Posted on 04/19/2007 7:38:26 AM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn
Police believe the Virginia gunman may have been copying scenes from a film when he carried out his killing spree.
Scene from Oldboy and Seung-HuiDetectives say Cho Seung-Hui repeatedly watched the South Korean movie Oldboy in the days leading up to the massacre in which 32 people were killed.
The film's themes of obsession and revenge also occur in Cho's own writings.
In a chilling video sent by the student to the American TV network NBC he appears to re-enact scenes from the movie in a series of photographs.
In one he holds a gun to his own head and in another wields a hammer, images that appear in the film.
The video also confirms that Cho had been planning the killings for some time.
Advertisement It is believed to have been posted after the first shooting in a university dormitory, in which two students were killed, but before Cho shot dead another 30 people in a classroom across campus and then committed suicide.
Police said the package that contained photographs, video and writings could be a "very new critical component" of the investigation into the mass killings.
The video contains a rambling and at times incoherent account of his grievances and his reasons for the shootings.
The package Cho sent to NBCVirginia Police superintendent Col Steve Flaherty said: "We're in the process of attempting to analyse and evaluate its worth."
The package, addressed to NBC News head Steve Capus, bears a postal stamp in the two-hour window between the first shooting and the second, in which Cho killed himself.
It was passed to the FBI after it arrived yesterday.
In the video Cho talks to the camera and at one point makes a reference to the massacre, saying "this didn't have to happen".
In one clip, Cho says: "You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today.
Some of the victims"But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."
One of the 29 pictures in the package showed Cho staring at the camera with his arms outstretched, brandishing two handguns and wearing what appeared to be a military-style jacket for holding ammunition.
The latest revelations come after it emerged Cho was held in a mental health unit after two women students complained about his behaviour in 2005.
University police chief Wendell Flinchum said officers spoke to Cho in November and December 2005 following complaints of low-level harassment.
“That’s incorrect. I rented Battle Royale (and it’s sequel) maybe a year ago at a local video store”
Hmm. Odd. I know that no DVD maker in North America has ever gotten the rights to make a BR DVD. (Partly because of Columbine and similar incidents and partly because Toei wants a lot of money for the rights to the title.) Yet Netflix seems to have it available for rent. Curious.
I really am an idiot. I responded without even looking at who I was posting to.
I like to make up stuff, too.
No, but Zatamazal is Farsi for “I will give you infidels SUCH a noogie”.
<< Look at Columbine, those jerks were obsessed with Natural Born Killers, a movie they (and others) thought glorified two psycho killers. In fact the point of the movie is a criticism of how the media glorifies psycho killers >>
I think you raise a good point here. Often a great acting performance by a charismatic actor can draw the sympathy of many viewers to that character, even though that is not what the screenplay writer intended.
I think one example of that is “A Few Good Men.” If one were to just read the screenplay, it’s pretty clear that Sorkin intended to glorify civil rights lawyers and denigrate and caricature career line officers. Yet Nicholson’s performance as Col. Jessup was so compelling that Sorkin must have been surprised that so many would identify with Nicholson’s Jessup when he tells off Cruise’s lawyer character for not picking up a weapon and standing a post.
And in Tarantino’s movies, with the slick cinematography, clever dialogue, sophisticated styles and charismatic acting performances many viewers overlook the message of nihilism which underlies his works.
A great example is Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter become a big cult figure after that movie and thomas Harris (author of the book) publicly expressed anger at that. As far as he’s concerned Lecter is a nut not some sort of hero, this really colored his portrayal of Lecter in Hannibal really causing him to emphasis the sleazy unpleasant aspect of the character. I think somewhere between that book and Hannibal Rising the vast quantities of money rolling have caused him to change his tune some, but for a while because of Hopkin’s inspired performance there was a definite disconnect between the writer’s intention for the character and public perception of the character.
You're right. It was meant to be ridiculous.... The whole "Islamic" angle has been an exercise in tinfoilhattery, and I certainly didn't want to be the one to buck the fashion trend.
The original poster needs to come back and rectify the error or,if it was from another excerpt,that I didn't see,defend his comment. It is just that kind of misinformation that feeds flames and leads to more misunderstandings,anger and violence.
-----------------------------------------------
INTERVIEWER: Mr. L.F. Dibley's latest film 'If.'
(he turns to Dibley) Mr. Dibley, some people
have drawn comparisons between your film, 'if,'
which ends with a gun battle at a public school,
and Mr. Lindsay Anderson's film, if, which ends
with a gun battle at a public school.
DIBLEY: Oh yes, well, I mean, there were some people
who said my film 2001: A Space Odyssey, was similar
to Stanley Kubrick's. I mean, that's the sort of
petty critical niggling that's dogged my career.
It makes me sick. I mean, as soon as I'd made
Midnight Cowboy with the vicar as Ratso Rizzo,
John Schlesinger rushes out his version,
and gets it premiered while mine's still
at the chemist's. ...
------------------------------------------------
Yes and yes! Four years
before he did "Clockwork Orange."
This film was so good
the Pythons spoofed it
in their "School Prizes" routine.
It's NOT comedy,
it's weird "cinema"
that starts all serious then
builds to a bizarre
ending so surreal
viewers can't tell if it ends
as a fantasy
in the young man's mind
or as real life. (Scorsese
did something like it
for his ending of
"King Of Comedy.") Once seen,
you'll remember it.
That is very interesting. I seen many videos of words getting audibly "bleeped" out, but never have I seen video of the mouth intentionally covered up or obscured.
What is a FedEx-type package? Did it have a FedEx logo? These days, FedEx, UPS and the USPS use pretty nearly identical self-sealing envelopes and boxes. And it's also pretty easy to drop by a FedEx outlet, pick up a box or envelope, take it home, put your package in it, and then drop it off at the post office. They won't refuse to ship because someone else's logo is on the box.
This one, of course. As I pointed out...
I see little difference between Cho's goal of obliterating people he has decided are undeserving of life and Singer's goal of obliterating people he has decided are undeserving of life.
Both are spokesmen for murderers. Both have their pulpits.
Agree. And while I'm sympathetic to the trauma the footage might cause to the victims' families or to other Va. Tech students, they have the option of turning off the news, or using plain-text or radio news sources.
Some people respond to a crisis by seeking out every bit of information they can lay hands on; others find it too much to handle. But my default position is that more available information is better than less, even if some of it is unreliable.
We should have, and by and large do have, sources we can trust to screen information and hold back, or at least pile on the disclaimers, until they can confirm it. But there's nothing wrong with rumors -- or, that is, there would be nothing wrong, if everyone labeled them as such, everyone understood them as such, and everyone stopped spreading and believing them once they've been debunked. Isn't that the whole point of the new Drudge-bologosphere media model, including FR?
I don't think anyone assumes he wrote all this in that time. It would be logistically impossible, even without considering the time it took to shoot, edit and burn to disc the photos and video clips.
The more plausible scenario is that he had his whole package, which he'd probably worked on obsessively over a span of days, put together and sealed in an envelope. He shot the first two victims, then sent it -- maybe stopping at his dorm in between to pick it up or change clothes.
Then he went to the post office to mail it. It's a kind of symbolic act -- he was committed, he had crossed the Rubicon, and there was no turning back. Two were dead, more would die, and he would not live to see the end of the day.
I just reviewed the video and to me, it looks and sounds like he said "That you F***ed!". Is there another video i should see?
<< I just reviewed the video and to me, it looks and sounds like he said “That you F***ed!”. Is there another video i should see? >>
What you heard is what I heard.
One thing that hasn’t been discussed much is the fact that (in one of the few pages of the pdf NBC deigned to share with the citizenry) he singles out for anger Deborah LaFave and John Mark Karr, and I strongly suspect in this rant he is referring to adults having sex with children.
Child molestation was a main concern in his play McBeef.
In his hedonism rant, he goes on and on about how this or that material possession “wasn’t enough for you” suggesting that whoever the “you” is had gone on to do something terrible and over the top.
Given how extraordinarily shy and withdrawn he was in middle school and onwards, one has to wonder whether Cho was sexually abused by an adult when he was a child, perhaps by a teacher or a relative. I gather that one common reaction by sexually abused children is extreme withdrawal, combined with self-loathing which may then manifest itself in internalized anger.
Thanks for the review, i’m a big fan of McDowell’s and think he’s great in everything i’ve seen of him. Just put If... on the top of my Netflix list. Can’t wait to get it!
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