Mark Reviews Movies: TED K

Ted K, Super LTD

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | February 17, 2022

Co-writer/director Tony Stone's biography of Ted Kaczynski, known during the decades-long manhunt for him as "the Unabomber," portrays him as a man of self-perceived power and righteousness. Ted K begins at some point in the serial bomber's time living in the forest outside Lincoln, Montana, where he survived by growing potatoes and hunting. A former university professor, he imagines that modern technology, which evolved considerable during his 25 years of isolation, will be the end of humanity as it was, is, and should remain, so he wants no part of it. Eventually, the man wants to convince as many people as he can of the same philosophy.

That's how the movie's Ted, played by Sharlto Copley, sees himself, and the screenplay, co-written with the director by Gaddy Davis and John Rosenthal, lives along with the character in that mindset. The forest surrounding him is lush and calming. The streams are clean and sustain him, as well as his crop. There is no boredom in a place like, some narration that comes from the real Kaczynski's extensive writings states, because a person eventually starts to merely exist among nature, given enough time.

There's a danger here. In case it isn't clear yet, Stone's movie approaches the line of romanticizing, if not the man, then certainly for what he stood. To be sure, there's something to some of these ideas in a broad way, but can one remove that from the context of who Kaczynski was, why he abandoned civilization, and what he did to make his point public? Stone definitely shows us who this man is, as he holds grudges, erupts in rage, and shows that, for all of his ideas and alleged ideals, verbally abuses his family, before and while begging them to send some money his way.

Ted left society, not only because he rejected what it was and was coming, but also and, perhaps, mostly because he was not emotionally equipped for it—and seems to have no desire to make an effort to work on that. In a payphone booth on a call to his mother, Ted whines that he has only kissed two women in his entire life and scolds his mother for skipping him ahead two years in school. It's always someone else's fault for Ted, and that, more than any of the statements and demands in the 35,000-word manifesto that would make its way—under threat bombing another target—to the pages of the Washington Post, is what defines the man.

The filmmakers clearly understand all of this, as Ted rants and rages to people and on the page, plans and goes to certain lengths to cover up his crimes, and maims and kills using homemade explosive devices, planted by him personally or sent through the mail. We only see these matters and events, though, from Ted's perspective, and it doesn't take long to see through the façade he attempts to maintain about himself and his goals. Indeed, if anyone knows a thing about Kaczynski's life and crimes, it takes no time at all to see through the dramatic interpretation of the man.

What, then, is the actual point of this movie? It's definitely not to show how the manhunt for him occurred, since all of that happens off-screen until the story's final moments. It's certainly not to show the death and devastation of human lives that Kaczynski caused, since the bombings are shot in an obscured way and the presence of any victims is so negligible that they exist more as ideas than individuals. It's not even to give us a firm or even comprehensible timeline of his crimes, since time moves forward here with such vagueness that it's only certain background details—news reports, fashion, some technology—that provide a general sense of when events are happening.

No, the sole purpose does seem to be to live with Ted, to hear his thoughts, and to see how much of his ideations of himself, his philosophy, and his actions are just delusions. It's a point that Stone, his fellow screenwriters, and Copley make with a mix of subtlety and contrivance. As an example of the former mode, Copley gives Ted a meek manner and mousy voice, even when his ire is raised by, say, loud snowmobilers and motorcyclists riding on his property. There's also the way Stone uses Copley's face in close-up, particularly when someone or something has insulted Ted and we can see the wheels of angry revenge spinning in his mind.

On the other end, we get lengthy scenes of the real Kaczynski's writing, playing against peaceful life and his crimes, as well as other scenes of dreams or actual delusions. Ted eventually imagines a romance with a woman (played by Amber Rose Mason), and the simplification that all Ted might have needed was a nice woman comes across as laughable or, if this is intended as some tragic angle for the character, disrespectful of all the pain Kaczynski caused.

Ted K is, generally, made and performed by Copley with some skill. Its insights, though, are limited, while the usefulness of the movie's existence remains an open question.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products