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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Pretty Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Several years ago in 1971 when I was doing the weekend warrior thing in Fort Sam Houston I visited Austin one weekend and did go on the university campus. My reason for going was to see the newly opened Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. It's almost as big as the infamous tower. Still I did note the tower little dreaming that it would be the site of a terrible tragedy. Like passing by the former World Trade Center towers before they became infamous.The Deadly Tower is the story of the massacre at the campus of the University Of Texas by former serviceman Charles Whitman suffering from an undiagnosed brain tumor who managed to sneak up some assault weapons, enough ammunition for a company who barricaded himself in the tower and started shooting at random.The story is that of Whitman and one of the Austin police officers who took him down on that fateful day. Kurt Russell who broke from the Disney G rated mold finally got taken seriously as an actor with a wonderful performance with minimal dialog.Richard Yniguez who should have had a breakthrough performance is also good as Austin PD officer Ramiro Martinez. I don't know why Yniguez never became a star.Folks like John Forsythe, Clifton James, and Pernell Roberts play other police officials. Ned Beatty plays Alvin Crum, a university employee who with Yniguez and Paul Carr are the ones who finally reached the demented and troubled Whitman.For a while as well he should, Charles Whitman became a poster child for gun control. Even with a president nearly assassinated not a decade later we still have no effective national policy to prevent future Charles Whitmans. The other view of gun control is also presented here as various citizens with hunting weapons join in to help the cops. There weapons are more effective and keep Russell pinned down.The Deadly Tower is a fine film and good telling of one of the saddest days of the last century.

Charles Whitman was a dangerously disturbed but nevertheless deeply fascinating individual. Arguably even the most fascinating murderer in recent American history. Whitman can't really be referred to as an authentic serial killer, but due to his mariners' background and reputedly high IQ, he can't just be dismissed as an ordinary madman on a rampage, neither. The full reason why Whitman went up the Austin University tower on the 1st of August 1966 and caused a terrible bloodbath will probably never be revealed. Were it the insupportable headaches that Whitman repeatedly complained about and the brain tumor found in his head during the autopsy, or did he snap because of other personal reasons? "The Deadly Tower" is a sober but very compelling and intense re-telling of the events that occurred on that horrible day, when Whitman killed 16 people and wounded over 40 more with his shot and sniper guns. This is the second film I've seen regarding the subject, after Peter Bogdanovich's "Targets". Whereas that film was merely a statement regarding the alienation of youth and the largely uncontrolled weapon legislation, "The Deadly Tower" is a very truthful reconstruction of the facts. In an aptly stone cold manner, Kurt Russell (until then only known from silly Disney comedies like "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Barefoot Executive") depicts Whitman from the day before the massacre until the moment when Texas police officers shot him dead. Prior to going up the tower, Whitman murdered his mother and wife, went out to buy an arsenal of artillery and – knowing very well he wouldn't return – wrote a suicide note. The film is slow-paced but moody, atmospheric and very suspenseful. Given the fact it's a made-for-TV, and out of respect for the victims and their families, "The Deadly Tower" isn't a very bloody or exploitative thriller. The emphasis lies on inhumanity of the crime and solidarity/collaboration of the people downstairs – police officers as well as civilians – to stop the killer. Jerry Jameson, the director of "Airport 77", does a professional job and the supportive cast including Clifton James and Ned Beatty deliver admirable performances.

Kurt Russell's eye-opening performance (which might well have inspired both Peter Bogdanovich's TARGETS and Arnold Schwarzenegger's implacable killing machine approach in THE TERMINATOR) only adds to the tension in this made-for-TV docudrama. Russell comes across as an almost emotionless automaton, moving through scenes with truly frightening purpose. While I don't think this one ever needs to be remade, some of the more recent revelations regarding Whitman's final moments would certainly satisfy the more blood thirsty among us: the man who finally killed Whitman has mentioned that Whitman, hit in the head at one point during the gun battle that ended his murder spree, fell back into a sitting position against a wall and began to throw his head violently from side to side; from the description, it reminded me of the scene in BLADE RUNNER where Daryl Hanna is shot and bucks furiously before succumbing to her wounds.

The Deadly Tower is yet another example of an excellent seventies made for TV movie. This film is the first to be based on the real life Texas Sniper Charles Joseph Whitman who killed a series of people during a tower top sniper rifle rampage in Texas in 1966. The movie is clearly a TV movie as it all looks very cheap and there's nothing particularly all that special about it; but in spite of that, director Jerry Jameson has taken a harrowing story and made a film that entertains the viewer as well as providing food for thought and ensuring that the reaction of the killer's actions come through also. The film sticks to the facts well and as such the story is very simple. We focus on Charles Joseph Whitman, a troubled young man who one day decides to kill his mother and his wife before going to the gun shop, buying "enough guns to start world war 3" and taking them to the top of a university tower in order to blow away a load of people around the campus. The is mixed in with the story of police officer Ramiro Martinez as he tries to stop the killer.In a way, it's a shame that this movie was made for TV because the sniper plot could have given the film a lot of room for plenty of gory special effects; which unfortunately don't feature due to the TV restraints. However, on the other hand; out of respect for the victims and their families, this may be a good thing. The film is notable for featuring an early performance from the great Kurt Russell. Russell doesn't deliver a performance here that is up there with his best; but the script doesn't really allow for that, and he certainly does convince as the cold and murderous lead character. The main bulk of the movie focuses on the killer and the film features some effective shots detailing the sniper's actions against the local community, but the director also includes some meatier topics. The effect of the victims' deaths features somewhat and the film also makes a point against America's liberal gun laws; although both of these could have been more defined and better focused. Even so, The Deadly Tower is certainly a very notable seventies TV and is well worth seeing if you can find it.