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Tower Reviews
This is one of my favorite documentaries and it should have been nominated for an Oscar.
On August 1, 1966, college life in the University of Texas turned dark. Fifteen bright futures, including an unborn, were taken away. Shots been fired high above all, emitting from the top floor in the University Tower as Charles Whitman held the campus hostage for 96 minutes. Mentally ill due to a cancerous diagnosis to the brain that gave him violent impulses, leading him to [additionally] kill fifteen, wound 31, and shook the nation. Rejuvenated interest surrounding the tragedy published upon the 40th anniversary by Pamela Colloff for the Texas Monthly, and it caught Keith Maitland's attention, inspired to put it in a filmic portrait. Structured by existing archival footage, pieced by rotoscoping animation, and told by witnesses, heroes and survivors, "Tower" is a captivating documentary that not only recounts the incident with factual thoroughness and compose with existing, archival accounts, it's a transportive immersion. Whether or not you're aware of what happened, this documentary proved effective in erasing what you thought you knew and bringing you into the scene, sharing the affecting anxiety radiating from those perspectives as they're being shared and animated by rotoscoping. The rotoscoped pieces complete the vivid reality limitedly caught via the archival footage, as well keeps the realism aspect rather than re-enact it as it could dare uncannily, or it could take away the contextual symbolism it features. It eventually transitions near the end when we meet the living survivors as they detail – a couple of them actually meet – how the experience affected them and what meaning it brought. As part of the economic filmmaking, as Maitland based the produced pictures from captured imagery on-sight to green screen in his backyard, the localized casting was tasked to provide additional voices and set up physical appearances for the selective eyewitness accounts from pivotal angles. They truly captured the tonal shifts back then out of respect for who they're representing before we actually meet the real persons that were traumatized by haunted memory. What really furthered the profound overall effect is how Maitland connected the horrific event by the ripple effects it's caused that are certainly still shaking the nation, but more so for communities. The timely topical discourse circles back to the probable origin of those ripples that were deemed unthinkable, now it's a terrifying occurrence that could happen anytime when mentalities are violently unpredictable. "Tower" brought broader attention to Maitland's directorial craftsmanship, who debuted in now-compelling "The Eyes of Me", and ideally the awareness of the darkly imprinted aura in front of the University Tower within its gloomy shadow. Surely devastating to relive, but really think about how it effectively transports under unexpected immersion by such a small-crafted scope to make a unique documentary with peaked coverage over a subject told chronologically. (A-)
A blend of animation and actual footage and other footage of the time from a mass shooting at the university of Texas in 1966. While it is an interesting blend of styles, I'm not sure what they were gong for because it was far less hard hitting with the animation... or maybe we're just desensitized to this sort of thing in 2022. To me it seemed like an animated documentary trying to not be a documentary and... I just couldn't connect with that.
It's a unique combination of rotoscoped action and historical footage, never seen anything like that before. Not a 5* review, because the overall drama was broken into a mosaic of personal tragedies and braveries, for which I lacked sentiment. But from an academic perspective, bravo.
A beautiful piece of art set to one of the darkest days of the Sixties. And one that would become all to familiar.
Technically impressive and emotionally resonant and serves as a great memorial for those present during that horrendous event.
The visual style brings light to the 60s footage that balances out the dark nature of the documentary. It's done the perfect job of weaving a story together with what was available to work with, and make you feel a part of what happened in 66'.
A strong and powerful documentation that captivates the horror shared from a horrendous mass shooting through the eyes of different people.
When I first read the text overview of the movie, I was thinking, okay, this must be something stupid. However, I watched it anyway. As I was watching, I was thinking exactly that in 1966, there were no such things as cell phones and digital cameras and whatever technology. They did a wonderful job with what they had to work with and it explained the entire event and left you very emotional. I was a kid when this happened, and vaguely remembered the event; this movie helped explain some of the details.
It's August 1. 1966 and some wacko in Texas opens fire at randoms from a univeristy clock tower. There are many people killed and we follow many victims, heros and people that witness the scens. This film is firstly very nicely made. Unusual and fresh with it's animation combined with archical footage. Fresh colors, crisp sounds and score and told by stand in's as well as the very same persons that was there when it happened. It's a mixture of many stories and some of them are amazing. Either sad or herioc, all of them real. Many great personalities here and they shine in this film putting the horrible happening into motion. 8 out of 10 gun shots.
The first movie about a mass killing that made me feel better about people.
I don't know what to say. It was just amazing. There was a lot of details added to this movie. So many views. It sound like a drama but then you realize this is real life. It was very captivating.
Really good movie. Unbelievable true story.
This craziness should exist only as animation, but the fact that is mostly a documentary makes it sad and powerful.
This movie proves that the social and American past seen through a retroscope is 20/10.. what were we thinking??
This film marks the 50th anniversary of the first mass shooting - from the tower at the University of Texas. There are animated reenactments of the shooting, then toward the end, you meet some of the victims/heroes involved. Fifty years and still no solutions.
The movie was good but I was sad to see that they didn't include the entire story about the shooter seeking medical help for his severe headaches and aggression. This is a left wing bias movie. Read up and learn about what really happened because this movie will not tell you. He had a brain tumor and doctors were ignoring his symptoms. You'd think this director worked for CNN....
I highly recommend "Tower", a documentary that tells the story of the events of August 1st, 1966, when a young man went to the top of the University of Texas Tower and opened fire on the innocent people below. The gunman's identity is barely mentioned, if at all, throughout this film. It's not about Charles Whitman or his demons or even the political pressures of the day that might have impacted him in any way. Only the music and the dress seem to reveal much of that time period. This is all appropriate, because it's about the people who lived through the 96 minutes of terror, as well as those who did not. The format the documentary uses is called rotoscopic animation, a term I did not know previously. I would have simply called it beautifully-done animation. Archival footage is used, but no live action re-enactments. The effect is wonderful, that's the only way I know to put it. The voice-overs are performed by people of the approximate age of the characters who are experiencing the sniper attacks, but the recollections are of the real-life people. The accents are dead-on Texas, I can vouch for that. If you can watch this without feeling anxious for these ordinary people, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, you're tougher than I am. Many proved to be extraordinarily brave, risking their lives to save those hurt and bleeding, stranded on the concrete ground of the mall. No high-tech methods for stopping a sniper in a tower existed at the time. The retelling of the steps taken by the two men who accosted the sniper is especially captivating. Towards the end of the documentary, there are a few interviews of some of these individuals who are living today, or have died only in recent years. Fifty years on, they are still haunted by that day. Their faces are aged, but in their voices there is something like reverence for having lived through the attack. There is unmistakeable gratitude there for those long-ago people who reached out to help a stranger. You can see how much it means to remember the names and the faces. Kudos to director Keith Maitland who brought this story to life. Don't miss "Tower", it will help you remember that there's no such thing as a faceless, nameless victim of sudden violence. At least, we should not let them become like that.