TOWER – Review

One of 2016’s best documentaries is another look at a seminal moment in America’s struggle with crime and violence. Like many previous docs, it’s an examination of a mass murder. Now basic cable TV channels (and network “newsmagazines”) are filled with such, now almost commonplace, events. What makes this film unique is the subject, namely the very first mass shooting just over fifty years ago. The other aspect that makes this work is special is its approach and use of a high-tech upgrade of a movie device that dates back over 90 years. This enables the film makers to expertly transport us to that hot summer day in 1966, as a madman spewed death from the top of a college TOWER.

Director Keith Maitland, like many documentarians, makes use of archival news footage and radio recordings to convey the horror of Charles Whitman’s rampage at the University of Texas. And, like other docs, we hear the stories of all the survivors, the people who were there that fateful day. But it’s not merely “talking heads’ confessing to an unseen interrogator. Maitland uses actors to recreate the stories in a most unorthodox way. Yes, the young cast is clothed in vintage attire, and are driving classic autos. These “re-enactments” aren’t digitally scratched up to look like frayed 16 or 8mm  film stock. Nor are the colors desaturated or muted to mask the principals in a haze of memory and nostalgia. Quite the opposite actually. Because he couldn’t gain access to many of the actual locales, Maitland used the modern version of the animation technique known as “rotoscoping”. This was a process invented and patented by the Fleischer Studios in the 1920’s. An actor would be filmed (for its first uses it was one of the Fleischer brothers, Dave) going about some bit of action. The finished footage would be projected onto the animator’s desk, who would trace the movements for a more realistic motion. Other studios used this method, particularly the Disney staff for the princess, prince, and evil queen in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, even into the 70’s and 80’s with Ralph Bakshi’s version of LORD OF THE RINGS. With the dawn of a new century, computer software enabled directors such as Richard Linklater to enhance the look of his films WAKING LIFE and A SCANNER DARKLY. Aside from being able to seamlessly drop the players into the 60’s locations, this tech gives the film a vibrancy and immediacy. Colors can shift from bright “day-glo” psychedelics to somber silver and gray hues to enhance the dramatic effect and shift the tone and mood. Much as with graphic novels, the backdrops can go from detailed realism to a flaring, pulsating abstract swash of color to convey the sense of fear and anxiety. This dynamic storytelling technique makes this first-hand accounts more compelling, drawing us in as few non-fiction features have before. As that old TV show proclaimed “You Are There!”.

Considering the tragic story, it may seem odd to say that this film is often hypnotically beautiful. This not to say that the style is greater than its substance. Director Maitland expertly intertwines several engrossing individual stories of courage. There’s the pregnant student lying on the hot pavement with her gravely wounded beau, while potential rescuers are kept at bay. College kids and police head toward the onslaught. A twelve-year old paperboy and his younger cousin are caught in the crossfire. In the film’s final moments the rotoscoped dopplegangers are stripped away to reveal the real people who generously relive the nightmare (those who have seen passed on are also honored). We’re reminded that this was huge news when we view an editorial from “the most trusted man on TV”, Walter Cronkite (glorified violent images in entertainment mixed with easy access to firearms, still a potent message). And now the mass shooting is almost a monthly news staple, as the final act unspools a montage of horror: Columbine, Sandy Hook, and so on…and on. TOWER is superb riveting reminder of the real human cost of these now nearly commonplace tragedies.

5 Out of 5

TOWER screens Friday January 20th through Sunday January 22nd at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). the movie starts at 7:30 all three evenings