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Starkweather
ThinkFilm // R // February 22, 2005
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
In the early days of 1958, 19 year old Charles Starkweather and his 14 year old lover Caril-Ann Fugate embarked on a senseless killing spree, murdering without provocation seemingly everyone who crossed their path. Eleven corpses were left in their wake, and although their spree lasted only eight days, that was more than enough time to capture the attention of a nation. The Starkweather/Fugate murders have been the inspiration for a number of films, True Romance, Natural Born Killers, and Badlands among them. The latest entry is Starkweather, a collaboration between writer Stephen Johnston (who'd penned similar biopics for the likes of Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, and The Hillside Strangler) and director/cinematographer Byron Werner. I watched Terrence Malick's Badlands for the first time a few days before giving this DVD a spin, and even though both movies draw from the same source material, the differences between the two are striking. Whereas the settings, characters, and events were altered to bring them to a less litigious level in Badlands, Starkweather is able to stay closer to the facts. Some comparatively minor liberties are made, presumably for dramatic effect, but anyone who's read any sort of detailed account of the Starkweather/Fugate murders ought to recognize the timeline and some very specific details in this dramatization. To name one example, the distinctive spelling, case, and spacing of the note to dissuade visitors from calling on Caril-Ann's parents is presented accurately. The personalities of the two central characters in each movie are worlds apart, particularly Shannon Lucio's more aggressive, manipulative take on Caril-Ann, a stark difference from the passive, laconic character played by Sissie Spacek. Each film also takes a fundamentally different approach to the material. Badlands used the killing spree as a metaphor, as a means to an end. Starkweather places its emphasis so squarely on the plot that it often feels less like a feature film and more like an extended re-enactment.
Another primary difference is that there's no moral ambiguity in Starkweather -- both of the killers are unabashedly e-e-e-evil, an approach that's campy rather than compelling. Backwater dialogue is a tough sell; it takes a pretty decent actor to make an "ain't" sound convincing, and the cast of Starkweather isn't suited for it. It doesn't help that some of the dialogue is terrible, and the movie has a tendency to oververbalize what's happening on-screen and in the characters' minds. Starkweather shows, tells, and then tells again on the off-chance you missed it the first time. Rather than just gripe about the dialogue in vague, non-specific terms, here's a sample exchange:
"I swear, I swear I can feel those walls closin' in on me even as I'm talkin'."
"What walls are you talkin' about, Charlie?"
"Those walls around us...those goddamn walls that are gonna suffocate our love and destroy us."
Starkweather also makes a couple of character insertions that were thankfully absent in Badlands. The most grating of the two is a psychotic delusion draped in black who compels Charlie to kill. It's a bad idea conceptually, and the execution falters for a number of reasons. Although Lance Henriksen provided the voice of 'The Mentor', this was clearly done entirely in post-production, giving every scene the figure appears in a detached, disparate quality. His appearances are redundant, boiling down to (1) The Man in Black berating Charlie, (2) Starkweather screaming back, (3) Caril-Ann, Charlie's father, or whoever else happens to be in the scene asking Charlie who he's talking to, and (4) some non-committal response from Charlie. "The Mentor" isn't a character or a metaphor -- he's a drinking game waiting to happen, and if you take a swig everytime Charlie responds, "no one, baby doll", you'll be plastered forty minutes in. There's also a scene at the end where the true nature of this being is revealed. Refusing to give the audience a shred of credit, writer Stephen Johnston repeatedly lobs an anvil at the screen, disinterested in anything resembling subtlety. I'm surprised that he didn't push for The Mentor to have cloven feet, horns, and a pitchfork while he was at it. Badlands resisted the temptation to shoehorn in one of my pet peeves, the obligatory B-plot about a determined cop in pursuit of the killers. As that's part of a well-established formula nowadays, Starkweather tosses a couple into the film. Although not an extravagant amount of screentime is wasted on them, their scenes are mostly superfluous, and the fact that two of the weakest actors in the movie are playing them doesn't help much. I'm not sure if the deputy (or whoever it was) is intended to be comic relief or just mildly retarded, but I'll lob out another quote from the movie.
"Hey Dale, listen. If this Charlie fellow's there like I expect he is, he's gonna be none too happy to hear us come callin'."
"Yi."
"So remember when you first signed on, the first rule of law enforcement?"
"Umm...yi, yi, uh.... 'Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.'"
"Well, in this case, I think the worst is the best we can hope for."
Ouch. You have to do a Baby Huey impression for the deputy's dimwitted yipping to get the full effect. The cops factor heavily into the climax of the movie, a lethargic car chase. I realize that sedans in the '50s didn't exactly top out at 130 mph, but there's no sense of danger or urgency. The sheriff can scream about how this maniac's going to kill somebody as much as he wants, but a lumpy sedan awkwardly trying to pass a car at 32 miles an hour doesn't exactly leave me perched on the edge of my seat. Although it's my opinion that much of the climax is shaky at best, Starkweather still probably should've ended shortly thereafter. Instead, there's an epilogue that drags on for far too long. Starkweather is an exceedingly straightforward account of the Starkweather/Fugate murders. It suffers from misdirected emphasis, investing so much into strictly re-enacting certain events that it failed to generate much interest on my part. Aspects of it are certainly well-done; it's nicely photographed, and although it's obvious this wasn't a $70 million Hollywood production, the crew eked out much stronger production values than I ever would have thought possible for this sort of budget. The long and short of it is that I just didn't find the storytelling that engaging, and with accounts of these murders available in so many different forms from so many different sources, there's nothing compelling enough about Starkweather to recommend this DVD above the rest.
Video: The 1.85:1 image might have looked great if this DVD had been more skillfully authored -- this is, after all, a movie directed by an experienced DP. Although the disc is letterboxed, it's not in anamorphic widescreen, which is unusual nowadays no matter how small the studio releasing it may be. The video boasts a low resolution, somewhat fuzzy appearance, frequently shimmering and with some edges marred by soft haloes. On the upside, colors and black levels both seem reasonably solid, but those aren't enough to redeem the fairly shoddy authoring that caused its overall rating to plunge.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (384Kbps) fares better. It's a fairly typical mix: ambiance and music provide the bulk of the activity in the surround channels, the subwoofer is intermittently coaxed into belching out a fairly substantial thud, and there are some nice pans and ample stereo separation up front. Dialogue comes through well, although a handful of the more loudly shouted lines have a clipped, lightly distorted quality. Fairly average, and probably better than may be expected given the movie's budgetary limitations; no real complaints of note. A stereo downmix is also offered, but no dubs, subtitles, or closed captions are available.
Supplements: The first extra on this disc is "The Making of Starkweather", a ten minute electronic press kit. Alongside clips from the film, the featurette introduces much of the cast and crew, describes what each of them brought to the project, and notes some of their experiences working on the movie.
Also included is an audio commentary with director Byron Werner and editor Karl Hirsch, and it's an above average track that covers a wide variety of topics. Of the most interest to me were the detailed comments about how they worked around the limitations of such a threadbare budget to try to add as much production value as possible. There are also a number of comments comparing and contrasting the movie with the actual events, and as you could probably have guessed from the presence of an editor, they also detail how much the film was shaped in post-production. Werner and Hirsch clearly have a great deal of passion for the project, and they maintain a very steady flow of discussion without any gaps or pauses. Their excitement is audible, very different from that stereotypical soft-spoken droning that might come to mind when you think of audio commentaries. Although it at times does lean a little towards the Mutual Admiration Society end of things, they're very honest about what they think doesn't work, particularly in the last half hour. This is one of those cases where I enjoyed watching the movie much more with the commentary than without, and readers who buy or rent this DVD should take the time to give it a listen.
The DVD also includes a set of static 4x3 menus and 19 chapter stops.
Conclusion: Readers with a particular interest in the Starkweather/Fugate murders may find this dramatization worth a rental, but I'd suggest considering alternatives such as the considerably more artful Badlands, the numerous books written about their killing spree, or any of the number of lengthy articles available online instead. It's a competent movie, and that's not meant as damning praise, but it's so plot-centric...so straightforward...that Starkweather is too unremarkable for me to recommend with any enthusiasm.
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