IMDb plot summary: Animation, testimony, and archival footage combine to relate the events of August 1, 1966 when a gunman opened fire from the University of Texas clock tower, killing 16 people.
Directed by Keith Maitland.
Tower is a mostly-animated documentary about the 1966 shootings at the University of Texas in Austin, with a mix of real-life survivors of the attacks and actors playing younger animated versions of the same characters. It's an interesting look at a mass shooting that rocked the country before mass shootings became an everyday occurrence. The combined use of animation and occasional live footage does a great job of capturing the surreal nature of finding yourself in this kind of situation while also grounding it in these being real people. About halfway through when the animated characters are mostly replaced by their 2016 actual counterparts, it's a surprisingly powerful artistic choice. I do wish there had been a tiny bit more reflection on how this was an uncommon phenomenon in 1966 and is now something frequent enough that we regularly drill students on how to deal with it, but I think the choice to leave those connections up to the viewer was deliberate and I respect that choice. I usually find documentaries educational and interesting but not narratively powerful, but this is one of those rare exceptions.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Tower > Vampyr
Tower < Safe
Tower > The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
Tower > Show Me Love
Tower > 13th
Tower > Shall We Dance? (2004)
Tower > Baby Driver
Tower > A Room With a View
Tower < Chronicle
Tower < Till Death
Tower > The Palm Beach Story
Tower > H.M.S. Defiant
Final spot: #944 out of 3732, or 75%.
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