I first heard about the story of Tony Karitsis in the infamous documentary, "The killing Of America" among many insane moments in a film loaded with mayhem and brutality, the Tony Karitsis segment stood out as something pretty mind blowing. The fact that a crazed gunman took a hostage and paraded him around the streets with a shotgun strapped to his neck and then held him in an apartment for 3 days is really something I just couldn't imagine. The fact that a great amount of video footage was broadcast live is even more hard to imagine.
So anyway, I somehow stumbled across this new documentary last week and decided I'd like to learn a little more about the incident.
The film is pieced together from a large deal of Audio and Visual archival material and the gaps are filled in with talking heads. The shocking footage really speaks, but what the way the filmmakers have transported you into the moment by piecing all the conceivable angles (audio recordings, news casts and footage from the scene) into a cohesive account of the events is a really great feat. The interviewees range from police to family members giving you the facts and talking you through the ordeal moment by moment.
The film does give you a detailed account of the proceedings, but I think a little more back story on some of the key players earlier in the film would have set the scene a little better and given the narrative a little more drive.
It would have also been really great to get an interview with the victim of the crime, but I guess he might have other plans.
If you like true crime stories this is a compelling and nerve wracking documentary, worth a watch. 7/10
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