Tony Palmer

The Killing of John Lennon is a chilling insight into the mind of Mark David Chapman, the 25 year old narcissist who gunned down John Lennon outside his Dakota apartment in New York in 1980. Meticulously researched and filmed in actual locations where events occurred, The Killing of John Lennon is a gritty and imagistic examination of a celebrity stalker's mind leading up to the kill - and his subsequent descent into madness and exorcism. Independently financed and filmed over three years in Hawaii, Decatur Georgia and New York, this indie drama from IFC is unflinching in its presentation of the truth. It does not set out to condone or exonerate the shooting death of Lennon or his killer's desire for fame. Its theme of bomb-ticking loneliness and, by extension, the notion that America is a nation of angry strangers who vent paranoid resentment toward public figures couldn't be more resonant today.

Lifting dialogue directly from notorious assassin Mark David Chapman's real-life journal, director Andrew Piddington paints a chilling portrait of the man who infamously shot John Lennon outside his New York City apartment building in 1980. The film chronicles Chapman's trek from his home on the islands of Hawaii to Lennon's home on the island of Manhattan, where he made history by murdering a living legend.