The Iceman.

Richard Leonard "The Iceman" Kuklinski (April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006) was an American contract killer who worked for both the Newark's DeCavalcante crime family and New York City's Five Families of the American Mafia. The 6'5" 21.5 stone Kuklinski claimed to have murdered over 100 men between 1948 and 1986. Kuklinski claimed to have committed his first murder at the age of 13. He lived what seemed an ordinary family life with his wife and children in the suburb of Dumont, New Jersey. His story has been documented in two documentaries, two biographies and a feature film. The feature film has been directed by Israel born film director Ariel Vromen and stars the superb Michael Shannon as Richie Kuklinski an actor that I have much admired since his appearance as Peter Evens in William Friedkin's horror/thriller Bug in 2006 a part he incidentally played in the play of the same name, described as ‘probing the blurry lines between paranoia and nightmarish reality, an intense mind bending psychological thriller.’ 

 

How many people did they kill between them?

Based on the book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold Blooded Killer by Anthony Bruno and the documentary The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer by James Thebaut the story of The Iceman (2012) starts around 1992 when we witness a heavily bearded man in what appears to be a prison where an unseen interviewer asks the question "Mr Kuklinski do you have regrets for the things you have done in your life?"  Before he can answer we are taken back to the 24th April 1964, Jersey City, New Jersey and Richie Kuklinski is seated at a table in a restaurant opposite his future wife Deborah (Winona Ryder). Within 10 years he has two children, a big house in a decent neighbourhood and became, unbeknown to his family, a professional killer for Roy DeMeo (Ray Liotta) a member of the Gambino family who leads a gang suspected by the FBI of murdering between 100 and 200 people between 1973 and 1983. Its when Kuklinski’s killing spree connects with an ice cream van driver and fellow hit man called Mr Freezy (played by Captain America himself Chris Evans) that the bodies really seem to mount up, freezing to obscure the time of death and then months later dismembering them as a method of disposing of their victims.

 

The Iceman and Mr Freezy join forces.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler when I tell you that Richie Kuklinski was sentenced to two life sentences and thereafter never saw his family again! In 2006 aged 70 he died in Trenton State Prison New Jersey coincidently just before he was scheduled to testify at the trial of a Gambino family underboss.  Its Shannon’s performance as one of the most prolific contact killers in American history that really carries this film and makes it a genuinely good reason to see it but I must say that the role would have benefitted from a little more in-depth character study.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

For me the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre is far more than just a place to watch movies, for me it’s a haven, an escape from the pressures and stresses of life. It’s a place I have fallen in love with over the years, where you meet friend’s and acquaintances and have conversations with complete strangers about film. Its run and staffed by people, some of which have worked there for over 25 years, who give the impression that would not care to work any where else, people that always make you feel at home and your visit enjoyable.

One member of the staff Ms Susan Kenny is in the last semester of her third year of an MA in Liberal Arts at the University of Glasgow on the Dumfries Campus. Susan’s options for this particular semester where either to continue with classes as usual or deliver a proposal for a placement in a working environment. She pitched a suggestion for a week long Academic Film Festival that would bring together the University and its students along with Film and RBC. Which would have the additional benefit of introducing new young people to the Film Theatre. Both of the RBCFT Film Officers were more than happy to encourage and mentor Susan.

The first film in her programme was quite a coup; she managed to land an unreleased American documentary that had never been screened without the director being present. By using her persuasive powers she not only convinced Doctor Randy Olson, a marine biologist turned filmmaker, to allow her to show his film Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy (2008) but to take part in a Q&A via the medium of Skype. After screening mainly documentary’s to her student audience the closing event was a feature film with Doctor Ralph Jessop, one of the University of Glasgow’s emanate lecturers in Literature, leading the post-film discussion with Victorian Literature, Art and Philosophy students and one or two visitors.

Count Dracula and Mina Harker.

Very much based on Bram Stokers 1897 classic novel Dracula, Bram Stokers Dracula (1992) is powerfully directed by the man that gave us such near masterpieces as The Godfather Trilogy (1972-1990), The Conversation (1974) and best of all, Apocalypse Now (1979). Francis Ford Coppola and his screenplay writer James V Hart set out with the deliberate intent to make this film as close as possible to Stokers original text, going as far as including a prologue to demonstrate that Dracula was a direct descendant of Vlad the Impaler an Eastern European Prince from the House of Draculesti, also included was the novels diary and letter format which was cleverly used as a narrative device. The film also makes reference to previous movies about the vampiratic Lord of Darkness including Nosferartu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) and the Hammer Film Company’s ‘depictions into the deeper tendrils of Victorian naughtiness and gothic mischief[1]’. The film starred a rather convincing Gary Oldman as Count Dracula, Winona Ryder as Mina Harker for whom the Count has a deeply obsessive love, Anthony Hopkins plays Professor Abraham Van Helsing a character best known as a vampire hunter and the archenemy of Dracula with Keanu Reeves type cast as a pathetic Jonathan Harker.

The discussion that followed this gothic love story was slightly more academic than the normal RBC’s Film Club discussions, but was extremely interesting to this observer. They included the link between blood and menstruation, erotic sexual lovemaking and the symbolism of white wax oozing down a candle, and the fact that all the erotic sequences featured oral sex! We touched on the violation of the Christian sacrament and how the film demonstrated the liberalisation of women.  It was agreed that it was a difficult book to adapt for the screen in a way that does not loose the meaning or ‘feel’ of the original, but it was pointed out there was considerable more humour in the film than in the book.

Although the main character was obviously in contravention of normal behavioral patterns Coppola’s film encouraged the viewer to have a certain amount of sympathy for his humane interpretation of Dracula and the man’s rather unorthodox wooing of Mina Harker.  Although the colour had slightly faded the Blu-ray copy of this film sounded and looked very good.  It’s only left to thank Susan for all her hard work putting on this Film Festival and to wish her success with her Dissertation.

The book and its author.

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[1] Susan Kenny 2013.