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Too bad the movie made about as much sense as Gacy's
senseless murders. There is a short opening scene in which
Gacy's father beats the young boy, but other than that, there is
no explanation given for his murderous rage other than the fact
that he's a closet homosexual.
The movie jumps from the beating scene to a shot that says:
"After serving 18 months in the Iowa State Reformatory for
sodomizing a boy, John Wayne Gacy was paroled. He returned to
his birthplace, Chicago to try to put his life back
together." The movie then jumps to Gacy around the
table with his wife and kids and never explains how he hid his
past (and present, for that matter) from his wife and the
community.
Gacy's occupation is also unclear. A painter?
Carpenter? Who knows! It was something that required
him to have a lot of male helpers. It's also unclear why
the cops took so long to arrest him after a kid complained he
had abused him. And why did he kill some young men and not
others? Why didn't the cops or neighbors (who continuously
complained about the horrible smell coming from his house)
figure out that the stench was from something dead and
decaying? I wasn't looking for a documentary telling of
Gacy's life, but I was hoping the movie would at least answer
basic questions about his life.
The movie's scenes seem to be thrown together in random
order. I think the point was to make the movie disturbing
by making it disjointed, but it only served to make it
confusing. Certain scenes in the movie held my
interest, but overall the movie was slow-paced and
incoherent.
Mark Holton, who was Pee-Wee Herman's nemesis Francis in Pee-Wee's
Big Adventure, was perfectly cast as Gacy and could have
really excelled with a more challenging script. I would have
liked to see more of him in his clown costume too!
The commentary on the DVD is rather boring and doesn't offer
a lot of incite into the characters but gives many anecdotes
about the making of the movie. And it's never a good sign
when the director isn't doing the commentary.
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