The Killing of America
The Killing of America

The Killing of America

Watch TrailerWatch Movie
1981
1h 35m
7.2(58 votes)
Documentary
Crime

Overview

A documentary of the decline of America, composed of archival material and exclusive footage, carnage, madness, and mayhem with an unapologetic sincerity on the factual depiction of violence in the industrialized nation of the United States. Featuring a juxtaposition of detailed accounts of terrible acts, brutal behavior, and interviews from experts and convicted killers alike.

Links & Resources

IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

Videos & Trailers

1 video

Cast & Crew

48 members
Acting

Chuck Riley

Narrator (voice)

No Image
Acting

Ed Dorris

Self

No Image
Acting

Thomas Noguchi

Self

Thomas Noguchi
Acting

Sirhan Sirhan

Self

Sirhan Sirhan
Acting

Wayne Henley

Self

Wayne Henley
Acting

Ed Kemper

Self

Ed Kemper
Acting

Susan Atkins

Self (archive footage)

Susan Atkins
Acting

David Berkowitz

Self (archive footage)

David Berkowitz
Acting

Kenneth Bianchi

Self (archive footage)

Kenneth Bianchi
Acting

Lawrence Bittaker

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

James Brady

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Arthur Bremer

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Ted Bundy

Self (archive footage)

Ted Bundy
Acting

Angelo Buono

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Dean Corll

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Juan Corona

Self (archive footage)

Juan Corona
Acting

Edward Cowart

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Richard J. Daley

Self (archive footage)

Richard J. Daley
Acting

Charles de Gaulle

Self (archive footage)

Charles de Gaulle
Acting

Mark Essex

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

John Wayne Gacy

Self (archive footage)

John Wayne Gacy
Acting

Tom Hayden

Self (archive footage)

Tom Hayden
Acting

John Hinckley Jr.

Self (archive footage)

John Hinckley Jr.
Acting

Leslie Van Houten

Self (archive footage)

Leslie Van Houten
Acting

Jim Jones

Self (archive footage)

Jim Jones
Acting

Linda Kasabian

Self (archive footage)

Linda Kasabian
Acting

John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Self (archive footage)

John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Acting

John F. Kennedy

Self (archive footage)

John F. Kennedy
Acting

Robert F. Kennedy

Self (archive footage)

Robert F. Kennedy
Acting

Martin Luther King Jr.

Self (archive footage)

Martin Luther King Jr.
Acting

Patricia Krenwinkel

Self (archive footage)

Patricia Krenwinkel
Acting

John Lennon

Self (archive footage)

John Lennon
Acting

Charles Manson

Self (archive footage)

Charles Manson
Acting

Herbert Mullin

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Jacqueline Kennedy

Self (archive footage)

Jacqueline Kennedy
Acting

Yoko Ono

Self (archive footage)

Yoko Ono
Acting

Lee Harvey Oswald

Self (archive footage)

Lee Harvey Oswald
Acting

Nancy Reagan

Self (archive footage)

Nancy Reagan
Acting

Ronald Reagan

Self (archive footage)

Ronald Reagan
Acting

Jack Ruby

Self (archive footage)

Jack Ruby
Acting

Leo J. Ryan

Self (archive footage)

Leo J. Ryan
Acting

Robert Smith

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Brenda Spencer

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

George Wallace

Self (archive footage)

George Wallace
Acting

Charles Whitman

Self (archive footage)

No Image
Acting

Lyndon B. Johnson

Self (archive footage, uncredited)

Lyndon B. Johnson
Acting

Anthony Kiritsis

Self (archive footage, uncredited)

No Image
Acting

Richard Hall

Self (archive footage, uncredited)

No Image

Similar Movies

Swimming Pool
6.5
2003

Swimming Pool

A British crime novelist travels to her publisher's upmarket summer house in Southern France to seek solitude in order to work on her next book. However, the unexpected arrival of the publisher's daughter induces complications and a subsequent crime.

Movie
Beverly Hills Cop III
5.9
1994

Beverly Hills Cop III

When his boss is killed, Detroit cop Axel Foley finds evidence that the murderer had ties to a California amusement park called Wonder World. Returning to sunny Beverly Hills once more, Foley reunites with Detective Billy Rosewood to solve the case. Along with Billy's new partner, Detective Jon Flint, they discover that Wonder World is being used as a front for a massive counterfeiting ring.

Movie
Once Upon a Time in America
8.4
1984

Once Upon a Time in America

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Movie
Insomnia
7.0
2002

Insomnia

Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.

Movie
A Crime
5.5
2006

A Crime

Vincent's life is on hold until he finds his wife's killer. Alice, his neighbor, is convinced she can make him happy. She decides to invent a culprit, so that Vincent can find revenge and leave the past behind. But there is no ideal culprit and no perfect crime.

Movie
Monster
7.2
2003

Monster

In 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.

Movie
Killing Zoe
6.2
1993

Killing Zoe

Zed is an American vault-cracker who travels to Paris to meet up with his old friend Eric. Eric and his gang have planned to raid the only bank in the city which is open on Bastille day. After offering his services, Zed soon finds himself trapped in a situation beyond his control when heroin abuse, poor planning and a call-girl named Zoe all conspire to turn the robbery into a very bloody siege.

Movie
The Hole
6.2
2001

The Hole

Four teenagers at a British private school secretly uncover and explore the depths of a sealed underground hole created decades ago as a possible bomb shelter.

Movie
Shaft
6.0
2000

Shaft

New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.

Movie
A History of Violence
7.2
2005

A History of Violence

An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.

Movie
Boys Don't Cry
7.4
1999

Boys Don't Cry

A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.

Movie
The Interpreter
6.3
2005

The Interpreter

After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.

Movie
The Godfather
8.7
1972

The Godfather

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

Movie
The Godfather Part II
8.6
1974

The Godfather Part II

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.

Movie
Natural Born Killers
7.1
1994

Natural Born Killers

Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.

Movie
Beverly Hills Cop II
6.5
1987

Beverly Hills Cop II

Axel Foley returns to the land of sunshine and palm trees to investigate the near-fatal shooting of police Captain Andrew Bogomil. With the help of Sgt. Taggart and Det. Rosewood, they soon uncover that the shooting is associated with a series of "alphabet" robberies masterminded by a heartless weapons kingpin—and the chase is on.

Movie
Léon: The Professional
8.3
1994

Léon: The Professional

Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon's footsteps.

Movie
Snatch
7.8
2000

Snatch

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookies, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Movie
Scarface
8.2
1983

Scarface

After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.

Movie
The Silence of the Lambs
8.3
1991

The Silence of the Lambs

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Movie

Recommended Movies

13th
7.9
2016

13th

An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.

Movie
God Bless America
7.0
2012

God Bless America

Fed up with the cruelty and stupidity of American culture, an unlikely duo goes on a killing spree, killing reality TV stars, bigots and others they find repugnant.

Movie
Con Mum
7.0
2025

Con Mum

A chef's life is upended when a jet-setting, champagne-sipping, hotel-hopping woman claims to be his long-lost mother. This documentary reveals the untold story.

Movie
O.J.: Made in America
8.4
2016

O.J.: Made in America

A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.

Movie
Voyeur
5.9
2017

Voyeur

Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.

Movie
Killers of the Flower Moon
7.4
2023

Killers of the Flower Moon

When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.

Movie
Killing Them Softly
6.0
2012

Killing Them Softly

Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.

Movie
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story
6.3
2025

Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story

Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.

Movie
Rampage
6.0
2009

Rampage

The boredom of small town life is eating Bill Williamson alive. Feeling constrained and claustrophobic in the meaningless drudgery of everyday life and helpless against overwhelming global dissolution, Bill begins a descent into madness. His shockingly violent plan will shake the very foundations of society by painting the streets red with blood.

Movie
Bowling for Columbine
7.5
2002

Bowling for Columbine

This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.

Movie
Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers
6.6
2025

Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers

Aileen Wuornos remains a rarity: a female serial killer. From childhood abuse to death-row revelations, this documentary revisits her life and crimes.

Movie
The Killer
6.6
2023

The Killer

After a fateful miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn't personal.

Movie
Death Sentence
6.8
2007

Death Sentence

Nick Hume is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family.

Movie
Boyz n the Hood
7.6
1991

Boyz n the Hood

In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. During these times, Furious tries to raise his son Tre to be a decent person. Tre's friends, on the other hand, have little regard for the law and drag the entire neighborhood into a street war...

Movie
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
7.0
2019

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.

Movie
Vendetta
6.0
2022

Vendetta

When his daughter is murdered, William Duncan takes the law into his own hands, setting out on a quest for retribution. After killing the street thug responsible for her death, he finds himself in the middle of a war with the thug's brother, father, and their gang, who are equally hell-bent on getting even. What ensues is a tense back-and-forth game of vengeance. By the end, William comes to find that the quest for revenge never has a winner.

Movie
Joe
6.4
1970

Joe

After murdering his daughter's drug-dealing boyfriend, a wealthy ad executive stumbles into a bar and strikes up an uneasy alliance with Joe Curran, a drunken bigot with a bloodlust who works at a local factory.

Movie
American Murder: The Family Next Door
7.3
2020

American Murder: The Family Next Door

Using raw, firsthand footage, this documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible events that followed.

Movie
Targets
7.1
1968

Targets

An aging horror-movie icon's fate intersects with that of a seemingly ordinary young man on a psychotic shooting spree around Los Angeles.

Movie
Belly
6.0
1998

Belly

Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?

Movie