User:Wilhelm Klave/Bullet Time film 2008

Bullet Time
Bullet Time
Directed by	Michał Piotr Wiśniewski
Written by	Michał Piotr Wiśniewski, Jan Kuncewicz
Produced by	The SILKRAT group
Edited by	Michał Piotr Wiśniewski
Release date	October 1st 2008 (Poland)
Running time	118 min
Country	Poland
Language	Polish

Bullet Time is a Polish underground movie about a fictional school shoting at Warsaw University. It was made by SILKRAT – a non-profit student filmmaking group and directed by Michał Piotr Wiśniewski. It was released non on October 1, 2008^[1]. The film raises the issues of school shootings, the copycat effect, gay rights, americanization of european societies, depression and suicide.

Tagline

In a seemingly normal city, two seemingly normal students are waiting for their day…^[2]

Plot

The film begins with a mockumentary in the form of a series of interviews with Jarek, Joanna, Marta and Kasia, the surviving witnesses of a school shooting that took place at Warsaw University. Each of them describing the massacre from a different perspective. Each of the characters also expresses his or hers opinion about school safety, gun laws, the threat of potential copycats and the media reaction to the shooting^[3].

The film then shifts to a camcorder perspective and takes the form of a home video made by the shooters before the massacre. The camera then follows Jan Kossakowski and Michał Duńczyk, the two shooters, as they plan their future massacre, tell about the details of their plan, obtain weapons, give hints about their motives and sometimes just go on their normal daily activities. The boys drive to McDonald’s on the 4th of July, build pipe bomb, play First-person shooter games, talk about safely obtaining information from the internet and visit the site of their planned massacre.

The final scenes of the movie depict the two shooters filming their farewell message before sending it to several media giants including entering the building of the department of Psychology of Warsaw University on April 1 armed with a Beretta 92 9mm handgun, a M1911 pistol and a 12-gauge Mossberg 500 pump action shotgun, three large propane bombs hidden in duffle bags and at least eight pipe bombs. Michał Duńczyk also mentions that he that he turned his Volvo 240 into a car bomb set to explode an hour after the shooting starts. He states that he plans to leave his car parked outside the department of Psychology building in hopes of killing the police and news crews dispatched to cover the massacre.

After entering the building they go on to kill several students and finally commit suicide, however most of the shooting was not captured on video because the drop detection turned off their camera after one of them firing a shot. According to Wiśniewski most of the shooting scenes were purposely not filmed because he didn’t want to see them used by “copycats making tributes to school shooters, just like they did with footage from Zero Day"^[4].

Cast

Jan Kuncewicz – as Jan Kossakowski, the first killer. Kossakowski is the more introverted and quiet of the two killers. He is a student of Psychology at Warsaw university and is revealed to be a sketch artist and having an interest in philosophy, anime, religion and computers. He is depicted as struggling with severe depression. Kossakowski is based on Dylan Klebold, one of the two killers who commited the who committed the Columbine High School massacre^[5].
Michał Piotr Wiśniewski – as Michał Duńczyk, the second killer. He is more extraverted and outspoken than Kossakowski. He is a student of Philosophy at Warsaw University and a practitioner of Yoga. He has an interest in FPS games and politics, he also has a lot of knowledge about previous school shootings, often mentioning or quoting the columbine shooters. He is revealed to have a relationship with Magda, an unseen character. He owns a Volvo 240 and a long-haired dachshund (The director's own dog starred in this role). Duńczyk is depicted as having psychopathic traits and being a copycat influenced by the Columbine killers. He is based on Eric Harris, the second perpetrator of the Columbine High School massacre^[6].
Joanna Komorowska – Joanna, a female witness. Joanna knew Kossakowski personally, she suffered a minor gunshot wound during the shooting. She is based on Kacey Ruegsegger, a survivor of the Columbine High School Shooting.
Jarosław Ziółkowski – Jarek, a Male witness. Jarek only heard the killers as he was locked with a group of other students inside a classroom. He is based on Aaron Hancey, a Columbine High School Shooting survivor.
Marta Romaneczko – Marta, a paralized female witness. Marta was critically wounded during her yoga class, a bullet damaged her spinal cord leaving her paralized from the waist down. Despite her condition she tries to understand the motives of the killers and feels some sympathy for them. She is loosely based on Melissa "Missy" Jenkins, a survivor of the 1997 school shooting in paducah.
Katarzyna Madeja – Kasia, a homosexual partner of one of the victims. Kasia talks about her grief after losing her lover who was killed in the massacre, but she also criticizes the legal status of gay relationships in Poland. She brings up the fact that for days she was unable to learn about the fate of her homosexual lover due to legal issues.
Agnieszka Cedro – Duńczyk’s aunt
Monika Klawe – Duńczyk’s cousin
Anna Klawe-Wiśniewska – Duńczyk’s mother
Gaweł Ciepielewski - male victim

Relations to real school shootings

Columbine School Shooting

Both shooters from “Bullet Time” are based on real life school shooters responsible for the 1999 Columbine High School Shooting. In an interview for the Warsaw University monthly magazine “Traktor Królewski”, the director mentioned that it was the columbine massacre and that made him create the movie and that his filming technique was inspired by the unreleased “basement tapes” left behind by the columbine killers. In the same interview Jan Kuncewicz also mentioned that they both read the diaries of the columbine killers as part of their preparation for their roles. Columbine is mentioned directly in the film, mostly by Michał Duńczyk. In several scenes Duńczyk is seen wearing a white T-shirt with “Natural Selection” written on it in black letters. It is an exact copy of the T-shirt worn by Eric Harris during the shooting at Columbine High School^[7]. "I wanted to show the copycat effect, how past killers inspire future ones"^[8] said Wiśniewski in an interview.

Failed Long Island School Shooting

In one scene Duńczyk goes on a long rant about the failed school shooting plot made by two teenagers in Long Island^[9]. He goes on to mock their indolence and refers to them as "morons".

Jokela School Shooting

The Jokela School Shooting occured when "Bullet Time" was in its production phase, the director of the film mntioned that this had an impact on his vision and that the shock caused by the Jokela shooting made one of the female cast members to leave the film^[10]. In the final version of "Bullet Time" Wiśniewski decided to include a scene where both fictional shooters watch a real live TV coverage of the Jokela massacre.

Kauhajoki school shooting

The Kauhajoki school shooting occured just one day before the planned public release of "Bullet Time", making the release to be postponed until October 1st as a sign of respect for the victims of that massacre.