Watch Killer: A Journal of Murder For Free

I love this movie so much

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Carl Panzram was a viscous creep with a real life bite-your-face-off attitude. Woods played him to smithereens.Sure he overacted a bit, but Panzram was not the most laid-back guy.The problem with this film is that it couldn't decide if it was a character study or a condemnation of prison conditions. They also managed to throw in religious bigotry and left-wing politics. It did it better than some films would have, but the ending left too much open.Woods owned the film. He had Carl as both Genius and loose cannon. The real Panzram was similar. And many quotes contributed to him are scattered about the film. ("I wish you all had one neck..." "I could hang a dozen men...") Leonard did an adequate job as Henry Lesser but played him a bit to "nice." Most of the guards kept their distance from ol' Carl. With good reason too.Woods fans see this now. Anyone else...your call.

Carl Panzram lived an amazing life and scribbled down his memoirs on scraps of paper for possibly the only person who ever did anything selfless for him. The book "Panzram: A Journal of Murder" by Thomas E. Gaddis and James O. Long, which came out the better part of a century after Panzram's death, gives the historical context to a first-generation American's account of running away from home to go west and be a cowboy, getting caught, thrown in the boy's home, getting away repeatedly and thrown into prison over and over all the time getting tortured and sodomized. As Panzram grew huge and strong, he sought to take revenge for the wrong done to him as he traveled to South America, Europe and Africa, and it didn't matter what people he raped, robbed, or murdered because we are all equally worthless.This film casts skinny James Woods as the rough neck, mean-ass, son of a bitch Carl Panzram who in the film is a "drunk", overly-dramatic and emotional, and who never mentions the joy of sodomizing men and boys. The film neither elaborates on anything else particularly of note about this world traveler and career prisoner (like robbing former President Taft or being released from the Oregon prison as long as he gave his word to return). In short, I don't think Carl would be too happy.

James Woods is again at his best in this very interesting and captivating movie of one mans flight through life, comes to the sad ending he always thought he deserved. Befriended by only two people in his life, he truly had a heart under what everyone believed to be plain meanness.

This movie seems more relevant today than ever. Prison conditions may have improved since the early part of the century, but prison populations are increasing exponentially and there seems to be no end in sight. Does punishment really prevent crime? Can harden criminals be rehabilitated? Is society to blame? Whatever your opinion, this is a short but must-see film.