. There didn’t seem to be much to tell about his background and we find out little about his relationship with his wife. He was just mad but not even interestingly mad. The film carries on after the shooting and actually gets better after the killing.

The film was interesting but not enthralling because it was not easy to identify with Chapman but that may have been because the film kept a good emotional distance from its subject and therefore did not glorify him.

In the end, Chapman just wanted to be famous. At this he succeeds and becomes the world's first celebrity stalker. The movie was made without the cooperation of Chapman or Yoko Ono. However I'm sure Chapman would be happy about this film because he wanted fame and this gives him more of it.



'I was nobody, until I killed the biggest somebody on earth'