I had a chance to kind of dwell on The Last Broadcast some today. I knew I wasn't done writing about it, but I wanted to begin right after watching it with some thoughts and then return to the film with further thoughts later.
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| Jim Seurd |
What I like especially about this is the work to provide a number of talking heads surrounding the case of the arrested and convicted Jim Seurd. At the beginning they really build him as one creepy guy. The stunt with the burned date on his arm and the odd behavior in the Pine Barrens. And as further evidence and revealing footage indicates, his carrying out the murders seems to be a bit clouded, until the twist implicates someone else. I love the idea of a mystery being gradually unpackaged. Little by little the film posits that what seemed like a sure guilt in Jim, documentarian David Leigh offers questionable and circumstantial evidence that he might not have. First, through the revelation of newly developed footage it is shown that the timeline for which the murders of cable access show co-host of Fact or Fiction, Locus Wheeler (co-director Lance Weiler) and audio tech Rein Clacker (Rein Clabbers) wasn't what the local authorities insisted.
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| Locus and Stephen of Fact and Fiction |
I like the idea that we never quite know what Jim Seurd died of while in prison, and because he is a little "odd" that being so makes him a psycho. One moment discovered on footage shows Rein asking Jim if is "psychic or psycho", which (rightfully so) enrages the guy. The footage of him speaking certainly doesn't proclaim Jim as the most normal guy in the world, but being weird isn't always indicative of a murderer surfacing. Last Broadcast presents him in different chapters, and found footage in this film I think lives up to the subgenre's moniker more than most that came afterward.
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