Review #348: 'The Killing of America' (1982)

In the 1960's a new sub-genre of pseudo-documentaries was produced by Italian filmmakers Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. Their first film, Mondo Cane (1962), was to introduce an alternative kind of ethnographic cinema. With the success of the film, it gave birth to many imitators. These films focused on bizarre, often graphic portrayals of sometimes archaic cultural practises. As this genre progressed through the 1970's and 1980's the main focus was on death, and the representation of it. With a cinema-going public demanding increasingly graphic depictions of death, film makers turned much of their attentions to creating fake images of death. This trend was exacerbated by the enormous success of Faces of Death (1978) and it's sequels and many imitators (such as the Traces of Death series). 

By 1982, the trend for death film moved towards saturation, and it seemed that every continents' obscure and often made up practises had been exposed and exploited. The Killing of America, written by Leonard and Chieko Schrader (brother and sister in law to Taxi Driver (1976) writer Paul), is constructed of real footage, and it's thesis is very simple. The film presents America in all of it's violent tendencies, and looks at some very well known cases of murder etc. We are shown the assassination's of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luthor King Jr. The stories of the all-too well known serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy et al. The film shows the devastation caused on the American streets from the civil rights movement, images of suicides, along with some pretty grim murder sights (these are often shown with still images). 

The Killing of America seems to pose some pretty stupid questions about American society. The narrator (Chuck Riley) often relates murder numbers, and juxtaposes the rates of murder with "England, Germany and Japan combined." Why are there almost double the amount of murders in the USA when (combined) these aforementioned countries do not. It's a strange question to pose to the viewer. It is incredibly obvious what the answer to that question is: Gun laws. That said, it is a more interesting example of this mondo-style documentary (shockumentary if you like), and some of the imagery is genuinely disconcerting.


Directed by: Sheldon Renan
Narrator: Chuck Riley
Country: USA/Japan

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy