Repost: Tower (January 7th and 8th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[TOWER screens Saturday January 7th at 7:00 pm and Sunday January 8th at 8:25 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

On August 1st, 1966, Charles Whitman killed his wife and mother before heading to the University of Texas. There, he headed to the campus clock tower where he killed three people on his way to the observation deck. Once there, he began shooting people on the campus below at random, ultimately killing 11 more and wounding 32 before he himself was shot and killed by police officers. The whole incident lasted just over an hour and a half.

The new documentary TOWER doesn't much care who Charles Whitman was or why he did what he did. Rather, it is concerned with the people he victimized, and those who engaged in acts of heroism both large and small during Whitman's assault. Their stories are told mostly through rotoscoped animation very similar to the style utilized by Richard Linklatter in WAKING LIFE and A SCANNER DARKLY (not too surprising given that some, though certainly not all, of the animators worked on one or both of those films). Although the dialogue is drawn from interviews with people who were involved in the incident, their animated counterparts are voiced by actors until near the end, when the survivors are shown and get to speak for themselves directly.

Tower (opens November 11th at the Capitol Theatre)

[TOWER opens in Cleveland on Friday November 11th exclusively at the Capitol Theatre.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

On August 1st, 1966, Charles Whitman killed his wife and mother before heading to the University of Texas. There, he headed to the campus clock tower where he killed three people on his way to the observation deck. Once there, he began shooting people on the campus below at random, ultimately killing 11 more and wounding 32 before he himself was shot and killed by police officers. The whole incident lasted just over an hour and a half.

The new documentary TOWER doesn't much care who Charles Whitman was or why he did what he did. Rather, it is concerned with the people he victimized, and those who engaged in acts of heroism both large and small during Whitman's assault. Their stories are told mostly through rotoscoped animation very similar to the style utilized by Richard Linklatter in WAKING LIFE and A SCANNER DARKLY (not too surprising given that some, though certainly not all, of the animators worked on one or both of those films). Although the dialogue is drawn from interviews with people who were involved in the incident, their animated counterparts are voiced by actors until near the end, when the survivors are shown and get to speak for themselves directly.