Chapter 27 | |
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Directed by | Jarrett Schaefer |
Written by | Jarrett Schaefer |
Based on | Let Me Take You Down by Jack Jones |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Tom Richmond |
Edited by |
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Music by | Anthony Marinelli |
Distributed by | Peace Arch Entertainment |
Release dates |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Box office | $187,488 [1] |
Chapter 27 is a 2007 biographical drama film depicting the murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. It was written and directed by Jarrett Schaefer, based on the 1992 book Let Me Take You Down by Jack Jones, produced by Robert Salerno, and stars Jared Leto as Chapman. The film takes place in December 1980, and is intended to be an exploration of Chapman's psyche. Its title is a reference to J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye , which has 26 chapters, and suggests a continuation of the book.
As an independent production, it was picked up for distribution by Peace Arch Entertainment and premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival where it received polarized reactions from critics. It later went into limited theatrical release in the United States on March 28, 2008. Chapter 27 was cited as one of the most controversial films of 2007. It received the Debut Feature Prize for Schaefer at the Zurich Film Festival, where Leto also won Best Performance for his portrayal of Chapman. [2]
A similar film, The Killing of John Lennon, was released in the United States the previous year.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shocked the world by murdering 40-year-old musician, former member of the Beatles, 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 The Catcher in the Rye . In one instant, an anonymous, socially awkward and mentally unstable 25-year-old fan of the Beatles, who had fluctuated between idealizing Lennon and being overcome with a desire to kill him, altered the course of the history of music.
A man whose painfully restless mind thrashes about uncontrollably between paranoia, sociopathic 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, a young fan he meets outside The Dakota, to his argument with paparazzi photographer Paul, Chapman keeps the psychoses bubbling below the surface as his grasp on reality deteriorates into a completely misguided rage.
The real Mark David Chapman is currently incarcerated at Wende Correctional Facility, on a guilty plea. Aside from two interviews with Larry King and Barbara Walters, both in 1992, he has not spoken with the media. However, Chapman did reveal the mechanics of his unraveling during those three days in New York City to 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 act of violence. Chapter 27 is based on this text. The title "Chapter 27" suggests a continuation of J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye , which has twenty-six chapters, and which Chapman was carrying when he shot John Lennon. Chapman was obsessed with the book, to the point of attempting to model his life after its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. [3]
According to the British music magazine Mojo , the title was also inspired by a chapter of Robert Rosen's book Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon (2000) called "Chapter 27." [4] Rosen's book explores the numerological meaning of the number 27, "the triple 9", a number of profound importance to John Lennon. Lennon was deeply interested in numerology, particularly Cheiro's Book of Numbers, along with nine and all its multiples. It was Chapman's goal, according to Rosen, to write Chapter 27 "in Lennon's blood". [5] Rosen wrote on his blog, in late 2006, that "the inherent truth of my contention that the film’s title was inspired by Nowhere Man remains unchallenged—because it’s self-evident to anybody who’s read the book." [6]
Like Chapman, Schaefer is a fan of both The Beatles and J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, and said he began the script to try to understand "how someone could be inspired to kill anyone as a result of being exposed to this kind of beautiful art. It really bothered me, because Lennon and Salinger have always made me feel so much better, and so much less alone." [7]
Actor | Role |
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Jared Leto | Mark David Chapman |
Judah Friedlander | Paul Goresh |
Lindsay Lohan | Jude Hanson |
Mark Lindsay Chapman | John Lennon |
The script took Schaefer four years to write, but when it was finished, the film came together quickly. With the help of producers Alexandra Milchan and Robert Salerno, Schaefer cast Jared Leto as Mark David Chapman. For his role, Leto gained 67 pounds (30 kg) by drinking microwaved pints of ice cream mixed with soy sauce and olive oil every night. [8] Gaining the weight, he said, was tougher than dieting himself into skeletal shape for his role as drug addict Harry Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (2000). [9] The abruptness of Leto's weight gain gave him gout. [10] He had to use a wheelchair due to the stress of the sudden increase in weight put on his body. [11] After the shooting of the film, Leto quickly went on a liquid diet. He explained, "I've been fasting ever since. I've been doing this very strange, like, lemon and cayenne pepper and water fast. I didn't eat any food for 10 days straight; I think I lost 20 pounds that first 10 days." [12] Losing the excess weight after Chapter 27 proved a challenge. "It took about a year to get back to a place that felt semi-normal," he said; "I don't know if I'll ever be back to the place I was physically. I'd never do it again; it definitely gave me some problems." [13]
Twenty-two years prior to this film's production, actor Mark Lindsay Chapman, while professionally using the name Mark Lindsay, had been almost cast as John Lennon in the biopic John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985). Yoko Ono had been deeply involved in the production and had herself been initially impressed with his audition and approved his casting prior to discovering his full name was Mark Lindsay Chapman. She then nixed his casting on the grounds it was "bad karma", and a great deal of press attention was given to his having almost gotten the role. [14] The director of Chapter 27, Jarrett Schaefer, auditioned many Lennon impersonators, but was especially impressed with Mark Lindsay Chapman's tape because he conveyed the "tough town" street-smart quality of Lennon that the impersonators failed to convey, as they always played Lennon as larger-than-life. Schaefer described Lennon as having a "chip on his shoulder and always cracking these cynical one-liners", and felt that actor Chapman was best at conveying this quality. Schaefer had some difficulty negotiating the casting with the film's producers because of Chapman's name. After Chapman was cast, he asked Chapman how he should be billed to which Chapman replied "Mark fucking Lindsay Chapman. That's my fucking name." Schaefer remarks that this was so reflective of how Lennon talked, it just reinforced his sense that Chapman was right for the part. [15]
The film began shooting in Manhattan, New York in 2006. "I don't have much to compare it to, but the challenges were daunting," said Schaefer, who directed several sequences outside The Dakota, the site of Lennon's murder, "I had to go into a place that was very sensitive to our story, with trucks, a crew, and a limited amount of time. It wasn't easy." [7]
"It was important to Jarrett that we didn't glorify this event," said Salerno. "He didn't want to shoot any of the scenes with John Lennon at The Dakota out of respect for the residents that were there at the time John was killed, so all of that footage was shot separately at another location that we were able keep closed and controlled." [7] These scenes were shot at the Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. [16]
The studio held Chapter 27's world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007. [17] The film was subsequently screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, [18] Athens Film Festival, [19] Festroia International Film Festival, [19] Waterfront Film Festival, [20] Mediterranean Film Festival, [19] Stockholm International Film Festival, [21] Oslo International Film Festival [22] and the Denver Film Festival. [23]
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave the film a Restricted rating for language and some sexual content. Chapter 27 had a limited release in the United States on March 28, 2008 and earned $13,910 in a single theater over the opening weekend. [24] The film's revenues increased by 11.4% in its second weekend in domestic markets, earning $15,500 in five theaters. [24] Chapter 27 grossed $56,215 in the United States and $131,273 overseas. In total, the film has grossed $187,488 worldwide. [25] Its international releases include Mexico ($107,443), Portugal ($20,433), and France ($3,397). [26]
Chapter 27 was released on DVD on April 28, 2008 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it was released on the same formats on July 1, 2008 in exclusives, and everywhere September 30, 2008. The British edition contains a making-of and the trailer of the film, while the American edition includes only a behind-the-scenes. [27] [28]
When Chapter 27 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the film was debated fiercely by critics. MTV wrote that "the audience's reactions made it obvious that some people would love it and others would not." [29] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 18% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 4.0/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Despite Jared Leto's committed performance, Chapter 27 fails to penetrate the mind of Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's killer." [30] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [31]
Andrew O'Hehir from Salon wrote, "Some viewers may well find Chapter 27 sleazy or distasteful, and I won't argue the point. But Schaefer's movie creates its own highly compelling world, which is pretty much the prime directive in filmmaking." He stated that "Leto almost makes you feel how it happened," and called his acting a "highly compelling performance on many levels." He also enjoyed Lohan's performance. [32] Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Chapter 27 is a smart attempt to distill the twisted psychology and motivation of Mark David Chapman, which we've all superficially gleaned through mass-media reports and intermittent updates on Chapman's incarceration." He praised Leto's acting saying, "Jared Leto is mesmeric as the bloated, deranged Chapman. It's a brilliantly measured performance, evincing the tale of a madman through his own awful rhyme and reason." He also praised Schaefer's direction, the other cast and crew. [33] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three out of four stars saying, "By the end of this modest, strange venture, Leto made me believe it was worth being forced to hang out on the sidewalk with this man, if only to get a creeping sense of what that might've been like." [34]
Upon the film's theatrical release, Richard Roeper wrote, "This is a very tough film to watch, especially for Beatles fans that worshipped Lennon, but it does provide a thought-provoking take on the inner workings of Mark David Chapman's twisted mind." [35] San Francisco Chronicle 's Joel Selvin praised Schaefer's direction writing, "The film is impressively mounted and Schaefer has made a directorial debut of distinction, but it is an uncomfortable ride from the opening scenes of Chapman arriving in New York to the inevitable, inexorable final scene." He also called Leto's performance utterly convincing. [36] Rex Reed gave the film a positive review writing, "Even if you are only moderately curious about the events that led up to the pointless death of a musical icon, I think you'll find it a film of arm-twisting fascination." He praised Leto calling him unforgettable and writing, "it is the pulverizing concentration and almost somnambulistic intensity of Jared Leto that gives the film its life and pulse." [37] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B saying, "Chapter 27 is far from flawless, but Leto disappears inside this angry, mouth-breathing psycho geek with a conviction that had me hanging on his every delusion." [38] Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News described Chapter 27 as "a claustrophobic drama that gets uncomfortably into the head of Mark David Chapman," and praised Leto saying, "Leto's drawling, blotchy, creepy performance sets it apart." [39]
Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
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National Film Critics Circle [40] | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Jared Leto | Nominated |
Best Original Score | Anthony Marinelli | Nominated | |
Zurich Film Festival [41] | Debut Feature Prize | Jarrett Schaefer | Won |
Best Performance | Jared Leto | Won |
What is the name of the person who killed John Lennon? Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono made a simple request to John Lennon's fans. Never repeat the name of his killer. Doing so would only give his killer the fame and notoriety he was seeking.
—Statement on the petition website Boycottchapter27.org. [42]
Chapter 27 was one of the most controversial films of the 2000s. In April 2006, an on-line petition group calling themselves Boycottchapter27.org campaigned to "pressurise movie theatres not to show the film, to stop the glorification of a murderer." [4] Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, expressed her thought, saying, "This is another thing which will hurt me, I'm sure. I would rather not make a story out of Mr. Chapman at all, although I sympathize with the actors. They need to work. It's not just films, you're always talking about it [Lennon's murder]." [42]
Sean Lennon, Lennon's son, has gone on record calling the production and making of the film, including Lindsay Lohan's involvement with it, "tacky." Lennon also stated that Lohan understood his feelings and, despite his criticism, they were friends and he did not want to hurt her feelings. [43]
The film received accolades from critics who praised the depiction of the mental state of Mark David Chapman in the days leading up the murder of John Lennon in December 1980. [44]
Mark David Chapman is an American man who shot and killed English musician John Lennon in New York City on December 8, 1980. As Lennon walked into the archway of The Dakota, his apartment building on the Upper West Side, Chapman fired five shots at the musician from a few yards away with a Charter Arms Undercover .38 Special revolver. Lennon was hit four times from the back. He was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. Chapman remained at the scene following the shooting and made no attempt to flee or resist arrest.
Jared Joseph Leto is an American actor and musician. Known for his method acting in a variety of roles, he has received numerous accolades over a career spanning three decades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Additionally, he is recognized for his musicianship and eccentric stage persona as frontman of the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Prefontaine is a 1997 American biographical film chronicling the life of the American long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine and his death at age 24. Jared Leto plays the title character and R. Lee Ermey plays Bill Bowerman. The film was written by Steve James and Eugene Corr, and directed by James. Prefontaine tells the story from the point of view of Bill Dellinger, played by Ed O'Neill, the assistant coach who was with him day-to-day, and Nancy Alleman, the runner's girlfriend at the time of his death.
Thirty Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of brothers Jared Leto and Shannon Leto. During the course of its existence, it has undergone various line-up changes with the Leto brothers being the only consistent members.
On the evening of 8 December 1980, the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles, was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. The killer, Mark David Chapman, was an American Beatles fan who was envious and enraged by Lennon's lifestyle, alongside his 1966 comment that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus". Chapman said he was inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, a "phony-killer" who loathes hypocrisy.
Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon, first published in 2000 and written by New York journalist Robert Rosen, who in 1981 had access to John Lennon's diaries, is a controversial account of the ex-Beatle's last five years. Rosen says in the book's first chapter, "John Lennon's Diaries," that he used his memory of Lennon's diaries as "a roadmap to the truth." The title of the book refers to The Beatles' song "Nowhere Man".
Mark Lindsay Chapman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Chief Officer Henry Wilde in the film Titanic (1997), as John Lennon in the film Chapter 27 (2007) and as Dr. Anton Arcane on the USA Network TV series Swamp Thing from 1990 to 1993.
The 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger has had a lasting influence as it remains both a bestseller and a frequently challenged book. Numerous works in popular culture have referenced the novel. Factors contributing to the novel's mystique and impact include its portrayal of protagonist Holden Caulfield; its tone of sincerity; its themes of familial neglect, tension between teens and society, and rebellion; its previous banned status; and Salinger's reclusiveness. The Catcher in the Rye has inspired "rewrites" which have been said to form their own genre. On the other hand, there are examples of similarities between the novel and other works that were not intended by their authors, which suggests that the novel is "present, at least spiritually, in ... any story line that involves quirky young people struggling to find their places in a society prone to reward conformity and condemn individuality."
Lindsay Dee Lohan is an American actress, singer-songwriter, producer, and businesswoman. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at age three. She appeared as a regular on the soap opera Another World at the age of 10, and her breakthrough came in the 1998 Walt Disney Pictures film The Parent Trap. The film's success led to appearances in subsequent Disney projects; the television films Life-Size (2000) and Get a Clue (2002) and the big-screen productions Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004). Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the teen comedy Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol and established her as a leading Hollywood actress.
Jarrett Schaefer is an American film director and screenwriter. His feature debut, Chapter 27 (2007), premiered and received substantial media and critical attention at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Mr. Nobody is a 2009 science fiction drama film written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael and starring Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo, and Juno Temple. It tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, a 118-year-old man who is the last mortal on Earth after the human race has achieved quasi-immortality. Nemo, memory fading, tells a doctor and journalist about his three main loves and his parents' divorce and the subsequent hardships he endured. The speculative narrative frequently changes course to investigate the alternate life paths that could have resulted from his making different decisions in his life, focusing on when he is nine, fifteen, and thirty-four. The film has a nonlinear narrative that incorporates the multiverse hypothesis.
Stefan Schaefer is an American writer, director and producer of films and television.
Two of Us is a 2000 television drama which offers a dramatized account of April 24, 1976, six years after the break-up of the Beatles and the day in which Lorne Michaels made a statement on Saturday Night Live offering the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on his program.
The Killing of John Lennon is a 2006 biographical film about Mark David Chapman's plot to kill musician John Lennon. The film was written and directed by Andrew Piddington and stars Jonas Ball, Robert C. Kirk and Thomas A. McMahon.
Nowhere Boy is a 2009 British biographical drama film, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood in her directorial debut. Written by Matt Greenhalgh, it is based on Julia Baird's biography of her half-brother, the musician John Lennon. Nowhere Boy is about the teenage years of Lennon, his relationships with his aunt Mimi Smith and his mother Julia Lennon, the creation of his first band, the Quarrymen, and its evolution into the Beatles.
John and Yoko: A Love Story is a 1985 American made-for-television biographical film that chronicles the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, beginning just before they met in 1966 and concluding with Lennon's murder in 1980. The movie was made with the co-operation of Ono, who controlled the song rights. It was directed by Sandor Stern and stars Mark McGann as Lennon and Kim Miyori as Ono.
The Company Men is a 2010 American drama film, written and directed by John Wells. It features Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones.
Artifact is a 2012 American documentary film directed by Jared Leto under the pseudonym of Bartholomew Cubbins. It was produced by Leto and Emma Ludbrook through their production company Sisyphus. Artifact chronicles the modern music business as it charts the legal dispute between Leto's rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars and record label EMI, which filed a $30 million breach of contract lawsuit against them in 2008, after the band tried to exit its contract over a royalties dispute. Thirty Seconds to Mars is shown working with producer Flood to create the 2009 album This Is War, meeting with lawyers between recording sessions.
Jared Leto is an American entertainer with an extensive career in film, music, and television. He made his debut with minor roles in the television shows Camp Wilder (1992) and Almost Home (1993). He achieved recognition in 1994 for his role as Jordan Catalano in the teen drama television series My So-Called Life. The show was praised for its portrayal of adolescence and gained a cult following, despite being canceled after only one season. The same year, he made his television film debut starring alongside Alicia Silverstone in Cool and the Crazy. Leto's first film role was in the 1995 drama How to Make an American Quilt. He later co-starred with Christina Ricci in The Last of the High Kings (1996) and received a supporting role in Switchback (1997). In 1997, Leto starred in the biopic Prefontaine, in which he played the role of Olympic hopeful Steve Prefontaine. His portrayal received positive reviews from critics and is often considered his breakthrough role. The following year, Leto starred together with Alicia Witt in the horror Urban Legend. He then acted alongside Sean Penn and Adrien Brody in the war film The Thin Red Line (1998). After supporting roles in Black and White and Girl, Interrupted, Leto portrayed Angel Face in Fight Club (1999), which has since become a cult film.
Bartholomew Cubbins 2006–2014 is a collection of music videos by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released in the United States on April 13, 2015 by Sisyphus. It features all of the music videos directed for the band by frontman Jared Leto from 2006 to 2014 in addition to behind-the-scenes footage, covering the period from A Beautiful Lie (2005), This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013).