''The Deadly Tower'' (also known as ''Sniper'') is a 1975 American made-for-television action

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Jerry Jameson. It stars

Kurt Russell Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began acting on television at the age of 12 in the western series ''The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters'' (1963–1964). In the late 1960s, he signed a ten-year contract with The ...

and Richard Yniguez and is based on the

University of Texas tower shooting On August 1, 1966, after stabbing his mother and his wife to death the previous night, Charles Whitman, a Marine veteran, took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, ...

Plot

The film is based on the true story of

Charles Joseph Whitman Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to ...

, an engineering student and former

Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military ...

who murdered his own wife and mother and then killed 14 more people and wounded 31 others in a shooting rampage at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

on the afternoon of August 1, 1966.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Antonino Calderon, who was head of Image, an organization dedicated to providing more positive screen depictions of

Mexican Americans Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

. He met with Robert Howard, president of the NBC network and asked if he could make a film about an actual Chicano hero. Howard agreed. Calderon pitched several stories and Howard agreed to finance ''The Deadly Tower'' as it was about a Chicano police officer, Martinez. MGM were commissioned to make the movie with Calderon as producer, Richard Caffey as executive producer and David Goldsmith as production executive. ''The Deadly Tower'' was filmed at the

Louisiana State Capitol The Louisiana State Capitol (french: Capitole de l'État de Louisiane) is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Louisiana and is located in downtown Baton Rouge. The capitol houses the chambers for the Louisiana State Legislature, made ...

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the county seat, parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, E ...

because the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

refused to allow filming there.

Release

Lawsuits

In 1976 Martinez received an undisclosed out-of-court settlement after suing the producers of the Deadly Tower for negative and racist depictions of his wife, portrayed in the movie as a nagging Hispanic woman; in fact she is a blonde, blue-eyed German. In 1990, Houston McCoy, one of two policemen who took part in killing Whitman, sued

Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...

(which held the ownership of most of MGM's pre-1986 works) for $14 million for emotional distress and damage to his reputation, claiming the film caused him to become an

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

and lose self-respect by depicting him as a coward.

Reception

Critical response

The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' called the film "highly effective" but wondered "no matter how well done is there any reason to relive that bloody moment of history."'Deadly Tower' at Texas U.: CECIL SMITH Death Tower on a Campus Smith, Cecil. Los Angeles Times 17 Oct 1975: h1.

References

External links

*
The Deadly Tower
at BFI
The Deadly Tower
at Letterbox DVD 1975 television films 1975 films Crime films based on actual events 1975 crime films American television films Films directed by Jerry Jameson Films scored by Don Ellis Films set in Austin, Texas Films set in 1966 University of Texas tower shooting {{1970s-crime-film-stub