CITIZEN X
US, 1995, 100 minutes, Colour.
Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, Jeffrey De Munn, John Wood, Joss Ackland, Imelda Staunton, Max von Sydow.
Directed by Chris Gerolmo.
Citizen X is a Home Box Office film, shot in Hungary standing in for the Soviet Union. It is based on the true story of the serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. He had 52 victims from the early '80s until 1990. The book, The Killer Department, by Robert Cullen served as the basis for the screenplay by the director, Chris Gerolmo (who had written screenplays for Miles from Home and Mississippi Burning).
The film is analytical in tone while focusing on the inner passion of the forensic detective, played externally and passively by Stephen Rea. He is appalled at the number of murders, is appointed as chief detective, is blocked in many ways by the cumbersome Soviet bureaucracy in the provinces (even to their letting the true criminal go six years before he was finally captured), and having to work on intuition which was rejected by his superiors. Donald Sutherland is the colonel who is his superior - an interesting performance as Sutherland moves from the unthinking bureaucrat to being impressed by his subordinate skills to coming on-side and supporting him. Geoffrey De Munn gives a chilling performance as the killer, especially in some of the scenes of the killing but also in the final interrogation. John Wood is an egoistic detective, Joss Ackland a bureaucrat who urges on the arrest of homosexual suspects (and concealing his own homosexual behaviour), and Max von Sydow as a psychiatrist.
The film also makes the point about Russian bureaucracy, the impossibility of admitting that the Soviet Union could have a serial killer, using outdated methods while knowing they could get help from the FBI - which they ultimately do in the times of Perestroika. The film takes place over the last decade of the Soviet Union as well as the experience of the ending of the Soviet empire. The film is quite a complex study of human nature, detection, investigative intuition and passion.
1. The film based on a true story, a serial killer in the Soviet Union? The emergence of knowledge of serial killers during the latter part of the 20th century, especially in the United States? Police methods to investigate, the primitive methods of the Soviet Union compared with those of the FBI? The contact between the two after the fall of the Soviet Empire?
2. The Hungarian locations standing in for Russia? The towns, the countryside, the forests? The musical score and atmosphere?
3. The title, the name given in the psychiatrist's report, the citizen of the Soviet Union, the unknown citizen, his wreaking havoc on the population?
4. The structure of the film: the introduction of the themes of the killings, the forensic examination, the finding of more bodies, the appointment of Viktor as the investigator, the role of the bureaucracy, the ideological stances, the thwarting of the investigations, the gradual changes, the introduction of the identity of the killer for the audience, seeing him in action? His arrest and being freed, the gradual convergence?
5. Viktor's personality, introverted, quiet, interior passion? His forensic work, the clashes with his officers, the examination of the body, their bringing in more bodies? His being appointed as chief detective? His being answerable to the colonel, the various meetings with the bureaucratic board, the official who made his demands, brought in the detective chief from Moscow, demanded the arrest of homosexuals (concealing his own activity)? His work in the field, going to the forests, examining the evidence, the ground around the bodies? The years passing, his growing frustration, his relationship with his wife, telling her the truth, her support? His being criticised, about to be dismissed? His intuitive methods? The decline of the Soviet empire, his wanting contact with the FBI, his breakdown, watching The French Connection on television, his recuperation, another body? The encounter with the murderer, the interrogation, the bureaucrat demanding that he be let go because he was a Communist Party member? The colonel and his support, the change of regime, Moscow giving the colonel and himself full command, their becoming general and colonel themselves? The plan for police supervision at the railway stations, the inspections, the information about the man coming out of the woods, the arrest of the killer? The interrogations? The previous interviews with psychiatrists, the lecture to them, their walking out, the psychiatrist who stayed, his conducting the examination where the Moscow detective failed? The group being hailed and applauded by the crowd outside the court?
6. The killer, seeing him at work, his causing disruptions in the factory? The unsatisfactory relationship with his wife and her spurning of him? His picking up his victims at the railway stations, his technique, taking them to the woods, sexual assault, violence? The drinking of their blood? The quiet man, his interior problems, the eruption of his violence, need for killing? His being arrested, interrogated, his explanations, being let go? His not killing for some time? The final arrest, the interrogation, his promising to tell the truth but failing to? Meeting the psychiatrist, fascinated by the psychiatrist's psychological portrait of him, telling the truth, breaking down and weeping? His being shot?
7. The colonel, the bureaucrat, his relationship with Viktor, the gradual change, appreciating his intuitions? Getting Viktor to have a rest? Viktor coming to him, using his manipulation techniques? The gradual changes, the information about the homosexual activity of the bureaucrat and holding it over him? The collapse of the empire, going to Moscow, being in charge, the achievement?
8. The glimpse of Viktor's family, the supportive wife, the children, the end?
9. The bureaucrats, red tape, lack of imagination, the false conclusions by the forensic expert about blood and semen and the later comments about her being ridiculed? The dominant bureaucrat, exercising his power, the attack on homosexuals, their being rounded up, the truth about himself?
10. A contrast between American-style police investigations and those of the Soviet Union?
