Chapter 27

Label: Momentum Pictures MP626D

On December 8, 1980 Mark David Chapman shocked the world by murdering the beloved purveyor of peace, 40-year old
musician and activist, John Lennon, outside The Dakota, his New York apartment building. Chapman's motives were
fabricated from pure delusion, fueled by an obsession with the fictional character Holden Caulfield and his
similar misadventures in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. In one instant, an anonymous, mentally unstable
25-year old, socially awkward Beatles fan who had fluctuated between idealizing Lennon and being overcome with
a desire to kill him - altered the course of history.

Jared Leto, 60 pounds heavier for the role, bears an uncanny physical resemblance to the real Chapman, who to
this day, is incarcerated in Attica Prison, on a guilty plea. Aside from a Larry King interview in 1992, he has
not spoken with the media. However, Chapman did reveal the mechanics of his unraveling during those three fateful
days in New York City, to crime journalist Jack Jones. The interviews were published in 1992 as Let Me Take You
Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, a book of Chapman's recollections of his unthinkable act of violence.
From this text, the film CHAPTER 27 is based. The film takes its title from the idea that through his actions in
New York, Chapman was attempting to "write" his own additional, 27th chapter to Catcher in the Rye (which ends
with chapter 26).

Leto's embodiment of a man whose painfully restless mind thrashes about uncontrollably between paranoia,
socio-pathic lying and delusion is summed up in such character revealing comments as "I'm too vulnerable for a
world full of pain and lies" and "Everyone is cracked and broken. You have to find something to fix you. To give
you what you need. To make you whole again."

From his lies to cab drivers (identifying himself as the Beatles sound engineer) to his socially unacceptable
behavior around Jude (Lindsay Lohan) a young fan he meets outside the Dakota -- to his argument with paparazzi
photographer Paul (Judah Friedlander), Leto's Chapman keeps the psychoses bubbling below the surface as his grasp
on reality deteriorates into a completely misguided rage.

Comments
I feel the DVD The Killing of John Lennon tells this sad and tragic story in a better way than this one does.