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Conversations with a killer: tapes of Ted Bundy
Director – Joe Berlinger
Evaluation – 2.5 / 5
"Extremely nasty, terribly naughty and naughty." This is how the judge described the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy before he was sentenced to death. These words, taken in the same order, will also serve as the title for a forthcoming film on Bundy, directed by Joe Berlinger.
Berlinger is in a way a pioneer of the true police genre. He broke into the early 90s with his Paradise Lost trilogy, which he co-directed with the late Bruce Sinofsky. These films, told over the course of a decade, literally helped save the lives of three young men convicted of murdering three children. They are, to this day, despite the overabundance of podcasts being the subject of exhaustive research and lavish documentary series, which constitute the gold standard of true crime.
Watch the conversation with a killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes trailer here
Berlinger before launching Extremely Wicked … has published a preamble, Netflix's four-part documentary Conversations with a Killer: Ted Bundy's Tapes – titled, as you'll agree, less decisive. plume.
This is an interesting scenario, which offers the same director two apple bites, in two very contrasting forms. It reminded me of the moment when Andrew Jarecki directed All Good Things, a drama about the accused murderer Robert Durst, with Ryan Gosling in the lead role, and followed him in 2015 with his HBO documentary series, The Jinx, which had led to the arrest of Durst.
As for the Jinx, the biggest card that Conversations with a killer has to offer is to offer viewers a story tale directly from the horse's mouth. Excerpts from audio recordings made during multiple interviews conducted by a journalist while Bundy was in prison are scattered throughout his four episodes. Unlike the Jinx, however, virtually nothing that Bundy says has any value or interest – this is hardly the confessionalism for which it was announced.
In situations like this, when the subject has already been described in such a broad and detailed manner, it is useful to provide a unique insight into one's methods or psychology. Conversations with a killer do not do either. This only makes the most shy – forgive the pun – try to understand why Bundy did what he did. It's mostly about just reporting what happened, with little or no subtext.
Bundy was a female killer, perhaps the most infamous since Jack the Ripper. This in itself, especially now, is an idea worth exploring. It is said that he murdered, over many years and in several states, more than 30 young women. And the way he killed them – his crimes, including necrophilia, all carried out with brutal violence – with a badual connotation, was particularly horrible. And yet, Bundy maintained his innocence until the end and retained his disarming charm. Many women in the show point out how strangely handsome he was, a trait that he had tragically used to attract many of his victims. "He looked like one of us," says a future lawyer, also referring to Bundy's university studies and his strong family support. It is perhaps this mysterious look that inspired Berlinger to interpret Zac Efron as Bundy in his next film.
The twists and turns of his life are undeniably interesting. For example, Bundy has successfully organized several jail-breaks. And toward the end of his life, he took on the role of advisor to the FBI's nascent serial killer department, much like Hannibal Lecter. Maybe a future Mindhunter season from Netflix will revisit this story.
Read also: Mindhunter Review: David Fincher kills him with his new Netflix show, one of the best of the year
But Conversations with a killer do not seem to want to undermine Bundy's life for thrills, nor seek some sort of emotional catharsis for his victims and their families. It just plays as if you were reading a Wikipedia page, written to sound electronic music.
For true crime fans – and I consider myself one of them -, Bundy and his terrible misdeeds will be reason enough to stay until the end, all the more so. that four episodes are not at all an engagement. But for curious strangers, the story will prove too dry to evoke any kind of visceral emotion – a key to the success of any crime story.
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The author tweete @ RohanNaahar
First publication: January 28, 2019 at 10:52 HIST
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