GHOUL RATING:
****
4
Carl Panzram is unique among serial
killers in several regards. First of all, he was the most nihilistic and misanthropic of them all. He was not partial in his
hatred because he did not hate only women, Blacks, Jews, hookers... "I
don't believe in man, God nor Devil," he wrote. "I hate the whole
damned human race, including myself." He had no hopes, no illusions about
either himself or the world which he saw it in all its depraved and brutal
clarity. "I wish you all had one neck and that I had my hands on it"
said the man who described himself as "the spirit of meanness
personified".
The
second quality which raises him above practically any other serial killer on
record: he was a truly lucid, intelligent and sensitive (!) person, and the
autobiographical writings and letters he left behind make for a uniquely
profound read, at the same time shocking and touching. He's a true philosopher among the serial killers,
and his words have the power to resonate like the best lines from Hemingway,
Chandler and William Burroughs: clear, cruel, vivid, witty and precisely to the
point. No bullshit there. No-nonsense, straight for the jugular, that's Panzram
for you.
Raised
in poverty, hard labor, ignorance, bestial violence and abuse, Panzram met only
cruelty wherever he turned: family, school, church... it was all the same. His
Golgotha through the soul-crushing brutality of corrupt institutions culminated
in the correctional center for youths which only strengthened his bleak
worldview and proved that, sadly, "might makes right". He was fully
formed when he was only 14: "I was so full of hate that there was no room
in me for such feelings as love, pity, kindness or honor or decency, my only
regret is that I wasn't born dead or not at all."
A
few years later, while still a teenager on the run from home, he was gang-raped
by four hobos. "I cried, I begged and pleaded for mercy, pity, and
sympathy," he wrote later, "but nothing I could say or do could sway
them from their purpose. I left that box a sadder, sicker, but wiser
boy." He felt literally and metaphorically fucked by everybody, and
decided that from then on, HE would be the one to fuck everyone he could: "In
my lifetime I have murdered 21 human beings, I have committed thousands of
burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons and last but not least I have
committed sodomy on more than 1,000 male human beings. For all of these things
I am not the least bit sorry. I have no conscience so that does not worry
me." In a world in which you either eat or are mercilessly eaten, his
motto became: "Rob 'em all, rape 'em all, and kill 'em all."
At
long last, Panzram's colorful life story – and his views, inseparable from it –
became the subject of a feature-length documentary. The long wait ultimately
paid off because Panzram got the treatment he deserved from John Borowski,
independent filmmaker and author of two previous, equally superb documentaries on
America's serial killers from the late 19th and early 20th century: H.H. HOLMES (2004) and ALBERT FISH (2007). This means
that Panzram ended in truly devoted and more than able hands. The resulting
film, CARL PANZRAM: THE SPIRIT OF HATRED AND VENGEANCE, is a true paradigm of how
to make a great documentary on a subject like this.
Borowski
presents Panzram from as many angles as possible. Understandably, his hands are
somewhat tied by the fact that Panzram lived in the early decades of the 20th
century (he was executed in 1930), which means that there are no living
witnesses, no current first-hand accounts, no direct video or film footage of
him or scenes relevant for his deeds. Borowski had to rely on the few existing
photographs, news clippings and facsimiles of Panzram's writings. The closest
he comes to a direct footage is an archive interview with Henry Lesser,
ex-prison guard: the only person ever to treat Panzram like a human being and
the one who made him write his autobiography, smuggling and preserving his
papers later on. Without Lesser we wouldn't have any record whatsoever of a
rich and inspiring human being that Carl Panzram certainly was. This interview
exists only on a poor quality VHS cassette, but it's a valuable document and
the worthiest asset among the extras on the DVD.
What
he couldn't get through direct footage, Borowski more than compensates with the
use of said photographs and writings, but also through archive film materials
from the period and, especially, through brief but colorful re-enactments.
Three actors portray Panzram in the three crucial stages of his life: Brett
Jetmund plays Charlie Panzram in his formative, pre-teen years, David Salmonson
is the young Carl Panzram (in his 20s, when he did most of his killings) and
Tom Lodewyck plays the somewhat older Carl Panzram as an inmate of various
prisons before he was hanged at the age of 38. The perfect cast does a great
job of embodying the abused abuser, "the spirit of meanness
personified" but also the human being behind the mask of a monster.
Another
layer of quality is added by the narration by John Dimaggio (best known as the voice of Bender from FUTURAMA): he
reads numerous well-chosen quotes from Panzram's writings using a grave whisper
somewhat reminiscent of Kiefer Sutherland's "psycho" voice.
The
film provides an insight into the conditions which created this
"monster", trying to understand his crimes without justifying them.
This is a tricky thing: defending a person (as a victim of various
circumstances) without defending his crimes, without glorifying him or turning
him into a hero. Panzram's spirit of total negativity can be hypnotic and
attractive for modern-day nihilists: his attitude of an almost Burroughsian
TOTAL OUTLAW is very inspiring while many of his saying are highly quotable.
Still, this shouldn't make us forget that this man has raped and killed at
least 22 men. Especially unforgivable are his brutal rapings and killings of
several pre-teen boys. They are mentioned in the film, briefly, but only in
passing, while Panzram's cold-hearted reminiscences of them are NOT quoted. This
is a pity, because paragraphs such as this one shouldn't be glossed over:
"I grabbed him by the arm and
told him I was going to kill him. I stayed with the boy about three hours.
During that time, I committed sodomy on the boy six times, and then I killed
him by beating his brains out with a rock... I had stuffed down his throat
several sheets of paper out of a magazine. I left him lying there with his
brains coming out of his ears."
This is the kind of crimes that earned
him the label of a monster, much more than the one single killing (of an
abusive prison employee) which eventually led him to the gallows. Other than
that, the film does a fine job of balancing the life and times of this man and
of putting him into a proper context. Panzram certainly was and is a telling
sign of an age. Many bigger social, psychological, ethical and philosophical
issues are reflected in and around him: from (in)human treatment of prisoners
through the problem of psychopaths
all the way to the questions of good and evil, right and wrong, human laws vs.
higher laws... A big help in shedding some light on those questions comes from
a superb selection of a wide array of relevant participants who talk on camera.
Thus, the documentary includes
valuable insights from SCOTT CHRISTIANSON, PhD, author, investigative reporter,
and scholar who specializes in crime and punishment;
JOE COLEMAN, artist who has painted
a portrait of Carl Panzram, who he sees as a "kind of unholy saint of
nihilism: the very shadow of Christ";
MARK GADO, a police detective whose
story "Carl Panzram, Monster of Minnesota" (2004) won a Page One
award for one of the top three magazine articles of the year;
DR G. THOMAS GITCHOFF, a
criminologist and professor of criminal justice at San Diego State University
and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSD School of Medicine in La
Jolla;
JOEL GOODMAN, Federal Bureau of
Prisons Retiree, an expert on jail, prison and community corrections operations;
KENNETH LAMASTER, Leavenworth
Penitentiary Historian;
CHARLES DUDLEY MARTIN, Robert
Stroud's Missouri Attorney;
ROBERT RAY, Head of Special
Collections and University Archives at San Diego State University which holds
the original, handwritten Carl Panzram Papers;
JASON SCHUBERT, curator of the J.M.
Davis Gun Museum (which keeps several Panzram related paraphernalia, including
the rope he was hanged by)
and last but not least - KATHERINE RAMSLAND, PhD who has a
master's degree in forensic psychology from the internationally esteemed John
Jay College of Criminal Justice, a master's degree in clinical psychology from
Duquesne University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Rutgers. She has published
thirty-one books, including The CSI Effect, Inside the Minds of Serial
Killers, The Human Predator, and The Forensic Science of CSI.
With
their contributions CARL PANZRAM: THE SPIRIT OF HATRED AND VENGEANCE becomes as
layered a story of the unique individual of Carl Panzram as one could possibly
hope for.
Clocking
at 80 minutes, the film could certainly use some more material without being
overlong or repetitive. The extra features on the DVD actually contain many
scenes which could've been used in the film. For example, most of the DELETED
SCENES (approx 10 minutes of them) deserve to be IN the film itself, as they
contain telling information and add further shades of Panzram's character (esp.
the issue of being TRUTHFUL and /not/ honoring his word).
MAKING
OF feature (approx 25 minutes) also contains at least 15 minutes' worth of
material that could've been IN the film. It has very little actual footage of making of the film – instead, it offers many
additional pieces of interviews and re-enactments not seen in the film proper.
INTERVIEW WITH HENRY LESSER (approx
45 minutes), like said above, is a priceless document and a more than welcome
addition to the DVD (although most of the best bits are used in the film
itself).
Other extras include: PRODUCTION
STILLS (accompanied by a song about Panzram), TRAILERS and a DETAILED VIEW OF
JOE COLEMAN'S PANZRAM PORTRAIT (which is helpful indeed, considering this
artist's style of collage with numerous very tiny and minute details, photos,
drawings and quotes otherwise hard to decipher).
If
I were to nitpick in an almost perfect film, I'd say that it could've presented
some more detail about Panzram's afterlife
in pop culture and elsewhere. The book PANZRAM:
A JOURNAL OF MURDER by Thomas E. Gaddis and James O. Long, which was the
first to reveal the full story about this man, including copious excerpts from
his writings, is barely mentioned. The film KILLER: A JOURNAL OF MURDER (1995) by Tim Metcalfe, in which James Woods portrays Panzram, is not even
mentioned. While Panzram is certainly not a "star" even among serial
killer buffs, he has his own cult and his shadow spreads over some significant
films. For example, his quote "I wish you all had one neck and my hands
were around it" serves as a motto to a Serbian horror-comedy DAVITELJ PROTIV DAVITELJA (Strangler
Vs. Strangler, 1984) by Slobodan Šijan, while his words "Today I am dirty,
but tomorrow I'll be just DIRT" open the film DER TODESKING (1990) by Jorg Buttgereit. References to these and
other possible examples would be just footnotes – but perhaps worthy of
inclusion so as to further flesh-out Panzram's ghost which still haunts us.
In
spite of these quibbles, CARL PANZRAM: THE SPIRIT OF HATRED AND VENGEANCE is
obviously a work of devotion, love and knowledge, self-financed and created
among hardships which, thankfully, don't show up on screen. It manages to become
the definite story about this unique man – and to show why his story is still
relevant and haunting.
Strongly
recommended!
The best way to get this DVD is to
order it directly from the filmmaker's site http://www.panzram.com/.
