Judgment Day: The John List Story

I love Robert Blake. He is a perennial favorite(up to this point, of course). He is versatile, dynamic, and compelling. However, I think he was miscast in this role. Part of the problem is that nothing about him resembles John List. Although in a lot of scenarios, it is easy to look past the physical resemblance to characters, I found it very difficult to accept his portrayal of John List.

Insofar as the overall acting, it was marginal. Caruso was boring, and not particularly enthralling. D'Angelo was excellent as List's wife. The other tertiary characters added breadth to the film.

All in all, not a bad piece. It is watchable when you are flipping through cable looking for something other than reruns of Home Improvement.

John List was a devout Lutheran who lived with his wife, mother and three children. He grew up as an only child with strict German parents, he had an overly protective and domineering mother (sort of like Norman Bates). List had a masters degree in accounting, but lacked social skills and had a history of losing jobs. People who knew him describe him as an odd and reclusive man who had few friends. He was such a tight ass he would wear a shirt and tie to mow the lawn. One day he snapped and murdered his entire family and got away with it for almost twenty years until America's Most Wanted captured him. That is the story in a nutshell and this film is a good depiction of it. Blake plays List as a milquetoast with rage underneath. this was his first acting in eight years and he won an Emmy nomination for his performance. List claimed that he killed his family because he was worried his daughter wanted to be an actress a job he considered sinful and his wife was sick. Bull@#$%! List was in financial trouble and just wanted to get out and start a new life, that is why he killed his family. His lawyer tried to use this excuse at his trial, but thats all it was. He killed his family to just get rid of them thats all. They featured List's story on a tv show I like called Forensic Files recently and it was just as riveting as this film. Theres one man I would like to take my hat off too. He is a Forensic sculptor named Frank Bender. He created a bust of what List would look like twenty years later and it led to his capture when they showed it on tv. He went over pictures of List and even consulted a forensic psychologist to create a psychological profile of the killer. He even correctly predicted what kind of glasses List would wear twenty years later, a pair with dark frames to hide the fact he was a failure. It led to this killer's capture. List was sentenced to life in prison and to this day has shown no remorse for his terrible crimes. I just cannot believe a human being could be so cold-hearted to murder his wife, mother and three children. I saw this film again on Court TV and it was even more chilling giving the recent circumstances surrounding Robert Blake. I think he killed his wife, and I even wonder if he got the idea from making this film!

John List was so apparently confused as to the will of God. Robert Blake did an awesome job of performing this twisted man. Awesome movie I suggest anyone interested in true life crimes to watch this one. One can only imagine the horrors that John List must have seen when he closed his eyes at night. His mother was in my opinion, the main reason John List was the way he was. She taught him some very odd lessons in life. His defense was "Guilty: Due to a twisted religious belief." Or words to that affect. I found is particularly curious that when confronted Robert Clark confessed he was John List. I didn't really expect that, but at the same time, I guess it does make sense since he was so concerned with sin.

IMO, the John List story is a fascinating and exciting one, and unfortunately, this movie does not really do it justice. Having read some of the available books about the life of John List and the resulting crimes, I found the movie somewhat disappointing, and I had been looking forward to seeing it. I am surprised there hasn't been more written about John List, since it is a more interesting and remarkable story than many others which have received far more attention. The actor playing John List is a good actor, but I do not believe this was the right part for him, especially having seen photos of the real List and having read the books. He isn't as convincing as he should have been. The role of the mother wasn't convincing either, as I felt there were some inconsistencies between the real person described in the books and the character as shown in the film. It was a satisfactory movie, but having enjoyed the books with their far greater detail, and finding them very interesting, the movie was sort of a disappointment... I'd like to see another try at this story, with a little more attention to detail and character development, because you lose a lot without understanding the background of the story better.

Judgment Day: The John List Story is another well done made for tv movie.

It's the true story about a man that was driven over the edge, and decides to kill his whole family (wife,3 kids, & his own mother). He planned it out & had a 2-week head start to get away. Robert Blake,s performance as John List was amazing. "John List" escaped from being captured for almost 20yrs. It took a profile on America,s Most Wanted to finally bring him to justice.

This movie may be disturbing to some viewers. But it's a story that had to be told. And it was done really well.