![]() I spent ten years working at the correctional facility where both Tom Bird and Lorna Anderson did their time. Both movies depict cruel murders being committed by sociopaths and being confronted by the virtuous, pious, quietly hard-working small town Kansans. Filmed entirely in Kansas locations, Kansas itself becomes a character in the story in much the same way that the character of the state was the back drop of the earlier true-crime movie, "In Cold Blood". The movie does do an excellent job of picking up and depicting the rhythms of small-town Kansas life. None of the Emporia churches wanted anything to do with the movie so the exterior and interior scenes of the church were shot in Lawrence, Kansas. A weird side-note, the then Governor of Kansas appeared in the movie but as an extra, someone walking in at the newspaper office. Over 25 years later, there still seemed to be a lot of resentment about how the movie portrayed the story. The town paper's journalist (the Kathy Bates character) later became mayor of Emporia and she said that Rule's role was extremely overblown and that it was actually a confidential informant who got the insider story to the press, not Rule. So the filmmakers pumped up the role and involvement of Trooper Rule to make him a far bigger hero than he was in the real investigation. The movie came out before Bird's trial in the Martin Anderson murder and the investigators in that case didn't want to participate in any movie lest they ruin their case. The movie seems to have been as controversial in Emporia as the murders themselves. Even stranger, Anderson's children are very reconciled to her despite her involvement in the murder of their father. Anderson still insists that it was Bird who killed her husband even though he got acquitted of that murder. Both were married and Bird is, weirdly enough, a marriage counselor now. The two killers, Anderson and Bird, served very extended prison sentences but were eventually paroled and then released from any parole restrictions. I've looked up info about the real-life case and the movie. Carradine plays Trooper Rule with a very plain Kansas doggedness-think of perhaps Sheriff Andy Taylor doing a murder investigation but without any humor or bumbling deputy tagging along. The acting in this picture is pretty good and look out particularly for John Goodman, who plays a sheriff investigating the second murder, and future Oscar winner Kathy Bates as a reporter. His superiors only get interested in re-opening the case when Williams' husband is murdered along a highway. Rule pushes and pushes his investigation and runs into bureaucratic stone walls. He's not a homicide investigator but he knows accidents and is certain that this was no accident. Keith Carradine is state trooper John Rule who investigates the auto "accident" in which Mrs. When God doesn't cooperate, they decide to give God some help and murder their spouses. They pray that God will let them be together by getting rid of their spouses for them. Emporia, Kansas minister Tom Bird takes up an affair with his floozy secretary, played by JoBeth Williams. This is a pretty good TV true-crime murder show. For that reason alone "Murder Ordained" is worth watching. Yet the unbelievable is precisely what makes this film so mesmerizing. The subject matter is unusual in that we don't normally think of a preacher as a murderer. Yes, it's a long film, but the complex story involves conspiracy, murder, hit men, adultery, and possible incompetence in public office. Cinematography, production design, casting, and acting are all high quality. On-location filming in Kansas adds to the realism, as does court transcripts of some dialogue. didn't God test Abraham in the same way?" Of course, his naïve parishioners stand by their man, no matter what. As the truth of a conspiracy starts to emerge and with law enforcement closing in, the confidently smug pastor, Tom Bird (Terry Kinney) reassures his panicky co-conspirator, Lorna (JoBeth Williams) that everything will be okay. In time, an ongoing tangle of lurid involvement between the preacher and his attractive church secretary leads others to the same conclusion. In one long flashback that covers the year before the wife's death in a presumed accidental traffic mishap, the script meticulously evolves the sordid relations leading up to the tragedy and the suspicion of one highway patrolman that this was no accident. ![]() One of the best TV movies ever made, this riveting film tells the true-life story of the murder of a preacher's wife in rural Kansas in the early 1980s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |