MovieChat Forums > Fatal Vision (1984) Discussion > Holy Jesus

Holy Jesus

posted 12 years ago by Balibari
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What's this I see: 'Fatal Vision'? Never heard of it, sounds interesting, clearly some sort of homely detective affair. I like Matlock, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint and TV movies, they all share a sort of warm and unchallenging quality, like comfy slippers. Hmmm this seems like perfect viewing for a quiet afternoon, like a feature length Diagnosis Murder or something, what could go wrong?

What the hell have I just been subjected to?!!? There should have been some kind of warning at the start. I'm broken. I want to sit in the corner and cry whilst hugging my wife and two year old daughter.

I thought this would be 90 minutes of pleasant scenery and gentle humour, maybe against the backdrop of some jovial investigating. Instead I got a three hour horror story... that turned out to be real!

What a great piece of work though. Incredibly compelling, well written and in most cases acted (I thought Cole was superb). It seems this is a well known case in the US but I'm English so knew nothing about it. I didn't come to the conclusion he was guilty until Malden did, and I had no idea what the verdict would be, just as it should be but so infrequently is. What a well made bit of teevee.

[–] Blue_Eyes_James 12 years ago

Well, it is called "Fatal" Vision...! A friend recently saw Les Miserable and said she forgot how depressing it was, and again I reminded her of the title!

But yes this was and still is a sad and polarizing case here in the U.S. It provokes in so many people that bit of doubt of imprisoning or even worse executing an innocent person, which of course has actually happened.

There's a good chuck of books written about it, and of course the wiki page will keep anyone up to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_R._MacDonald

"Did someone just drop a raisin into some milk?"