Starkweather

First off, I have lived in Lincoln most of my life and I lived through the days of the killings. I know what went on. Now let's get down to the film. This is a very low budget film and it shows in every way possible. You are forever seeing microphones and set people on the screen. The cars are the wrong years. The killings started in December of 1957 and ended in January of 1958, yet the trees and other plants all have green leaves on them even though Nebraska is very cold in winter. They have Lincoln in the desert of what could be Arizona or Nevada while Lincoln is in fact located in typical Midwest farm country and is hundreds of miles from the nearest desert. They show Lincoln as a very small town when it was around 100,000 or more people at the time of the killings. The one real picture of Lincon in the film shows the capital building with fountains in front of it, even though the fountains were put in on what was once 15th street and is now called Centennial Mall many years after the killings. It shows Starkweather being captured in Nebraska by the Lancaster County Sheriff when in fact he was captured near Douglas, Wyoming by local Wyoming law enforcement. I could go on and on. There are just too many mistakes in this movie to list. To it's credit they did get the names and order of events right, but that's about all they got right and that's why I gave it two stars.

The story of the killings does deserve to be told in a movie and one that would be factual and show the fear the killings put in the people who lived though them, but this is not that film. If you want to learn about the killings and what they did to the city just do a web search for the name Charles Starkweather and you will learn the real story. If you want to watch a movie with so many mistakes you'll be laughing at it from beginning to end then watch this movie.

I lived in Lincoln during the Starkweather era & couldn't believe this movie. First off, there are no cacti & mountains in Nebraska. Even in the 50's Nebraskans didn't talk with southern hick drawls. Also, I've never seen a '48 Ford described as a '55 Chevy. Starkweather was a short (5'8") bow-legged red head that wore very thick glasses. He was a real loser. So was his girl-friend. I thought this might be a good movie but have changed my mind since seeing it. It had the possibility to be one, but was really messed up. I had never heard that Starkweather heard "voices" or saw a "devil" when he was on his rampage. I don't know where that came from. Don't bother watching.

The story line was fine, and followed the real events fairly close to reality. HOWEVER, I have to wonder if the director and producer EVER visited Nebraska before filming. I have lived in Nebraska my entire life, and have spent much time in Lincoln. My home is in the western part of the state, near the Wyoming border, where the chase took place. I live in the town where Charlie spent his first night in jail on the way back to Lincoln. No where are there MOUNTAINS. No where between Lincoln and Wyoming is there a desert- like landscape with tumble weeds and cacti. The setting was so far off from the reality of Nebraska, it was laughable for a Nebraskan to watch. Also, they gave the actors a Southern hick accent, and had them use words like "I reckon" and "ain't." People don't talk like that here, and they didn't in the 1950's either. It could've been a much more disturbing picture, if they had used the quiet beauty of the Nebraska prairie-type lands juxtaposed against the brutality of the crimes. It was too cheesy with the Arizona landscape being passed off as Nebraska, and the fake Southern accents passed off in the dialogue. What a disappointment.

When I watch a movie like this, I am hoping to learn or get some insight into the kind of person that would commit these crimes. OK. there are some technical problems with the movie: the scenery, southern accents and all. But I have to disagree with the bad acting comments. The actors were convincing in their roles. It impossible to empathize with a conscience-less murderer but you do get a sense of his lack of compassion for human life. His girl friend is in the same boat - completely amoral. I think the scene where they fall asleep in the same room as one of their bloody victims is a great statement. My sense of the directing is that it was meant to convey a 50's B-Movie style which reinforced the time and sense of these two losers. Inspite of the drawbacks, I did gain some sense of the their personalities which is (to me) far more important than exact historical placement and correctness. Other good movies in this vein: Elephant and Deliberate Stranger (about Ted Bundy). Not so good: Ed Gein, Dahmer.

Lets look at the plot outline to start with, which refers to 16 year old Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend. Whilst I thought Brent Taylor and Shannon Lucio played their roles adequately, they do not pass as these age groups. If you research the facts of the film you find that Starkweather was actually 19 and Caril had just turned 13 therefore, I don't understand why they cast two obviously older actors. There should have been more of a 'Lolita' scenario. The poster refers to Natural Born Killers, etc and suggests this is the story that inspired these films. This film inspires no one. It dwells on the 11 killings but at the same time does nothing to broaden our understanding of the characters. The events leading up to the first murder are brushed over. 'Lets just give an idea of who they are and move on to the gore!' But the violence is just lame and it becomes monotonous seeing Starkweather moving on to the next kill. The character who stood out was the Sheriff but for all the wrong reasons. If he smokes in real life then he has a funny way of holding a cigar. His dialogue was laughable and every time he came on screen I cringed. Don't go out of your way to watch this film, you'll regret it.