Plot
During the latest of many imprisonments for burglary, Panzram (James Woods) forms an uneasy friendship with prison guard Henry Lesser (Robert Sean Leonard). Panzram asks Lesser for writing equipment and proceeds to write his life story, in which he confesses to several murders.
After recounting his life of homicide and crime, and refusing to apologise for any of it, Panzram ends up beating to death a prison trustee, and is sentenced to death. Lesser tries to convince the condemned man to appeal by claiming insanity, but Panzram stubbornly refuses, and in one scene makes his hatred of his own existence clear to Lesser by angrily declaring "I want out of this body, I want out of this life!"
In the end, Panzram gets his wish and is hanged. In his last hours he steadfastly refuses to appeal for clemency and even chases away a priest who comes to hear his confession.
Despite showing obvious disgust at Panzram's crimes, Lesser is troubled by Panzram's death. Throughout the movie, Lesser's relationship with his wife Esther (Cara Buono) is briefly touched upon. It is to her he confides his experiences with dealing with Panzram's violent and nihilistic outlook on life, although she has difficulty understanding the people her husband must deal with in his line of work.
Read more about this topic: Killer: A Journal Of Murder
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“There saw I how the secret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor’s thought,
And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)