1. The Killing of America (1982)
Mondo movies. A highly dubious genre. Especially the films that deal with death. There are oodles of them and they treat death as a spectacle to be voyeuristically ogled at. And most of them boast terrible death metal soundtracks. The Killing of America is different. Written, produced and directed by Leonard Schrader (brother of Paul), this is one deadly serious, grim documentary that is a thoughtful exposition on the growing amount of violence in America today. Yes it uses death footage, but only to sober the viewer, not to shock or exploit them. The film is essentially a history of violence in America and footage includes extreme close-ups of JFK getting his brains blown out, the death of Martin Luther King which triggered mass riots, the shooting of George Wallace who was in the Presidential race with Nixon - it confined him to a wheel chair. Robert Kennedy is shot, there is footage of Charles Whitman the Texan sniper taking out his victims. Charles Manson, Son of Sam and Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre. Interspersed are clips of real life Kidnappings and murders - sad bastards trying to make a name for themselves. The film ends with the sobering statistic that as of the 1970s Americans owned 100 million guns - two per family. This film is even more relevant today than it was upon its release. If you think of all the terrible school shootings that are horrendously de rigeur over in America, especially the one where some maniac shot all those primary school children, something has to be done to gun law to prevent perverted maniacs from gaining entire arsenals of weapons to kill and maim with. Perhaps there are also deeper societal issues at hand that also need to be dealt with - the cult of mass murder and glorification (by sickos) of the antihero. Whatever the issues America faces with violence, The Killing of America is a brutal assault on the senses and an interesting documentary on a deadly serious subject.