Rampage (1989)
A hidden gem in the canon of William Friedkin, Rampage is a stark, unflinching thriller as controversial and thought-provoking as its subject.
Charles Reece is the All-American boy. Handsome and well liked, he does charity work and dutifully cares for his mother. One day he buys a gun and goes on one of the most horrifying murder sprees ever recorded. Anthony Fraser is the liberal-minded district attorney assigned to prosecute Reece. Fraser’s objective: the death penalty, a punishment that goes against his personal beliefs.
As Fraser plunges deeper and deeper into the case, he’s outraged by a system that would set a killer free by deeming him criminally insane. Ultimately, Fraser realizes he and the murderer share the same conviction: Sometimes a life must be taken.
