It takes No Man of God one hundred minutes, condensing a period of about five years, to arrive at the conclusion that Ted Bundy “did it” because he “wanted to.” As insight goes, it’s better than nothing — by which I mean, better than Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile —, though hardly an earth-shattering revelation.
I don’t think there ever was any big mystery here, not even so much as a bullshit story like Son of Sam’s neighbor’s dog. I would argue that Bundy is the most basic of serial killers, as compared with the Zodiac, the Night Stalker, Dahmer, or even a more obscure one such as Herbert Mullin, who claimed to kill people in order to prevent earthquakes.
Now, I’m not saying either of those is better than the others — they’re all scum, but as far as scum is concerned, Bundy is the least interesting type there is, although this is probably the wrong way to approach the subject; I’ve always maintained that crime movies should not center on criminals but on the people who catch them, which is why I find The Highwaymen morally superior to Bonnie and Clyde.
But going back to this particular film, I read somewhere that scriptwriter C. Robert Cargill’s goal (and he may have done a little too good a job of it) was precisely to stress that “there’s nothing amazing about [Ted Bundy],” in contrast to the many “movies … selling the myth of Ted Bundy, and kind of glorifying him.”
The man makes a remarkable point (one that, again, could be applied to all sorts of films, not just in the horror or true crime genres, that celebrate crime in all its forms); to wit, the aforementioned Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which turns out to be none of the things its title advertises, and perhaps even the opposite.
Speaking of which, No Man of God’s Bundy, played by Luke Kirby, is able to summon, when called for, a brand of shocking vileness (never more so than when he matter-of-factly states that killing a 12-year-old girl “was a mistake,” while the other victimes were “choices”) that Zac Efron could not muster in a million years if his life depended on it.
Wide-eyed, boyishly charming Elijah Wood is also well cast as rookie FBI Special Agent Bill Hagmaier. Here’s a role that isn’t really all that far removed from Frodo Baggins; both characters volunteer for a task that puts them dangerously close to Evil and come very near to falling under its spell, but ultimately help to destroy it.
All things considered, I have mixed feelings about No Man of God. I can’t deny that it has a reason for being in a strictly godardian sense (in order to criticize a movie, you have to make another movie), but once it has served its purpose as a counterargument, it finds itself with little or nothing to say.
90% of Everything is Crap 