Netflix’s biographical true crime drama, “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”, tells the story of the infamous Ted Bundy and his heinous actions on his victims. Directed by Joe Berlinger and released in the year 2019, the film is authentically based on the memoir, “The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy”, written by Bundy’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Kendall “Liz”. Through the narrative perspective of Liz, cinematography, and production techniques of the film, there is a seemingly “glamorized” portrayal of the well-known killer. Furthermore, the marginalization or exclusion of some perspectives underscores the historically accurate and moral complexities of representing real tragedies for the purpose of entertainment. By potentially …show more content…
Although Liz describes how she tackled emotions of loving Ted and feeling shame after hearing women’s stories, she describes the romanticism in her early years with Ted. Finding a duplex in Green Lake, the couple fell into a routine of eating outside in the warm weather where “Ted would pick flowers for the table and light candles in the dusk” (Page 26). While gradually realizing that Bundy was the killer, the film doesn't exactly capture the essence of Ted’s evilness from the perspective of his victims. Described in the recorded statements during Bundy’s death sentence, Judge Cowart stated “It’s a tragedy to see such a total waste of humanity” (Dekle, 2011, Page 158) and after this breath says "... I've experienced this in this courtroom. I don’t have any animosity toward you” (19:41). While this statement was included in the movie, the film does not include victims’ testimonies in the traditional sense and only offers oblique glimpses of Bundy’s horrific crimes. Subsequently, the perspectives of devastated victims and their loved
The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how several literary devices described in Foster's book are put to use in Tarantino’s film, “Pulp Fiction”, including quests, archetypes, food, and violence.
2. According to Sobchack, contemporary screen violence greatly differs than portrayals of violence in years past. Today, violent scenes are careless and lack significance because we as audiences have become calloused and desensitized to any acts of violence. She states that there is “no grace or benediction attached to violence. Indeed, its very intensity seems diminished” (Sobchack 432). Senseless violence, gruesome acts, and profound amounts of gore are prevalent in movies today, and because even this is not enough, it must be accompanied by loud blasts and noise, constantly moving scenes to keep audiences stimulated and large quantities of violence for viewers to enjoy what they are watching. Decades ago, it was the story that was engaging to audiences and filmmaking was an art.
Throughout the tale of time, thoughts of revenge have corrupted even the most innocent of minds. In Andre Dubus’ “Killings”, Matt Fowler is conflicted by two opposing forces: his own desire and his wife’s demand for the death of their son’s murderer. Through her manipulative words and her emotional meltdowns, Matt Fowler ultimately succumbs to his wife’s request and commits the gruesome act, which causes the audience to reevaluate the appropriateness and cost of vigilante justice.
Both Di Muzio (2006) and King (2007) make contradicting arguments towards the horror genre. Di Muzio (2006) provides a thought provoking piece regarding morality in horror films and provides his critique on the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Whereas, King (2007) focuses his attention on the positives of the horror genre and ways it allows one to liberate from their sadistic thoughts, calling it as food “to keep the gators fed” in our psyche. (King, 2007, p. 458)
Ted Bundy was a monster who refused to accept his crimes and tried to delay his execution many times. He confessed that he committed gruesome acts of butchery and necrophilia many crimes and left behind an unparallel number of victims to an investigator. Bundy’s delaying tactics finally came to an end on 24th January, 1989, and he was executed at 7 am. His body was cremated and spread over the same Washington State Mountain area that served as his dumping ground for the bodies of his victims.
This article also makes referral comparison to another genre of film “Unlike in other genres (detective, thriller), there is usually neither sympathy for the victims of Evil nor admiration for heroes opposing it.”(Kord, 2016) Violence is what triggers the guilt in the audience and what starts to make them speculate of their morality. “Violence may well be the horror film’s way of hacking away at its audience to engage with guilt. Admit who you are. Admit what you did.” (Kord, 2016) The author questions other theorists with an ample amount of valid research from validated
Citizen Kane expounds how an overreaching ambition for power can corrupt previous altruistic motives to inevitably lead to an individual’s moral degradation. Welles reveals the flaws of the idealised 20th century American Dream, where the increased focus on
Bundy spent years trying to fight for his life, spending the last couple of years in his life appealing his death sentence. He also tried to keep his case alive by trying to take his case to a high as the U.S. Supreme Court but his case was turned down. He even tried to give more information on case that where unsolved so he could avoid the Florida's electric chair. By now things for him to solve and come clean was too late. Ted had to face the time for the brutal things he did to those young beautiful women even if it kill him.
The contemporary writing period is considered to still be occurring as we speak so many of the themes and ideas presented in these works are still prevalent in today’s world. One piece that highlights a particularly gruesome trait of our culture is “Videotape,” written by Don DeLillo which tells a story about us, America, watching a video of horrific murder over and over again while it plays on the news. The story is slightly slow paced at the beginning but you can tell that the author is foreshadowing a big event especially when he bluntly states “It is not just another video homicide. It is a homicide recorded by a child who thought she was doing something simple and maybe halfway clever.” He goes on to tell how the man that the girl was
White, Sadie. "Making a Monster: The Biological, Social, and Artistic Construction of a Serial Killer From Psychosis to Sondheim." Making a Monster: The Biological, Social, and Artistic Construction of a Serial Killer From Psychosis to Sondheim. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
His work was not the only place where Ted was considered unreliable. When Theodore transferred from University of Tacoma to the University of Washington he met and fell in love with Stephanie Brooks. At first in this relationship all was well, “But Stephanie was pragmatic. It was wonderful to be in love, to have a college romance, to stroll through the wooded paths of the campus hand-in-hand…but she sensed that Ted was floundering, that he had no real plans, no real prospects for the future” (Rule, 2000). Much to Ted’s dismay, Stephanie soon broke this relationship off. Some claim that this is one of the many things that helped ease Theodore Bundy over the edge into homicidal rage, and most cite a similar description of Stephanie Brooks to the majority of his later victims.
Crime author Anne Rule, who worked with Ted on a Seattle Crisis hotline, believes that the breakup of his relationship with Stephanie was the catalyst for everything that followed in Ted’s life,” (Biographics). This raises many red flags in this study. Ted Bundy was already showing these obsessive behaviors long before he started murdering women. Behaviors like this, especially in a person like Ted Bundy, are important to pay attention to. To no surprise, his first relationship changed Ted Bundy's behavior toward his girlfriends after the fact.
However, upon the new changes in cinema—the idea of ideology shifted as well. Modernist Cinema subverted that typical dominant ideology. There is always a larger question poses about the film as a whole; why was this film made? Badlands situates the spectator in the position to decide whether or not murder is evil based on the visuals he or she views. The author’s hopes is that by creating unidentifiable characters and a nonchalant world that the spectator will realize that the idea of murder isn’t in fact being promoted merely the opposite—it’s being subverted. The subject matter of this film is one that is certainly unpleasurable in terms of entertainment but actually a dissatisfaction intending to comment on society as a whole. This intentional provocation involves “the attack on ‘entertainment’ cinema [as] part of a broader attack on the whole of ‘consumer society’” (Wollen, 424). Cinema serves as a distraction from society, but also operates to make a point to its intended audience. The point being the obvious, murder should never be morally acceptable. Its consequences typically should evoke a reaction that testifies against nature of the
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