"Airport '77" director Jerry Jameson's methodical reenactment of Charles Whitman's infamous sniper spree in Austin, Texas, back in 1966, that left sixteen citizens dead and another 32 wounded provided affable Disney star Kurt Russell his first major dramatic role. You've never seen Russell like he is here, and his performance is notably taciturn. Before he climbed atop the tower at the University of Austin campus, Whitman stabbed his mother as well as his wife to death. As usual for a Hollywood made-for-television feature, scenarist William Douglas Lansford and writer Antonio Calderón have played fast and loose with the facts. Hispanic Austin Policeman, Ramiro Martinez (Richard Yniguez of "Cancel My Reservation"), was one of the cops who ultimately stormed the tower and killed Whitman. Actually, none of Martinez's bullets killed Whitman. Nevertheless, in the name of political correctness and diversity, the producers probably appropriated his ethnicity to make things compelling. Interestingly enough, by the time that Whitman started blasting away at random targets, an army of private citizens armed with their own rifles turned out in numbers to retaliate with their own hailstorm of bullets. Meantime, Whitman did not discriminate in his choice of targets, but Jameson couldn't depict this murderer in too harsh a light since "The Deadly Tower" was a made-for-television movie. For example, Whitman pulls a knife on his mother and wife, but Jameson doesn't show this psycho carving either woman up. Indeed, he doesn't lay a finger on his cute little puppy. Jameson cross-cuts between Whitman and Martinez. The day that Whitman launched his one-man massacre, Martinez had learned grudgingly that the department refused to promote him to the rank of sergeant. John Forsythe, Pernell Roberts, and Clifton James play Austin cops in supporting roles as everybody mobilizes for the situation. Jameson maintains tension, suspense, and atmosphere throughout this competently made, 92-minute, crime thriller without resorting to obligatory blood and gore. Furthermore, he doesn't let an abundance of plot hinder the action. Russell is particularly outstanding because he had never played such a homicidal hellion. In real life, Whitman wore sneakers, while the producers showed our protagonist polishing his Marine boots with fetish-like appreciation. Quite possibly, the producers added this fascination with boot leather because the sniper that Andrew Robinson played in the theatrical feature "Dirty Harry" wore paratrooper jump boots and kept them gleaming. Of course, Jameson and his writers take the opportunity to slip in some anti-gun rhetoric. As far as made-for-television movies rate, "The Deadly Tower" qualifies as one of the best despite some of its anti-gun propaganda.

Several years ago in 1971 when I was doing the weekend warrior thing in Fort Sam Houston I visited Austin one weekend and did go on the university campus. My reason for going was to see the newly opened Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. It's almost as big as the infamous tower. Still I did note the tower little dreaming that it would be the site of a terrible tragedy. Like passing by the former World Trade Center towers before they became infamous.The Deadly Tower is the story of the massacre at the campus of the University Of Texas by former serviceman Charles Whitman suffering from an undiagnosed brain tumor who managed to sneak up some assault weapons, enough ammunition for a company who barricaded himself in the tower and started shooting at random.The story is that of Whitman and one of the Austin police officers who took him down on that fateful day. Kurt Russell who broke from the Disney G rated mold finally got taken seriously as an actor with a wonderful performance with minimal dialog.Richard Yniguez who should have had a breakthrough performance is also good as Austin PD officer Ramiro Martinez. I don't know why Yniguez never became a star.Folks like John Forsythe, Clifton James, and Pernell Roberts play other police officials. Ned Beatty plays Alvin Crum, a university employee who with Yniguez and Paul Carr are the ones who finally reached the demented and troubled Whitman.For a while as well he should, Charles Whitman became a poster child for gun control. Even with a president nearly assassinated not a decade later we still have no effective national policy to prevent future Charles Whitmans. The other view of gun control is also presented here as various citizens with hunting weapons join in to help the cops. There weapons are more effective and keep Russell pinned down.The Deadly Tower is a fine film and good telling of one of the saddest days of the last century.

NBC greenlighted The Deadly Tower, a retelling of the Charles Whitman incident of 1966, but the network was apparently unwilling to let it go as a kid-goes-nuts-and-shoots-up-a-college-campus thriller. Instead, they packed and padded this painful and unnerving story with lots of social commentary about a young Latino patrolman, one of the principals who got to Whitman, battling prejudice.NBC's prudence (or cowardice, depending on your take) just about squelches the lean, dark, and amazingly gory (for TV) story of Whitman (a ne'er do well played creepily by Kurt Russell) losing his mind, offing his family, and carrying his fight with whatever lurking head-demons to a university tower where he unloads on an unsuspecting campus.I've seen a documentary about Whitman which told the story of a profoundly damaged young man who breaks under familial pressures and seeks vengeance against the world. You don't get that from the movie; there isn't much more than a blurb about a suspected brain tumor to explain his actions.Yet, on a suspense level, the movie works quite well. It's when the screenwriters pull their punches by injecting social issues that the movie loses its focus (but probably gains that old expectation of containing significant social value).The Deadly Tower is ugly and sweaty and filled with mayhem, and if you can get by the issue stuff, you'll either be rewarded by or repulsed by a brutal and suspenseful voyeuristic wallow.

This is a very memorable movie - I have not seen it in over fifteen years but I still remember many scenes from it very well. It ranks right up there with the class of its genre, movies such as "Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster", "The Jericho Mile" and "The Day After". It is not only a story of Charles Whitman, but it also tells the story of Officer Ramiro Martinez (the policeman who made his way into the tower and killed Whitman). It also gives a good description of the logistics used by the entire police force that terrible day. No surrealism is used in the filming process - harsh, lusty reality sets the tone.I do not know if this movie is available on video, but if it is, by all means take a look at it.