Upon watching the movie “Smooth Talk” the viewer may feel that sweet-talking, mysterious serial killer is a confident individual. But once you dig a little bit into his past you’ll find that on the contrary. He was insecure and he showed it through his disguise, his persistent attitude and through his actions. Something which the movie fails to portray.
When watching the film the the serial killer doesn't have much of a costume all he really wears is sunglasses, jeans and a t-shirt. In an article written by Mara Bovsun he is described wearing “freaky makeup and oversized cowboy boots, which he stuffed with socks, rags, and crushed tin cans to add inches”. Because of this the reader can assume that Charles Howard Schmid, Jr. was insecure of his height and felt the need to compensate his height with a mole that gave him a more aggressive look to his face. All of which the film lacked to portray.
His actions also showed a hesitant individual because most of his friends and victims were still in high school. This, again, may be due to his lack of self confidence, because he didn’t chase/ was attracted to a crowd within his age group. In the article (mentioned earlier) he is described as “ persuading” and “insisting” numerous times to his victims. Leading the reader to assume that he didn’t have what it took to persuade a victim in a short amount of time. This was something that the film definitely highlighted was persistent attitude. I enjoyed the film’s interpretation of the events and how they showed Schmid’s character in the sense of his personality because th3e actor had a persistent , almost stubborn, personality and smooth talked the girls. Lastly, his actions show a man who wants to be confident and satisfied but he constantly feels that need to prove himself as manly.When his friend Saunders left for the Navy. …show more content…
he found a new friend Richie Bruns which Schmid divulged the killing of Rowe to. Then he met 16-year old Gretchen Fritz which he dated and later confessed to her about the Rowe murder. When realizing that if they split she’d tell the authorities all about Rowe he murdered her and her sister. He then babbled on to Bruns all about that murder. Which shows how he feels the desire to feel tough and macho. Because the film “Smooth Talk” is focused on the point of view of one of the victims before the incident his story is almost absent from the film making it hard to see these characteristics on the film. CONCLUSION In conclusion, Charles Howard Schmid, Jr reflected many of the characteristics that a person who is self-conscious and seems to have the need to prove his masculinity whether it be through his costume, his attitude or through his actions, he seemed to be brag any chance he could. The film’s main focus was capturing the perspective of one of the victims and the horror she felt and this was show through the dialogue and the mysteriousness of the character as well as the background music adding even more suspense to the film and all of that added to what she probably felt at the time. All in all, the film was a decent interpretation of the story and the plot was well developed and the character the