Riverman is a pretty good made for TV movie. Many movies based on books are of a better quality, because the screenplay has a lot more to work with.
Riverman was written by Robert Keppel, and published long before Gary Leon Ridgway was caught for the Green River serial murders.
The book is based around Keppel's interviews with another serial killer, Ted Bundy, who also committed many of his murders in Washington State. The idea of a profiler going out and interviewing a (famous) serial killer was also the basis for the movie Silence Of The Lambs, with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.
Where the movie is very good, is in showing the internal world of so many serial killers - the sociopath's inability to feel emotion except under extreme circumstances, the childhood abuse, etc. What it only slightly touches upon is the fact that for Ted Bundy, killing was only a means to an end. He was a necrophiliac who enjoyed the corpses more than the live persons, and God knows whatever other psychotic factors were in play as well. It remains a mystery why he kept the skulls - sex? Did they talk to him? These issues are brought up in a rather rushed manner, compared to the book. But that is only a minor quibble, and perhaps inevitable in a made for TV movie.
The irony is that Robert Keppel was only marginally involved in actually catching either Bundy or Ridgway. Bundy was caught because of a traffic violation, and Keppel wasn't even involved at all in Ridgway's apprehension in late November 2001.
I would like to add that the movie also accurately shows that these individuals are rather pathetic geeks once apprehended. They prey on the most vulnerable people in society, and often only then during their most vulnerable moments. They abuse the general trust people and societies need to operate. In short, anyone can sneak up on someone and hit them over the head. It is also why female serial killers almost exclusively target the very old and the very young, and very often use poison. They only very rarely kill adult men by violent means (Aileen Wuornos is the exception).
This is a very good true crime movie, however as a movie, it has some problems.
Riverman was written by Robert Keppel, and published long before Gary Leon Ridgway was caught for the Green River serial murders.
The book is based around Keppel's interviews with another serial killer, Ted Bundy, who also committed many of his murders in Washington State. The idea of a profiler going out and interviewing a (famous) serial killer was also the basis for the movie Silence Of The Lambs, with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.
Where the movie is very good, is in showing the internal world of so many serial killers - the sociopath's inability to feel emotion except under extreme circumstances, the childhood abuse, etc. What it only slightly touches upon is the fact that for Ted Bundy, killing was only a means to an end. He was a necrophiliac who enjoyed the corpses more than the live persons, and God knows whatever other psychotic factors were in play as well. It remains a mystery why he kept the skulls - sex? Did they talk to him? These issues are brought up in a rather rushed manner, compared to the book. But that is only a minor quibble, and perhaps inevitable in a made for TV movie.
The irony is that Robert Keppel was only marginally involved in actually catching either Bundy or Ridgway. Bundy was caught because of a traffic violation, and Keppel wasn't even involved at all in Ridgway's apprehension in late November 2001.
I would like to add that the movie also accurately shows that these individuals are rather pathetic geeks once apprehended. They prey on the most vulnerable people in society, and often only then during their most vulnerable moments. They abuse the general trust people and societies need to operate. In short, anyone can sneak up on someone and hit them over the head. It is also why female serial killers almost exclusively target the very old and the very young, and very often use poison. They only very rarely kill adult men by violent means (Aileen Wuornos is the exception).
This is a very good true crime movie, however as a movie, it has some problems.