Originally penned and published on 29th July 2022 and now coupled with my Youtube channel reading of my review recorded late Summer 2023.
I first watched “No Man of God” roughly a year ago and with a recent gap in my otherwise busy film watching schedule I decreed to re-watch it again if only to see if I was as impressed as I was originally a year ago and suffice to say, I was.
I grew up with the grotesque legend that was Theodore “Ted” Bundy. A voracious reader of true crime, I’ve read a couple of books on the repugnant serial killer as well as watching a variety of documentaries of varying quality and returning all the way to my teenage childhood when my dear old Mum would treat me every fortnight to a 32 page publication (and associated replica newspaper of the day) entitled “Murder Casebook” and I was as hooked on the story of Ted Bundy as I was with any other from this macabre genre and history of violence.
“No Man of God” only covers the final four years of the life of an imprisoned Ted Bundy on death row, as well as a seven day countdown to his execution in the electric chair on 24th January 1989. But I’ve long been aware of the much larger and much darker back story to a horrendous serial killer of unspeakable crimes, crimes dating as far back as the mid 1970’s, imprisonment, trials, a daring escape from a jail when on trial and, when re-arrested and his known crimes publicly acknowledged and published, becoming a charismatic figure with a loquacious tongue who enchanted admirers all around the world. This creation of an image that his followers fell in love with would continue up to the point of execution as would Bundy’s cat and mouse games in not fully admitting to or acknowledging every one of his viciously unspeakable crimes.
The flip side to the adoration was genuine anger from a celebratory crowd who chanted “Burn Bundy, Burn!” and requested their Floridian neighbours to reserve their use of electricity on the morning of Bundy’s execution to ensure Florida State Prison had more than enough voltage to pass through his body and ensure he’d never darken anyone’s doors ever again. These two brief tales have always stayed with me and are both used by director Amber Sealey in this, her fourth outing in the director’s chair. Running with this theme, the director also cleverly sets the scene with several more phases of real life footage, the joyous scenes post execution as described above, the blanket news coverage of the morning and especially the Presidencies of Ronald Reagan in 1985 through to George Bush in 1989.
Written by Kit Lesser and as highlighted at the very beginning of the film “Inspired by FBI transcripts, recordings and the recollections of Bill Hagmaier”, there are over twenty credited roles in addition to the two Marquee roles but because of their expected dominance due to the story being told, only two other roles are seriously worthy of note. Aleksa Palladino is excellent as Bundy’s exasperated and a little overawed civil defence attorney “Carolyn Lieberman” whilst Robert Patrick is superb as a cajoling and supportive FBI Station Chief “Roger Depue”.
But this is a battle of wills, wits, logic, psychology and holding a dominant control over the other, and here are your principal players:
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“Ted Bundy” (Luke Kirby) Kirby’s performance is all with his eyes and all captured via oblique or slightly off straight and off kilter camera angles from director Sealey. Whereby his “Best Friend” across the table from him is always shot straight on, Kirby’s performance is captured from angles often from below and presumably to enforce an air of dominance and control as he seemingly plays and verbally jousts with his supposed new best friend and intellectual prey. Forever shuffling and carrying his weighty bundle of legal papers as well as his loquacious and free form speaking style, Kirby provides an uncanny portrayal of an evil man, an “innocent man” and for a man renowned for his violent and angry outbursts these are kept to just two or three occasions (the basketball court incident is the film’s true high water mark) and the film benefits enormously from this. There’s a simmering anger bubbling beneath the scowling smiles, glances and sideways looks and Kirby’s performance doesn’t need repeated loud and violent exclamations to reinforce this. It’s a cold and calculating performance (think stellar Billy Bob Thornton, Daniel Day-Lewis from the 1993 film “In the Name of the Father” or Michael Fassbender in 2008’s “Hunger”) as well as an eerie representation of a repugnant man and a caged animal nearing execution.
“Bill Hagmaier” (Elijah Wood) I’ve long admired the acting skills of Elijah Wood and not just because of his huge connection to the behemoth “Lord of the Rings” franchise. My film choices have tended to coalesce with a lot of the American born actor’s performances in recent times, as well as older roles in the incredibly dark and beautiful “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” in 2004, “Sin City” a year later and both “Paris, je t’aime” and “Bobby” a year after that in 2006. Moving on a decade, I would argue that his portrayal in “I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore” in 2017 was one of his very best and furthermore, his portrayal here of a FBI “Profiler” cataloguing the make up, modus operandi and societal thinking of a serial killer is up there too.
Where director Sealey nearly always frames Bundy from quirky and imposing angles, her she catches Elijah Wood’s performance more straight on and neutral, thereby reinforcing his position within the battle of intellectual wills across the interviewing table. A behavioural scientist, Hagmaier volunteers for the Bundy assignment when others in his team look the other way. He’s forever listening to audio cassette recordings of the serial killer and seemingly distracted in his thoughts, or perhaps those of Bundy himself. Meticulous. Prepared. Neutral. Wood oozes neutrality and the scientific intellectualism to not entirely bend to the will of the storyteller on the other side of the friendship divide.
I was more than a little biased going into my first viewing a year ago and even more second time around and it still impressed me. For all of the vaguely described and spoiler free reasons above plus the camera angles used within the tight confines of the interviewing room. Often just two cameras and relieved periodically with an overhead shot encompassing both actors, I also enjoyed the juxtapositions more second time around. The light and the very dark, the guilty and the innocent, the methodical scientist and the angry, animalistic storyteller.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.