The Preppie Murder

US television drama based on a true crime case starring Lara Flynn Boyle and William Baldwin

This television film, directed by John Herzfeld, first aired on ABC in September 1989. It is based on the actual murder of young Jennifer Levin on August 26, 1986 in New York's Central Park, which was known at the time and even after the television film was broadcast as "The Preppie Murder" (based on a preparatory school as preparation for university studies). Attended by both the victim and the perpetrator) attracted great media attention.

Jennifer (Lara Flynn Boyle), a young girl from a good New York family, meets the extremely attractive Robert Chambers (William Baldwin) in a hip bar in Manhattan, falls in love with the great Hech and spends the night with him. The next day, Robert doesn't want to know anything about her anymore. A loud argument breaks out. At dawn the next day, Jennifer's body is found in Central Park, with significant injuries. Robert quickly becomes a target of the police and finally admits to being involved in Jennifer's killing. But here's the thing: He claims that he accidentally killed Jennifer as a result of violent sexual practices ("rough sex") in which he himself was in danger of becoming Jennifer's victim. What is starting now is a media tornado without equal. This story, with its very young and beautiful participants, is a real hit for the New York newspapers. In court, a sleazy lawyer named Jack Litman (as always convincing: Knots Landing star William Devane) ensures that Jennifer Levin's sex life is exploited and that the murder victim supposedly becomes the perpetrator.

This story actually happened and didn't end with the process depicted in the film. The first part of the film is definitely convincing. William Baldwin and Lara Flynn Boyle fit their roles perfectly as spoiled brats who seem to have everything thrown at them. William Baldwin is particularly impressive as a dazzling-looking but somehow disturbingly crazy little boy. In the second part of the film, the court hearing, everything no longer fits together. On the one hand, the aim is to criticize the way the judiciary and the media have dealt with this bizarre case, but on the other hand, there is a lot of speculation regarding Jennifer Levin's alleged preference for certain sexual practices.

A very strange television film that quite and rightly paid off for the future careers of its main actors. The talented Lara Flynn Boyle was part of David Lynch's television series "Twin Peaks" a year later, and the enviably well-built William Baldwin made it in "Sliver" (1993) even becomes Sharon Stone's super sexy lover (and that's also fully justified). It should also be mentioned that the great music comes from Chris Isaak, who would become world famous a year later with "The Wicked Game" for "Wild At Heart" by David Lynch. The later ACADEMY AWARD winner Sandra Bullock can also be seen in a small role.

With a few caveats, it's definitely worth seeing!

I just saw this film for the first time, and I must agree with the previous reviewer - Alec's l'il bro was seriously miscast in the role of a remorseless murderer! While cute during the first 27.8 seconds of the movie, Billy's Basset Hound StaresT grew a little - no, make that extremely - tiresome in very short order. His good looks didn't make up for the fact that he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, something the producers might have considered when they were looking for someone to play the role of a sociopath.

The only actor worth watching here was Danny Aiello; in fact most of those who played cops did so with amazing credibility. The interrogation scenes were a joy to watch and actually made you believe that this is what it must really be like (unlike the usual TV in-your-face all-anger-all-the-time TV cop shows).

In the end, though, I was left with the feeling that if a good actor had played the lead it may have been a better film.

Update at June 2008

I came across this feature because it is early Bullock, and have started to wonder what happens when one considers this alongside her maturer work, A Time To Kill of 1996.

First, there is a massive quality difference, Preppie is blatantly low budget.

The acting in A Time is solid and real, to me, but Preppie is maybe misunderstood on that point. Look for very weak acting in Preppie I find that it mostly centres on the victim's family. But a couple of girls show it too, even a Heather. Look closer, whenever any actor here has to show deep grief, and the victim's family is rooted in that, then the feel is weak corn. I should interpret the weak acting as due to the direction that the actors received, it likely does not say that they are bad prostitutes.

Both features had me wanting to switch off. I like nice and easy sort of stories and these are not. I found that A Time started to click, I could follow it and gradually get to like it. Preppie, I switched off and came back to try to do some Heather study and then found it to have some interest further than that.

The centre, for me, is the pictures of justice that are shown. Each story includes several understandings of justice and not much clicks with me as including anything remotely healthy. Are these pictures intentionally scary? If this is a portrayal of how many understand justice then this planet is in big trouble. Time has scarier justice from start to end?

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Looking at how I understood justice, to me the idea of individual accountability was marred by questions about free will, free will not being as widespread as all that.

Specialist education as about a potential to be helped, a gentle nursery, towards a fuller free will.

I now look back and discover that education and health in the UK seem more, for me, about leading me astray, towards less and less free will and a decreasing ability re following society's rules.

A belief in the strong individual, about a need for others to Pass The Test, about a dog eat dog world? These two features exploring bits about that.

The killer in Preppie, to me it is so obvious that he is a victim and a disaster too. It is also obvious that when he is – was released from jail that he will be liable to never be properly free because of what I interpret as popular belief systems that fuel an ongoing war against fools. His is a world where the good and the bad play murder games regularly and he is just one of many products of that.

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Harry Potter and The Worst Witch sequels as other explorations re justice and individual development?

A more positive note. Symbolism. At the start of Preppie it felt possible to view this as a New York fashion show with a feature pasted on as a carrier. Except it is only the hat that the victim wears early on that shines for me. The New Worst Witch series, episode one, from England, has even better hats worn by Millie and Cress. Li-Lo's Get A Clue has no equal.

This links with my comment re Hangmen 1987.

She (Boyle) is a nice, pretty girl but needs a little polish; he (Billy Baldwin) wears shirts by Ralph Lauren. You can see there's trouble a-brewing.

This movie is probably, unfortunately, of greatest interest for The World of Hibernia magazine cover girl Boyle before she developed her familiar sexy vamp persona. In fact, she seems like an older version of some of those early hair-twisting Winona Ryder characters. Her part is really only of newcomer size. That's sad to say since Boyle's Before and After are so different from one another.

As for Baldwin, he plays a plausible prep perp. Sandra Bullock has rather a small part, as the girl with the ankh earring. Not much of a characterization there.

This crime story plays much like a lesser, and fairly routine, episode of "Law & Order", with Danny Aiello standing in for Jerry Orbach and Joanna Kerns doing a blonder version of Michael Moriarty.

Aiello's experienced flatfoot is the central character. The script tries to humanize him, not entirely successfully, by showing his "pedagogic" side I'll call it. That gives him a certain degree of warmth, but it's really up to Aiello to lend the role his usual identifiability.

I think it all comes down to how much you like Danny Aiello. It happens I do, but don't consider that a recommendation.

The majority of the fascination with the "preppie murder" case revolved around the startling good looks and charisma of the man accused. A very rare few are blessed/cursed with the type of beauty that placed Robert Chambers in an elite above and beyond what most can even imagine. A young Elvis Presley, Ricky Martin or Rob Lowe could also be considered among those few. It was easy to believe that once under the spell of such a an intensely magnetic draw, a young girl could become violently obsessed if rejected. It was absolutely impossible for me to buy this scenario with Billy Baldwin - PLEASSSSE! Who casts these things?