As I look back on the eight decades of my life I have memories of some events that never go away. There are some I cannot forgive, some I wish I could relive, and a few that changed the way we all live - forever. On August 1, 1966 I attended a Viet Nam teach-in at the University of Colorado at Boulder . That same afternoon one of those life altering events occurred 900 miles away in Austin Texas at the University of Texas. Later that evening the nation sat transfixed watching newsreel footage of the random cold blooded murder of 14 students by a lone sniper. Nothing like that ever happened in America like that.
TOWER (2016 directed and produced by Keith Maitland) on Amazon Prime) is a documentary about the unidentified gunman who climbed to the top of the University of Texas tower where he shot 45 people and became the largest mass murderer in American history as of that time. The documentary used newsreel footage supplemented with interviews of survivors and heroes of that day to retell the story. The method of the retelling was novel to me. Animated re-enactments were interspersed with newsreel footage to show the stories of the people in real time - what they did and what they thought at that time. Age appropriate voice actors spoke words of the survivors as youthful participants during the day of terror. Near the end of the documentary the real life survivors appeared and completed the retelling of that awful day.
The first victims were Claire Wilson James (pictured immediately above and depicted in the top animation cell), her unborn child, and boyfriend Tom Eckman. They were walking to feed a parking meter when they were both hit by a snipers bullet from the 27th floor of the Tower. Eckman and the baby died immediately. Claire laid on the sizzling pavement for about 96 minutes while others watched in horror as the sniper continued to shoot 43 more people. She laid there dying. Nobody helped her. Nobody. All cowered in fear. After what seemed forever another college girl emerged and walked to comfort Claire. They did not know each other. She laid on the hot pavement with Claire as gunshots continued to pelt everywhere.
The police were slow to respond and were ill equipped and not trained for such an event. One cop brought tear gas. No one brought rifle capable of shooting the sniper 27 stories above. Eventually two policeman and a citizen made it to the top and killed the lone sniper.
After the shooting stopped bystanders emerged out of nowhere and gathered in the plaza where Claire and the others had laid. Claire was whisked away by ambulance. A bystander carried Tom's lifeless body to another ambulance. The girl walked away. I watched the crowd and remembered that was how we dressed at my college.That was the way we looked like. This was not some movies directors version of college kids and vintage cars. This was real life. And death. The students were looking at an walking upon globs of blood. Staring at the remains. Shock on their faces. Nothing like this had ever happened before in America. Everything was so innocent then.
This documentary is well worth your time. You can see for yourself without my help how much our lives were change on that fateful day.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment