I was genuinely excited to receive this movie on DVD as a gift and deeply regret having to come to such a negative conclusion, but there is really no other alternative. As a movie lover and a true crime buff, I have quite a bit of familiarity with the Bundy case and, especially, enjoyed the made for TV adaption of the mid-80's, "THE DELIBERATE STRANGER". I expected a movie version, updated with current developments (e.g., at the time of the making of the "Deliberate Stranger", Bundy had not been executed, his appeals had not been exhausted, nor had the immense psychological profiling or his eleventh hour shenaingans to save his life-such as his siring of a child while on death row or his conversion to Hinduism or his last minute appeals to exchange information to save his life- been completed) and not restrained on such a macabre subject as this by network TV parameters to be truly compelling, thought provoking, and informative.
Bright's moview, while visually compelling at times, falls far short of the mark and is, at times, inappropriate and tasteless. Other reviewers have indicated that there is poor character development and they are absolutely correct. There is no, absolutely NO, attempt to develop ANY of the characters past their cartoonish roles as set forth by this script and Bright.
Moreover, many of the historical facts of the case are simply misrepresented in this film. Even a casual follower of the Bundy case knows that, incredibly, many of his known 30 victims who have been identified (not all,have been), bore a striking resemblance to each other. Generally brunette with long, straight hair parted in the middle; which fit the description of the high society woman Bundy was long infatuated with and even engaged to for a time. (Not to be confused with his OTHER girlfriend at the time of the beginning of his killings, whom is depicted in both movies referenced herein, and in Bright's adaptation is misrepresented and slandered, despite a strong performance from the actress polaying her with such a limited script)By contrast, the victims in Bright's adaption are mostly blond and further details of their murders are made up and presented as "fact".
There is no mention or illusion to Bundy's family, especially his mother, whom he beleived to be his sister unitl early adoloscene, nor his self described life long shame at being born out of wedlock. Clearly, well known facts such ast these are important to give the viewer, whether familiar with Bundy or not, grounds to answer the most compeeling and unsaswerable questions: WHY and HOW?
Instead, Bright presents a disjointed tale in which Bundy (played fairly well with limited options by Michael Burke) does not even speak until 20 minutes into the movie, despite being depicted in almost every scene of the moview. We are treated to much more violence than is necessary in showing the horror of this man, and also to many vignettes of him supposedly acting out similar fantasies in lovemaking with his girlfreind. Further, Bright takes the time to provide several scenes referenceing Bundy's necrophilia, something that was never confessed to or proven, albeir suspected by the investigators in the case.
For those of you looking for information about this case in addition to being entertained, you will be sadly disappointed. There is almost no reference to time, date, place of this killing nightmare that spanned almost ten years, and absolutely no creative reference to the investigation and/or trial(s) of Bundy. (In the director's commentary on the 'features" portion of the DVD, Bright tells us that he simply "wasn't interested in shooting that stuff") Perhaps to make up for his evidently intentional lack of character developoment, factual accuracy, and story line, Bright spices in some footage of the real Bundy being led into court and transferred to jail; along with contemporary newscasts and community reaaction. This brief snippets tell us more about what happened and compel us to form our own opinions than anything Bright does in the rest of the piece.
Other reviewers have remarked in the apparent attempt at dark humor in this moview. I beleive that Bright did attempt this, although for the life of me I cannot find dark humor in the real life story of a man who murdered at least 30 women (investigators and profilers close to the case unanimously believe the actual count is much more and some feel that it could have well been more than 100);physically and emotionally maimed other victims for life, and psychologically shattered some others who knew, in hindsight, that they could have been and/or were intended to be his victim. As such, the ridiculous scene, and other's like it, where Bright's Bundy is depicted as a tween sport jacket and bow tie wearing nerd while sitting in 70's style disco's and doing an intentionally poor parody of John Travolta's famous pose from the cover of the album "Saturday Night Live" don't strike me as funny.
There is another montage with some upbeat 70's style disco music (don't get me wrong, I LOVE 70's era tunes...this just wasn't the place)blaring happily while Bright shows us successive scenes of women being dumpoed into ditches and by the sides of roads as well as a particularly disturbing one with Bundy enjoying a smoke after (presumably) sex with two corpses.
I realize that Bundy was a disgusting, revolting character, and any honest portrayal of him will contain some elements of this. However, Bright focuses solely on the crude parts, which cheat the viewer, in my opinion, of the full chilling effect of this predator who was, although in some respects fraudulently so, a law student, suicide crisis counselor, aide on the campaign to the Governor of Washington, and admired within his community. Mark harmon's Bundy in the Deliberate Stranger was played with these dementions in mind, so effectively that, at times, depending on which "TEd" we are seeing, Harmon actually seems to look different. And, most importantly, we are given an indication of HOW so many nice and intelligent women were lured to their demise. Bright's Bundy is a ridculous and revolting figure, obviously out of place and literally walking up to women on the street and striking them and then carrying their bodies to his VW, in one scene in full view of four people who are walking right by and son't seem to care.
for those who do feel compelled or interested in seeing this movie, don't waste your extra bucks on the DVD version unless you just have to see it in that visually format. There are no additional features other than Bright's appalling director's commentary. This rates special mention due to its revelation about the thougt that went into this moview. Bright makes little or no mention of the actors, motivation, or though that went into making this picture. His comments are semi-moronic musings such as "can you beleive this guy", "ladies, dump your boyfriend if he is like this", "don't so that Ted", and the like. He misstates on several occasions actual Bundy events and repeats throughout that "hey, this actually happened", even in scenes that require some dramatic license (e.g. conversation between Bundy and a victim who did not survive)
However, the most disturbing parts of the DVD feature are Bright's almost incessant reference to the actresses playing the roles of victims in this movie. Such beauts as "this girl is a wrestler in real life and I wish she would have met Bundy, she'd kicked his butt" and "I can't remember her name (reference to a blond actress playing a cheerleader uniform wearing victim of Bundy-a victim not based in the facts of the case)...but, she's 'jailbait' and she knows she's 'jailbait'"
The most disgusting is in the commentary during the "interrogation scene" of Bundy (again, we are given no who, what, where, etc.) when the detective is withering Bundy with questions and begins to read a list of names of his victims (again, not factually accurate, at the time of Bundy's intial arrest in Utah, he was a suspect in three unsolved kidnapping of young women,bodies had not been found and one survived and ultimately id'd him) containing about 20 names. Bright tells us that "he didn't use the real names of the victims in respect to the families" (what a guy) and then goes on, unbeleivalby, to tell us that "...the names used are the names of every girl I have been intimate with since the eighth grade..." and then goes on to tell us when and how on some of the women. Seriously. There are other false and tasteless treats from his commentary "...people saw this guy, but nobody said anything and nobody cared...", "Bundy easily could have been Governor or a Senator", and "Bundy was a REpublican...I don't mean to slam Republicans, but most serial killers are Repblican"
As if that is not enough, this movie ends with a succession of four children (?)smiling at the camera and yelling "I am Ted Bundy", the last of which is a cute little girl who says this line while appearing to be holding a dead cat.
Bottom line, stay away from this unless you just like mindless and gratuitous movies that are a succession of unrelated and unexplained shocking scenes like the ones mentioned above and many other beauties such as Bundy masturbting outside of windows and putting lipstick on a decapitated corpse.
If you are interested at all in this subject matter or just curious and don't need to be grossed out while someone who thinks this is a little humorous puts in tasteless scenes to try and make you laugh, skip this and find "The Deliberate Stranger" on VHS or wait until it comes around again on cable.
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