Leofwine_draca The Killing of America is much more than just another shockumentary collection of real-life death footage, although that's exactly what it is. It's this film's narration that makes it an exemplary addition to the genre; it's nothing less than a treatise on gun crime in America, exploring the many different avenues down which it arises and looking at some truly shocking statistics.It's the ice-cold presentation of the facts and figures, and the real-life cases of snipers and serial killers, that make this a memorable film. Certainly there are some shocking still photographs and clips presented here, but a lot of the footage nowadays seems tame given what's readily available for viewing on Youtube and the like. However, the direction, editing, and music all make this a film which engages the brain as well as the senses.

daniel-mannouch Though crass in some parts, The Killing of America is an accomplished, paranoia inducing travelogue through the big dog's fraught relationship with violence, made even more shattering due to the fact that whilst there might not be mania inducing levels of lead in their atmosphere anymore (For Now), the underlying problems that triggered most of this chaos still plague America today.We go from Ghetto Shootouts to Political Assassinations to Serial Killers to one of the greatest twist endings, if you can call it that, in cinema, let alone exploitation, which like I said this Mondoco does go into. It's a disturbing catalogue of tragedy, idiocy and despair at the great social experiment blowing up in people's faces. A genuine sense of panic is felt whilst watching and as this is evidently a political film about bringing to attention a nation's state of emergency, well, Mission Accomplished.The Killing of America is, whilst not for repeat viewings, a must watch if you're even half interested in Mondo.

Woodyanders This documentary about the appalling mass epidemic of random and widespread gratuitous violence that initially started sweeping across America in the early 1960's might make for decidedly uncomfortable viewing, but it nonetheless does a frightfully persuasive job of illustrating that violence is a dangerous sickness with no immediate foreseeable end or cure in sight.Directors Sheldon Renan and Leonard Schrader pull no punches in their alarming catalogue of all kinds of grim and unpleasant atrocities: The assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and John Lennon, the heinous misdeeds of such notorious serial killers as Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, the Hillside Strangler, and Dean Corll, the attempted assassinations of George Wallace and Ronald Reagan, the Charles Whitman shootings at the University of Texas in Austin, the tragic shooting of several student protesters at Kent State University, the horrifying schoolyard killings committed by Brenda Spencer, the equally upsetting Jonestown mass suicides, and other such in-your-face bleak occurrences are addressed in an unwaveringly stark and straightforward manner. Chuck Riley handles the narrator chores with appropriate solemnity. The flesh-crawling score by Mark Lindsay and W. Michael Lewis does the spine-tingling trick. The rough cinematography provides a suitably gritty look. Loaded with hideously explicit photos and newsreel footage, this notorious mondo shock doc packs a savage punch right to the gut.

haildevilman I have the Japanese video. The narration was all in Japanese while all the footage was subtitled. Good thing because I heard the English narrator drove people crazy with his long pauses.America from 1960-1980. Showing everything from police standoffs to assassinations to serial killer trials. Nothing is left out. You suddenly realize a lot more was filmed than they would let you see on the news.The street scenes of L.A. were interesting but the morgue & autopsy scenes were a bit much.Personal favorite scenes? James Hoskins in Cinncinati and Anthony Kiritsis in Indiannapolis. Kiritsis definitely has a commanding presence.