Dahmer (2002)

Director:

David Jacobson

Writer:

David Jacobson (written by)

Release Date:

13 March 2003 (Sweden)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The mind is a place of its own.

Plot:

Based on the true crime story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, this movie tells the emotionally riveting story of a man who turned his darkest fantasies into a horrifying reality. |

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Grandmother Grandson Relationship | Dumb Bell | Red Light | Clothing Store

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Jeremy Renner	...	Jeffrey Dahmer
Bruce Davison	...	Lionel Dahmer
Artel Great	...	Rodney (as Artel Kayàru)
Matt Newton	...	Lance Bell
Dion Basco	...	Khamtay
Kate Williamson	...	Grandma
Christina Payano	...	Letitia
Tom'ya Bowden	...	Shawna
Sean Blakemore	...	Corliss
Mickey Swenson	...	Officer Phillips
Julius Branca	...	Officer Powell
Pierson Blaetz	...	Officer Martin
Vincent Zangari	...	Ohio Officer
Xavier Lawrence	...	Young Man in Bar
David Manis	...	Shop Steward

Also Known As:

The Mind Is a Place of Its Own (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for aberrant violence, sexuality, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:R | Canada:18A | Germany:18 | Norway:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #38948)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Blockbuster Films

Goofs:

Factual errors: The uniforms for the Milwaukee Police officers are incorrect. The badges and cap shields are L.A. style and the officers are wearing shoulder patches on both shoulders. Milwaukee officers wear a patch only on the left shoulder.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Title Card: On February 15, 1992 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was convicted of 15 counts of murder and sentenced to 937 years of federal prison. The following story was inspired by events from his life. Certain characters and events are fictional.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 2003 IFP Independent Spirit Awards (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Take a Picture

Worthwhile as a footnote

Based on real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was active primarily in Wisconsin in the 1980s, this film focuses on a few key episodes in Dahmer's life.

If you're at all familiar with the facts about Jeffrey Dahmer--and probably a hefty percentage of people interested in the film are familiar with Dahmer to some extent--it's difficult to watch this film without strong expectations. The problem is that under those expectations, Dahmer isn't likely to be the film you want it to be. It might work better if you're unfamiliar with the background material, but on the other hand, it might be too disjointed to work in that case. You need a familiarity with Dahmer's life to piece the film together as you watch it.

That's not to say that the film is a complete failure. In fact, I gave it a 7 out of 10. Jeremy Renner, who plays Dahmer, is fantastic. Bruce Davison, as Dahmer's father, and Artel Kayaru, as Rodney, also turn in great performances. Writer/director David Jacobson chose to make the film a psychological portrait, rather than a chronological retelling of Dahmer's misdeeds, and rather than focusing on the lurid details of the crimes. After the first 20 minutes or so, the film becomes non-sequential, and links together a number of events that provide clues (as much of a clue as we can have, at least) into Dahmer's behavior. We see Dahmer interacting with his family (primarily his grandmother and father) in a peculiar, distanced way. We see him discovering and trying to come to terms with his homosexuality in a twisted way. We see his desire for intimacy. We see actions taken by the police that would be unbelievable if we didn't know that they actually happened that way, more or less. We see him constantly drinking alcohol through most of these events. This makes up the bulk of the film. In fact, we only see Dahmer kill two humans during the course of the film, and both are relatively not graphic, and relatively quick events.

All of this was intriguing to me, but I wanted the lurid details to be explored more. Dahmer was a man who conducted experiments on his victims, trying to turn some of them into lobotomized, robot-like companions. He kept vats of acid in his apartment to dispose of body parts. He had a severed head in his refrigerator. He cannibalized victims and engaged in necrophilia. To make a film about Dahmer where these things are not explored not only downplays the severity of his crimes, but it also leaves out fairly essential aspects of Dahmer's character, if this is to be a character study. I found myself regularly checking the running time, wondering how and when Jacobson was going to get to this other material before the film had to end. And for someone unfamiliar with Dahmer, they probably would spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the film keeps jumping from one event to another, frequently going back and forth with the same events.

The bottom line is that while this film is more than worthwhile as a kind of extended footnote, a much better film about Dahmer needs to be made. Let's just hope that we can get someone as gifted in the role as Renner to be in that film.