Ani-MAY-tion: Tower (2016)

On August 1, 1966, a man took a number of weapons to a high point of the clock tower at the University Of Texas and spent over an hour and a half indiscriminately shooting people in the surrounding area. The injured and the dead would total over 40, with the very first victim being a pregnant woman, Claire Wilson (a figure who will become a catalyst for those caught up in the horror), and it remains one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. Sadly, I am not sure how long that distinction will remain, as more and more damaged individuals continue to get their hands on more dangerous weaponry.

Tower tells the story of that day, but it also tells much more. Director Keith Maitland has used actors, for the most part, to deliver the testimonies of many people involved on that horrific day, then covering over their likeness with rotoscoped animation. The same method is used for moments that recreate the actions of the individuals as viewers are shown the layout of the campus and the movement of people who were often trying to figure out how best to avoid a bullet.

Tower is incredible, and I commend Maitland, and everyone who worked on it. A real emotional journey, what starts off as a tense and horrible situation actually serves as the springboard to explore something beautiful, and that is the sheer courage and resilience of human beings who show the very best of humanity while finding themselves exposed to the very worst of it. It's hard not to feel your heart swell and find your eyes shimmering as you hear all about Rita Starpattern, a woman who ran over to Claire Wilson and lay beside her on the hot concrete, keeping her talking and keeping her conscious, all the while knowing that she could be shot at any moment.

But what Tower also does, and does so effectively, is to remind everyone that the people affected by the events of that day can't just shake it off after time. That includes those who helped the police directly take down the shooter, those who lost loved ones, and those who survived, but who spent a very long time grappling with their actions of that day, whether they managed to act without overthinking things or whether they were pinned to the spot by fear. Even the story of Claire, who lost her baby and her partner on that day, is almost too emotionally turbulent to properly digest as you hear about her subsequent life and the repercussions from those bullets.

Over half a century later, it's heartbreaking that attempts at this sort of thing have become more commonplace. And equally heartbreaking that many shooters are plastered all over the news cycle, their name raised up to a level of infamy that they surely aspired to when they first picked up their guns. The focus should always be on the dead, the injured, and the brave souls who were momentarily brought together to stop the further loss of life. People like Claire, Rita, Officer Houston McCoy, Allen Crum, Officer Ramiro Martinez, Thomas Frederick Eckman, Robert Hamilton Boyer, Devereau Huffman, Aleck Hernandez, Paul Bolton Sonntag, and many more.

9/10

Americans can buy it here.