Tower
Rifiling With Rotoscoping
Official Site | Trailer & Mo
Not Rated | 82 min

I do not condone murder, but I cannot help but be fascinated by murderers (and their victims).  If you’ve read this site before, you know that (I’m insane) David Fincher’s Zodiac is my everything (that isn’t fried chicken, the Nationals, or my wife), so a documentary about the 1966 University of Texas Tower Shooting was totally gonna be up my alley, and up my butt – and it totally ended up being so/both!

In 82 measly (un)easy minutes, Keith Maitland‘s Tower lets the victims tell their stories from that day, and beyond.  From historical records and new interviews, Maitland took their testimonial transcripts and recreated the tragedy by rotoscoping actors and pairing it with whatever existing footage exists into a dreamy nightmare documentary that instills fear and thrills, but also inspires hope and peace

Normally the murderer is the one who gets the most attention in any filmed infotainment about murderers, but Charles Whitman’s name barely gets a mention by the time the films wraps, and while I was wondering about the who/what/when/where/how/why about Whitman the entire time, I actually didn’t mind ending up not knowing anything about him at all.  He set the event in motion, but he’s not important

This doc is important

Most folks know little of this event, but hopefully that will no longer be the case if one checks out one the most essential films of 2016!  EAT THAT ALL OTHER 2016 MOVIES!!!

Sadly, history has repeated itself many times since this event, but maybe we can learn from the past mistakes of others.  What a TOWERing achievement that would be

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Tower is very tall, currently in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Matthias Buchinger (June 2, 1674 – January 17, 1740) was born without hands or lower legs, and yet was a world-renowned artist, magician, calligrapher and performer.  He was married four times and had at least 14 children (by eight women). He also is rumored to have had children by as many as 70 mistresses. Buchinger’s fame was so widespread that in the 1780s the term ‘Buckinger’s boot’ existed in England as a euphemism for the vagina (because the only ‘limb’ he had was his penis)

September 16, 1989 – Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the meat selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement

View from the Window at Le Gras is a heliographic image and the oldest surviving camera photograph. It was created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827 at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, and shows parts of the buildings and surrounding countryside of his estate, Le Gras, as seen from a high window

–

Boulevard du Temple, a daguerreotype made by Louis Daguerre in 1838, is generally accepted as the earliest photograph to include people. It is a view of a busy street, but because the exposure time was at least ten minutes the moving traffic left no trace. Only the two men near the bottom left corner, one apparently having his boots polished by the other, stayed in one place long enough to be visible

–

Robert Cornelius, self-portrait – believed to be the earliest extant American portrait photo

–

portrait of Dorothy Catherine Draper by her brother John William Draper – the earliest surviving photograph of a woman

–

a daguerreotype, showing a country home next to what is believed to be the old Bloomingdale Road, the continuation of Broadway, in what is now the Upper West Side, New York City, in October 1848 or earlier.  it is currently the oldest known surviving photograph taken of New York City

–

first color photograph taken by James Clerk Maxwell and Thomas Sutton.  Best known for his development of electromagnetic theory, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell dabbled in color theory throughout his life, eventually producing the first color photograph in 1861. Maxwell created the image of the tartan ribbon shown here by photographing it three times through red, blue, and yellow filters, then recombining the images into one color composite

Sergeant Stubby 

Sergeant Stubby (July 21, 1916 – March 16, 1926) is the most decorated war dog of World War I, and the only dog to be nominated for rank and then promoted to sergeant through combat.  He was the official mascot of the US’ 102nd Infantry Regiment 

He saved his regiment from surprise mustard gas attacks, found and comforted the wounded, and once caught a German soldier by the seat of his pants, holding him there until American soldiers found him  

He met Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, and Warren G Harding 

Starting in 1921, he attended Georgetown University Law Center with his owner Corporal Robert Conroy (above), and became the Georgetown Hoyas’ team mascot. He would be given the football at halftime and would nudge the ball around the field to the amusement of the fans

Stubby died in his sleep in 1926. After his death, he was preserved with his skin mounted on a plaster cast. Conroy presented Stubby to the Smithsonian in 1956