Ted Bundy

A Film by Matthew Bright

(2002-Rated R)

 

I could very easily make this the shortest review I have wrote so far by simply saying “Bad Man, Bad Movie”, but I don't think that is why you come to this site. That being the case let me endeavor to expand those four words a little more, so you can get your monies worth by reading this review.

This is the story of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, and how he lied to get girls into his car, or how he beat them and dragged them into his car, and how he mistreated everyone that he knew, especially his girlfriend that loved him. However, where the story might be factual, the problem lays not so much in the telling as it does in the execution (no pun intended).

There is no cohesion in the story. Scenes change without notice or explanations, making it very difficult to follow along. There is no time frame used, making it seem like the killings are happening on a daily, or in some cases, hourly basis. He sees his girlfriend, is mean to her, kills a woman, sees his girlfriend and is mean to her, kills a woman-well, you get the idea. However, never once do we get even so much as an inkling that the cruelty to the girlfriend is the result of the killing, or the other way around. That is another sore point that I have with this movie. It purports that for the first time, we will see the true story of Bundy. Maybe we do, I don't know, I wasn't there-but what I do know is the motivation is lacking. Never once do we get to see inside his head, showing us anything that made him do what he did, or why he was the way he was. All that this film ends up being is, at best, an exploitation of the notoriety of the name, and at worse, converts him to the status of a Jason, Freddy, or Michael Myers, other famous movie killers (Friday the Thirteenths, Nightmare on Elm Streets, and Halloweens, respectfully).

Let's go with that last thought for a minute. Lets just say for the sake of discussion that the directors wanted to show Bundy as being just like Jason et.al. Then why is the film so non-graphic in its portrayal of the murders? There is blood, oh, I'll give you that, but if you are making the story of a real killer, why not make it real? No, I don't mean really kill people, I mean show the horror, show the terror, show the gore. ‘Ted' throws the woman on the ground, camera cuts to her screaming, camera cuts to him holding a knife over his head, knife is brought down out of frame, and then blood splatters upward on to ‘Ted'. Oooh, scary stuff. Jason does more than that in each movie and with each kill. Grown desensitized you ask? I don't think so, it just seems to me if you are going to document a killers life, then show the killings, and if not the killings, then at least the victims. Give us as viewers some reason to care about their deaths at the hands of this psychopath. For that matter, give us anybody to either sympathize or relate to on some level, but that never happens either. I thought about mentioning the actors, even though they are people you have never heard of, unless you are their agents or next of kin, but their performances are so lackluster I changed my mind.

The one thing that this movie does right-well, semi right, is that at the sentencing and the protesting outside, they use actual newsreel footage-that was kinda neat; jarring, but still kinda neat. I watched the DVD of this, and switched over at the end to listen to what the director was trying to say with this cryptic ending he showed, that of a bunch of little kids each saying, “I'm Ted Bundy”. I wanted to know what was the meaning of that, was it that everyone has the potential to turn out like Bundy, or that there is a ‘Ted Bundy' in all of us, but he never mentioned it. The only part of the film that actually made me think, and it was never even mentioned by the director! However, he did mention that his movie was the first time that anyone had ever showed that people about to be executed by the electric chair have to wear a diaper so there is no mess after to clean up. I guess he never saw Monster's Ball -they did it there. Came out about a year earlier, won some Academy Awards and stuff, but I guess he was so busy with his masterpiece that he overlooked it somehow.

I have no doubt that there is a well thought out, compelling and thought provoking film to be made about Ted Bundy, and perhaps someone someday will. Oh wait, that's right, The Deliberate Stranger with Mark Harmon, a four-hour made for TV movie that puts this one to shame. If you really want to know the story of Ted Bundy, don't rent this, look for that one instead.