The Iceman Interviews
by Jim Thebaut
Our Price: $42.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $31.39 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Director: Jim ThebautBrand: HBO Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 150 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 92159
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product features:
- An abused young man. A hair-trigger temper. A trail of dead bodies. What makes a cold-blooded killer tick? THE ICEMAN AND THE PSYCHIATRIST is now available for the first time on DVD. Renowned forensic psychologist Dr. Park Dietz gets up close, personal and even confrontational with psyche of one of the most dangerous men alive. Bringing together the earlier THE ICEMAN TAPES: CONVERSATIONS WITH A K
Movie Reviews of The Iceman Interviews
Movie Review: Morality is Relative anyway, right?
Summary: 5 Stars
There is so much that is scary about these interviews that I hardly no where to start. Since I have reviewed another version of this DVD, I will restrict my comments on this one to the larger meaning of Richard Kuklinski's life in the context of American culture.
Yesterday, the Oprah show showcased the life of a 40ish divorcee from the Atlanta area, with two pre-teen children. She was sinking fast into financial quicksand and grabbed onto a job as a "stripper" as a last resort lifeline. "Stripping" rescued her from the brink of social and financial death, and gave her and her family an entirely new outlook on life without the need for a husband or a father. She appeared on the show looking unusually fit and tan for a 40-year old woman -- and with money in the bank to boot. The show of course was the typical "Oprah style rationalizations for why whatever a woman does morally is okay." That is Oprah's place in American culture, to confirm to us that any moral standards that women reduce down to nothing, is okay. Societal morality after all is a consensus affair, relative, right? Oprah proves that there are no moral absolutes -- at least when it comes to American women, anyway. By working just two nights a week, this mother had more time with her kids, kept her body in shape, and for the first time in her life, was free of the need to depend on a man and had money left over. Without the life-saving job of "stripping" her life was a sure dead end. Seems like a real American success story, right?
When I saw the show, I immediately thought about this interview of Richard Kuklinski being on the equivalent of a show slanted in the opposite direction towards males, only his interviewers were not the male equivalent of Oprah, but police investigators and establishment Psychiatrists:
Kuklinski, at 17 was a skinny kid, who all the bullies picked on. He got tired of taking their "crap" and took an iron rod from the closet of his "project" apartment and beat one of them to death. No one reported him to the authorities. Thus we are left to assume that it was considered "justified street homicide" (just like what the police do). Plus, "poor old Richard" only had an eighth-grade education and both of his parents also beat the crap out of him every chance they got.
So, what to do? Well, Richard carried a chip on his shoulder so big that he became a predator: That was his job. He could kick butt, anytime, anywhere. That was all he could do; the only thing that gave him an edge in a cruel world. He just learned to enjoy his talents a bit too much. The mob got wind of his reputation as a "mad dog predator" and quickly recruited him by making him an offer he could not refuse: You show us you can kill reliably and keep your mouth shut, and we'll pay you at least $50k per hit. Richard passed the job interview with flying colors, by killing under instruction, a random person in broad daylight in a residential neighborhood on the streets of New York City. From there the rest is history. One-hundred and fifty, to two-hundred murders later, and upward of $50 million that bankrolled a lavish upper crust New Jersey life style for his family, Richard was caught, after having eliminated all of his closest friends, but one: the one who fingered him. The moral of this story from Richard's point of view (and directly from his mouth): "I had one friend too many."
But there are other morals to this Oprah-like expose of America's most cold-blooded, most productive, and most well-paid serial killer and predator: How does a 17-year old who kills a man on the street with many onlookers including the five who fled from his attack, avoid being arrested or being tried for murder #1, of 200 to come? Especially in a culture where being caught with one $10 rock of cocaine can get you 10 to 20 years in prison, no matter the age?
Another moral to this story is Kuklinski's wife, who now sees herself as a victim, after the fact. But she was unconvincing when she claimed that she did not know what Richard did to provide her the lavish life style she was living. She just lived lavishly off the fruit of his murders without thinking to ask questions about where the hell all that money was coming from? One does not need to know everything to know something: We all have a sixth sense about these things. For 30 years, she put her sixth sense to sleep, because she did not want to know the truth. Passive lying is lying no less.
And in what other nation on earth can a person make $50 million dollars as a hired killer and not be caught for over 30 years? Like Kuklinski's wife, there are a lot of people turning to Oprah in order to learn how to put their sixth sense to sleep: There is a lot of collective denial going on in New Jersey and in the U.S.
Morality is relative anyway right? It is the "O.J.s" of the world that Americans really fear, not the Richard Kuklinskis, right? Five stars
Summary of The Iceman Interviews
ICEMAN INTERVIEWS - DVD MovieSimilar DVD Movies
Gladiator Days - Anatomy of a Prison MurderHBO HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2011-04-27; DVD
Best price: $4.45
Price in other shops:
History Classics: The MafiaA&E; Release date: 2010-11-16; DVD
Best price: $9.93
Price in other shops:
America's 60 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries & CrimesMILL CREEK ENT. (UNDER DIGITAL; Release date: 2010-08-17; DVD
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops:
The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killerby Philip Carlo
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2006-06-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.38
Murder Machine (Onyx)by Gene Mustain, Jerry Capeci
Onyx; Published: 1993-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
America's Serial Killers: Portraits in EvilDigital1stop; Release date: 2009-01-27; DVD
Best price: $3.39
Price in other shops:
The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopathby Philip Carlo
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2010-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.35
Price in other shops:
The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killerby Anthony Bruno
Backinprint.com; Published: 2008-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.71
Price in other shops:
The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killerby Philip Carlo
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 2009-04-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.57
Price in other shops:
The Iceman - Confessions of a Mafia HitmanRelease date: 2004-06-01; DVD
Best price: $7.15
Price in other shops: