The Killing of America (1982)

Director:

Sheldon Renan

Writers:

Chieko Schrader (writer)
Leonard Schrader (writer)

Release Date:

14 July 1983 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary | Crime

Tagline:

A stunning eye-witness experience of the growth of violence in the United States

Plot:

A documentary of the decline of America. It features a lot a great footage (most exclusive to this film) from race riots to serial killers and much-much more. |

Plot Keywords:

Prostitution | Texas | Mondo | Gun Control | Exploitation

Cast

Chuck Riley	...	Narrator
Ed Dorris	...	Himself, Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept., Homicide (as Sgt. Ed Dorris Ret.)
Thomas Noguchi	...	Himself, Los Angeles County Coroner
Sirhan Sirhan	...	Himself
Wayne Henley	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Ed Kemper	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Berkowitz	...	Himself (Son of Sam) (archive footage)
Kenneth Bianchi	...	Himself - Hillside Strangler (archive footage)
Lawrence Bittaker	...	Himself (archive footage)
Arthur Bremer	...	Himself - Shoting Wallace (archive footage)
Sam Brown	...	Himself - Sidewalk Sniper (archive footage)
Ted Bundy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dean Corll	...	Himself (archive footage)
Juan Corona	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mark Essex	...	Himself - Howard Johnson Sniper (archive footage) (as Robert Essex)
John Wayne Gacy	...	Himself (photographs) (archive footage) (as John Gacy)
Richard Hall	...	Himself - Hostage (archive footage)
John Hinckley	...	Himself (archive footage) (as John Warnock Hinckley)
James R. Hoskins	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jim Jones	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Reverend Jim Jones)
Jacqueline Kennedy	...	Herself (archive footage)
John F. Kennedy	...	Himself (archive footage) (as President John F. Kennedy)
Robert F. Kennedy	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Robert Kennedy)
Martin Luther King	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Lennon	...	Himself (archive footage)
Charles Manson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Herbert Mullin	...	Himself - Serial Killer (archive footage)
Lee Harvey Oswald	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself (archive footage) (as President Reagan)
Jack Ruby	...	Himself (archive footage)
Leo J. Ryan	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Rep. Leo Ryan)
Robert Benjamin Smith	...	Himself - Mass Murderer (archive footage) (as Robert Smith)
Brenda Spencer	...	Herself - School Sniper (archive footage)
George Wallace	...	Himself (archive footage)
Charles Whitman	...	Himself - The Texas Tower Sniper (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Violence U.S.A (Japan: English title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:18 | New Zealand:R18 | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | Norway:18 (video premiere) (1983) | Norway:(Banned) (1982-2003) (cinema release)

Trivia:

This film has never been released, distributed, televised nor made available for sale in the USA.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Narrator: While you watched this movie, five of us were murdered. One was the random killing of a stranger.

Movie Connections:

References Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

Soundtrack:

For What It's Worth

The twilight of Pax Americana

Despite having been made back in 1982, this film has not lost any of it's impact...and living in the country where it was filmed, it hits incredibly close to home.

Before you dismiss this as another "Faces of Death" clone, complete with re-enacted scenes, be forewarned. This is real. 100% of the footage came from either TV news departments across the country, or from private collectors! You WILL see newsreel footage of people being shot to death (including one man being shot by police before the opening credits!), and disturbingly graphic descriptions of murders. There is even footage where people leave a courtroom to vomit after hearing a recording made by Lawrence "Pliers" Bittaker during the slow torture death of one of his victims.

Leonard Schrader, the older brother of director Paul Schrader, produced this film for the Japanese film market, where "death films" bring in big money. But instead of an exploitative "shockumentary" as normally expected, this is a detailed examination of how Western Civilization is slowly falling apart.

The assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the attempted assassination of George Wallace, and a number of other people (Charles Whitman, David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacey, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, Brenda "I Don't Like Mondays" Spencer, etc.) who, in their own twisted logic, saw the need to kill people, and acted upon it; all are reported here in great detail.

The film ends with a report on the murder of John Lennon, and a blunt statement that during the public memorial held in his memory, two people were shot.

No, this isn't a gross-out "video nasty", it's a hard examination of how the USA is in a slow collapse before our very eyes.