In 1974 Christine Chubbuck, a 29-year-old television anchor on a TV station in Sarasota, Florida, shot herself in the head while on camera and died soon after. Why did she do it? Although director Robert Greene spends a lot of time exploring the subject via the device of following actress Kate Lyn Sheil preparing to play Chubbuck and react the final moment, the film fails to answer the question.
There probably is no definitive answer. On the air just before pulling the handgun trigger, Chubbuck announced, “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first—attempted suicide.” As the film notes, Chubbuck was fed up with the violence being covered daily. However, there has to be a deeper reason why she would take her life even though she chose to do so under circumstances that made a societal point.
Director Greene spends more time in the film on Sheil researching the character and the circumstances, and on depicting the moviemaking process, than seeking an answer. Thus the film, although involving, comes across more as a gimmick than as a project searching for depth. Sheil does an excellent, low-key acting job, and we observe the efforts to make her look as much like Chubbick as possible, with the right wig, and with eye lenses to get the right color. One of the more interesting scenes is when she goes to the gun store that sold the weapon that Chubbuck used and getting instruction on how to shoot a gun. The ease of acquiring a gun is frightening in the light of current battles over the need for gun control.
Documentary footage is introduced to show us glimpses of the real Chubbuck. There is drama when Sheil has trouble bringing herself to reenact the shooting. She has obviously been disturbed by the meticulous work of plunging herself into the character and facing the grisly situation.
We don’t get to see the real TV footage, which is said to be safeguarded in a mysterious copy. That’s just as well. Watching the act would feed voyeurism more than historical record. Exactly what made a relatively successful young woman kill herself—the aspects of her psyche that led her to such a brutal, public act—remains an enigma, and probably always will. A Grasshopper Film release. Reviewed August 24, 2016.