The Deadly Tower

I saw this movie when it first aired in October 1975. NBC ran a viewer advisory that it was very intense and may affect sensitive viewers. Yes, indeed! Whitman was one demented person and the casting of All-American Disney actor Kurt Russell to play him was incredible...it showed Russell could do heavy stuff. The casting of journeyman Latino actor Richard Yniguez to play Officer Martinez was also great. The supporting cast (Ned Beatty, John Forsythe, Pernell Roberts, etc.) was also excellent. It was interesting to see Mr. Forsythe as a detective investigating the gun stores-a far cry from Bentley Gregg or Blake Carrington. This was also Pernell Roberts' first time on TV in a while playing Martinez' sergeant. Part of the intensity of the movie came from the fact that Whitman shot at anyone or anything that moved and any attempt to take him out (shooting from a plane or citizens shooting with their hunting rifles) only agitated him. The bookstore clerk guiding Martinez and his fellow officers into the tower showed true heroism. I was in college in California when this movie first aired and I mentioned to my father that my college's library had an observation/study deck that somebody could use for such an act! In fact the college security department worked out a plan in case of somebody doing this. Thank goodness nobody tried this. Back to the movie...it was presented from Martinez' point of view and some have said there is a Latino bias, but I say it is a very intense depiction of true heroism. 43 years have passed since that tragic day. One would hope it would never happen again anywhere, but it does (Fort Hood, San Ysidro, Orlando, to name a few).

NBC greenlighted The Deadly Tower, a retelling of the Charles Whitman incident of 1966, but the network was apparently unwilling to let it go as a kid-goes-nuts-and-shoots-up-a-college-campus thriller. Instead, they packed and padded this painful and unnerving story with lots of social commentary about a young Latino patrolman, one of the principals who got to Whitman, battling prejudice.

NBC's prudence (or cowardice, depending on your take) just about squelches the lean, dark, and amazingly gory (for TV) story of Whitman (a ne'er do well played creepily by Kurt Russell) losing his mind, offing his family, and carrying his fight with whatever lurking head-demons to a university tower where he unloads on an unsuspecting campus.

I've seen a documentary about Whitman which told the story of a profoundly damaged young man who breaks under familial pressures and seeks vengeance against the world. You don't get that from the movie; there isn't much more than a blurb about a suspected brain tumor to explain his actions.

Yet, on a suspense level, the movie works quite well. It's when the screenwriters pull their punches by injecting social issues that the movie loses its focus (but probably gains that old expectation of containing significant social value).

The Deadly Tower is ugly and sweaty and filled with mayhem, and if you can get by the issue stuff, you'll either be rewarded by or repulsed by a brutal and suspenseful voyeuristic wallow.

This is a very memorable movie - I have not seen it in over fifteen years but I still remember many scenes from it very well. It ranks right up there with the class of its genre, movies such as "Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster", "The Jericho Mile" and "The Day After". It is not only a story of Charles Whitman, but it also tells the story of Officer Ramiro Martinez (the policeman who made his way into the tower and killed Whitman). It also gives a good description of the logistics used by the entire police force that terrible day. No surrealism is used in the filming process - harsh, lusty reality sets the tone.

I do not know if this movie is available on video, but if it is, by all means take a look at it.

Dramatization of horrific events out of Austin, Texas in August 1966 when disturbed young man Charles Whitman went on a shooting rampage from the tower overlooking the university. Well-written TV-movie (cast with familiar television actors in supporting roles, and Disney mainstay Kurt Russell effectively playing against type in the lead), is anything but entertaining; however, the approach here--tough and unrelenting--provides for a fascinating docudrama. Crossing the paths of Whitman and local police officer Ramiro Martinez (nicely-played by Richard Yniguez) gives the narrative its drive, though the real-life Martinez was unhappy with his portrayal and sued. Liberties were indeed taken for 'dramatic purposes,' yet the hard-hitting film is still memorable today for its no-nonsense handling, the realistic violence and taut characterizations.

Several years ago in 1971 when I was doing the weekend warrior thing in Fort Sam Houston I visited Austin one weekend and did go on the university campus. My reason for going was to see the newly opened Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. It's almost as big as the infamous tower. Still I did note the tower little dreaming that it would be the site of a terrible tragedy. Like passing by the former World Trade Center towers before they became infamous.

The Deadly Tower is the story of the massacre at the campus of the University Of Texas by former serviceman Charles Whitman suffering from an undiagnosed brain tumor who managed to sneak up some assault weapons, enough ammunition for a company who barricaded himself in the tower and started shooting at random.

The story is that of Whitman and one of the Austin police officers who took him down on that fateful day. Kurt Russell who broke from the Disney G rated mold finally got taken seriously as an actor with a wonderful performance with minimal dialog.

Richard Yniguez who should have had a breakthrough performance is also good as Austin PD officer Ramiro Martinez. I don't know why Yniguez never became a star.

Folks like John Forsythe, Clifton James, and Pernell Roberts play other police officials. Ned Beatty plays Alvin Crum, a university employee who with Yniguez and Paul Carr are the ones who finally reached the demented and troubled Whitman.

For a while as well he should, Charles Whitman became a poster child for gun control. Even with a president nearly assassinated not a decade later we still have no effective national policy to prevent future Charles Whitmans. The other view of gun control is also presented here as various citizens with hunting weapons join in to help the cops. There weapons are more effective and keep Russell pinned down.

The Deadly Tower is a fine film and good telling of one of the saddest days of the last century.