X
- 2016
- TV-14
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 36 m
- 2016
- TV-14
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 36 m
Summary August 1, 1966, was the day our innocence was shattered. A sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the iconic University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes in what was a previously unimaginable event. TOWER combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation of the dramatic day, based entirely ...
Directed By: Keith Maitland
Written By: Pamela Colloff
- 2016
- TV-14
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 36 m
- 2016
- TV-14
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 36 m
Tower
7.9
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Summary August 1, 1966, was the day our innocence was shattered. A sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the iconic University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes in what was a previously unimaginable event. TOWER combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation of the dramatic day, based entirely ...
Directed By: Keith Maitland
Written By: Pamela Colloff
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
92
100% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
92
100% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Keith Maitland’s powerful and emotional documentary Tower — easily one of the best films of the year — takes a novel approach for a nonfiction film: Animation.
By G. Allen Johnson
FULL REVIEW
Through the recollections of witnesses and victims, the film simultaneously builds a present-tense narrative while portraying the terrifying resilience of memory and trauma.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 59 User Ratings
7.9
88% Positive
52 Ratings
52 Ratings
3% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
8% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 59 User Ratings
7.9
88% Positive
52 Ratings
52 Ratings
3% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
8% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
This is a great movie. The focus is on the humanity not the killer. So it is different. But it is the closest we can come to being there. This is the kind of movie that needs to be seen by the masses. The power is real, the tension is real. We actually care about the people.
Report
Tower is a masterfully crafted documentary. A totally unique experience. This stands out from many documentaries because it presents the events in a very stylized way. If you somehow think that rotoscoping is a lazy way of doing animation, I'm sorry to tell you that you are wrong, because rotoscoping is actually very hard and time consuming. It is nice to see this documentary benefit from the animation to give the audience a different visual experience. As a documentary, it does a really good job in making the audience connect with the people affected by this tragedy. Like someone else said in this site: "It focuses more on the humanity and less in the killer" and I agree.
My only issue with the movie is that there isn't too much animation in the second half of the movie. When the movie gets closer to the end it starts using more live action footage of the actual people interviewed and also starts to reuse animated footage and we don't get that many unique animated scenes. It's a very short movie and, while I don't want to call the movie "Lazy" because it definitely isn't, I felt that it was kinda of a letdown that I started to see less and less unique animated sequences.
Regardless, this is a very unique documentary and you should check it out.
Report
Tower is art, first and foremost, a piece about adrenaline, bravery, grief and memory that stands as one of the year’s crowning achievements in emotional, illuminative storytelling.
A gripping dramatic reconstruction, a tribute to the heroes and the fallen, and inevitably an expression of nostalgia for the days when a mass shooting still had the power to shock, Keith Maitland’s film weaves rotoscopic animation, archival footage and present-day interviews into a uniquely cinematic memorial.
Tower is explanatory journalism and history, but also personally expressive, and the two impulses never cancel each other out.
Propulsive, beautiful and tense as hell, Tower is superior documentary filmmaking.
Broadly, filmmaker Keith Maitland's treatment of the UT Tower shooting is both taut and humane.
On August 1, 1966, assassin Charles J. Whitman ascended the University of Texas, Austin, observation tower and opened fire on the campus below, killing 16 and injuring 33. The horrific incident, one of the first mass shootings in modern American history, received considerable attention at the time. But the events of that day, including numerous acts of compassion and heroism, have since faded from public awareness. Those touching moments and courageous efforts have been brought back to life in “Tower,” a stylish, innovative documentary that examines the tragedy from the perspective of survivors, law enforcement and the media. Telling this story, however, required some inventive filmmaking. Given the dearth of media coverage of the incident at the time (at least compared to today’s standards), director Keith Maitland needed to compensate for a lack of archival footage by blending the limited historic images available with a compelling mixture of riveting animation and recent interviews in relating the survivors’ and heroes’ stories. The result is a moving, highly personal account of that fateful day and its legacy in the annals of American gun violence.
Report
Tower is a movie that presents a subject that is more relevant than maybe ever, and it does it in a very original and unique way for a documentary that flows expertly and gives you a glimpse of how one of this events feels. I can say that this is one film that we all should watch, but be warned, this is a difficult subject.
Report
About the first such incident in the US history.
It was like another documentary film that I saw one last week. But this time it was an even bigger scale. This, the original event took place exactly 50 years ago and first of its kind. Since then hundreds of similar events have been recorded. Many of them were made into films, but I don't remember this one was ever turned into one. This is about a raged gunman on the college campus, where many people got killed and injured. A shocking incident, even cops did not know how to handle it at first.
So, the film reveals one of the most horrific episodes ever happened in the American soil. Like everything has a first time, this is where it all began for this kind of event. The filmmakers used some of the original archive footage to tell the story, but the majority of the film was the animation. Since it was a documentary film and was made under a tight budget, the visuals were not that pleasant, but the notion was well achieved.
Documentary films and interviews are like thunder and lightening. So there are interviews in it, but most of them were made-up of. I mean they were real, though not with the real people, except their recorded voice interviews in most of the cases. It was challenging to bring back the original event on the screen since it is not a feature film to recreate whatever way they want, especially that occurred half a century ago. But very appreciable for even giving us this much of detail to feel the vibe.
❝One of the truths I have learnt is that there are monsters that walk among us.❞
It was like any other normal day on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin. But the scenario has suddenly changed when two student couple fell on the ground not aware of what just happened, and so the people around. After some time, it became clear that a gunman open fired on them and many others from a nearby tower, but the real issue is nobody could see him. Soon it reached the radio and television, and alert has been circulated. Then the cops got involved to solve the matter and how it all ends covered in the rest of the films.
This is a good film, revealed most of the parts as much as in details, but I'm not fully convinced. Because the concept of narration was quite similar to feature film style where they want to keep the mystery. It all begins with one perspective and multiplies as it progresses. Except not focusing enough on the negative character. I understood the situation of the event, but I did not get enough detail about the gunman. It was like one side of the story. So mysterious and it stayed that way.
Shorter and well paced. This is definitely worth checking out, though not a must see. To learn the history, the bad one. I had no idea about it prior to watch, but at the end, I felt it accomplished everything on its capacity to give out the truth. No matter it is a documentary film, along with the suspense, the tension was well balanced. So, more or less it is same as like watching a regular crime film. That's especially for those who are not into documentary films. I hope someone would make a feature film out of it.
8/10
Report
Production Company
- Go-Valley
- Texas Archive of the Moving Image
- Killer Impact
- Meredith Vieira Productions
- Minnow Mountain
Release Date Oct 12, 2016
Duration 1 h 36 m
Rating TV-14
Genres
Awards
Austin Film Critics Association
• 4 Wins & 5 Nominations
SXSW Film Festival
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations