indian_on_a_harley I can't for the life of me figure out why Hollywood can't seem to make a GOOD movie about such incredibly fascinating stories. True life has given us amazing material in characters like Ted Bundy, The Manson Family and in this case Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate.... And yet the screenwriters deliver tripe like this. WHY?? You had sooo much to work with!Looking at other reviews, I need not go into many of the film's details here, except to add a few comments....Yes.... The movie was shot on location in Acton & Lancaster, CA - NOT Nebraska. I could tell instantly, as I grew up in Lancaster and lived near the Nebraska/Wyoming border for over 10 years! The two barely even resemble one another. That seems to me to be a stupid mistake that could have and SHOULD have been avoided.Others here have recommended the movie "Badlands" instead. I would caution any reader that BADLANDS WAS BASED ON THE "IDEA" OF THIS CASE - NOT THE FACTS!! .... Whatever merits Badlands has as a film (and it has FAR more than this movie), it is not about this case. The characters aren't even named Charlie & Caril Ann. Badlands is a work of fiction "inspired by" this case. I just felt that someone here needed to point that out.And on a film-related note.... Those like myself who love the true crime genre should go out of their way to avoid the obnoxious garbage that has flooded this otherwise fascinating arena in recent years. Namely those "one-name" films such as this one that you find on video shelves like "BUNDY" or "GACY" or "DAHMER". All of them complete garbage not worth the disc they're burned on. To call them factually inaccurate would be kind. It is painfully clear that the director and writers never even so much as cracked a book on ANY of those cases. They knew nothing whatsoever about the people they were portraying!! Stay clear of them all!!Recommended viewing in the true crime genre....On Ted Bundy: The Deliberate StrangerOn The Manson Family: MANSON by Robert Hendrickson (AWESOME!!)On The Zodiac Killer: ZODIAC by David Fincher (A few inaccuracies, but a top notch cast & cinematography make up for it)As far as Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate go, I'll recommend the same thing I would for any of these cases.... See a documentary!! You're always going to get as close to facts as possible and a much better production every time - guaranteed.--

bluetone-1 Awful, awful, awful. Brent Taylor as Starkweather is passable, barely, as is Shannon Lucio. I'd give either another watch in something else - for a second chance. But here they're stuck in a formulaic, unimaginative script that seems terribly impressed with itself and its import. Worse, one senses the director cackling as he imagines how stunned we'll be seeing the murderous pair casually watch television, oblivious to blood still splattered (oh-so-artfully) across their faces. Excerpts from an episode of "Ozzie and Harriett" play in the BG as Caril-Ann's family is slaughtered. Goodness, how ironic! I note that actor Jerry Kroll's very few credits are also among those listed for Dir. Byron Werner. (Kroll was the sheriff.) Given Kroll's performance here, one has to assume Werner sees something in him that NO ONE else can.This film is packed with many more eye-rolling moments like those described above, and some truly appalling performances. Sheriff Karnopp and his partner - Al Sepianza - are especially dreadful; wooden, self-aware and thoroughly unconvincing. (Sepianza, a reliable, workman-like actor, seems to be performing for a film other than the one we're seeing. I just can't figure out if he's awful, if he's horribly miscast, or if he was terribly misled by the so-called director.) I gather Starkweather was shot with Acton, CA. and Palmdale, CA. passing for Nebraska and Wyoming. But I honestly thought the embarrassing performances unintentionally gave (desperately needed) credibility to the locale. That is, one had no trouble imagining they were shooting in the hinterlands of Nebraska, and so hired every last local community theater player to appear in major roles. The Governor, the "rich lady" and her maid, the happy, sweet couple, the patrolman coming upon the killers on the highway, Sheriff Karnopp and the deputy...and on, and on, and on.For a quick example of the hideous editing and directing, catch the patrolman radioing information in as he spots Starkweather wrestling a prospective victim - eventually PASSING the pair wrestling over a gun, and the subsequent "chase" scene (The deputy seems to "rack" his shotgun two or three times before every ridiculous shot).Even the wardrobe wanders from merely pedestrian to truly ridiculous. Witness the sheriff's ludicrous outfits throughout, and the "rich ladies" absurd housecoat and head wrap. The clothes put me in mind of the "it's best we can do" scrounging of college kids producing a short film... kids who are actually in the college's veterinary program.I rank the movie a TWO only because I save ONEs for movies that are this bad AND include (intentional) scatological elements. Starkweather rated R, and that should be R for "It's just Rful."

katheegriffith I lived in Lincoln during the Starkweather era & couldn't believe this movie. First off, there are no cacti & mountains in Nebraska. Even in the 50's Nebraskans didn't talk with southern hick drawls. Also, I've never seen a '48 Ford described as a '55 Chevy. Starkweather was a short (5'8") bow-legged red head that wore very thick glasses. He was a real loser. So was his girl-friend. I thought this might be a good movie but have changed my mind since seeing it. It had the possibility to be one, but was really messed up. I had never heard that Starkweather heard "voices" or saw a "devil" when he was on his rampage. I don't know where that came from. Don't bother watching.

evanne-1 I have to wonder at the completely opposing reactions this film has garnered here, people seem to either love it or hate it. While I didn't hate it, I have to chime in with a few of the things that they've been talking about. I grew up in the Belmont neighborhood of Lincoln, Nebraska, only a few blocks away from Caril Anne Fugate's house. Understandably my childhood was literally steeped in the mythology of the crimes depicted in this film and as I grew older I began to do my own research about them. I've had extensive conversations with older relatives who were living in Lincoln at the time and read an entire book about the crimes based on contemporary newspaper stories about the events as they happened (Headline: Starkweather by Earl Dyer, much better than the movie, if a little dry).Firstly, anyone who says that this is an accurate depiction of the events is fooling themselves. There are parts that are accurate but many that are not. The sad part is that the things that are accurate are the kind of things you would learn after doing a Google search. In fact, as I watched this movie I kept telling my husband that I suspected that was the extent of the research done for this film, which is a sad testament to the people that died in these events, the filmmakers couldn't even be bothered with an in depth examination of the crimes. It's not hard to get the dates and body positions of the dead right, what's hard is making a picture that tries for the truth based on a melange of forensic evidence/psychology and police statements. In this case, where Fugate and Starkweather gave such conflicting stories, it could have been so interesting, but instead we have the gimmicky "Devil" character...please! Now I'll get nit-picky. I will pretty much guarantee you that there is only one shot in this movie actually filmed in Nebraska, and that is the brief beauty shot of the state capitol building. Everything else was clearly in California, my husband and I had that pegged before the Bartlett's even appeared on screen. Where is the snow!? There is a reason we used to call Nebraska winters "Ragnorok". There is also a crepe myrtle in bloom behind the Bartlett house, which I have to say, cracked me up. There are no cacti around Lincoln, and the landscape has _no_ mountains of any type, only rolling prairie and the occasional line of trees as a windbreak. I also enjoy that Lincoln literally seemed like a non-city, with no real shots of streets, traffic, or even any of the houses still exactly like they were in that time period. The southern, stereotypical, hick accents were annoying me before the movie got going. Nebraska has it's own dialect, why ignore that in favor of something so pedestrian? There were other little anachronisms here and there, and other little things that only matter to me; like the fact that there is no Lincoln Gazette (never has been as far as I know), just the Lincoln Star and the Lincoln Journal that covered the events in question.But who cares about all that junk, right? Well, those things are only a barometer that indicates the general level of production value achieved on this movie. You can literally see the actors working their butts off to turn this load into something worthwhile, and I commend them for that. The two leads accurate portrayal of the couple too vacant to stay out of trouble seemed genuine. In fact, the only thing I liked about this movie is the choice to make Charlie to hopelessly dense, violent and romantic all at once.