Bundy left behind a bloody tangle of sorrow, chaos and doubt, spanning many years and many locations. The intelligent screenplay succeeds in superimposing some kind of (chrono-)logical order on his activities. As a result the viewer gets what Bundy did, and when and where he did it. The viewer also gets why it was so uncommonly difficult to stop him in his tracks. The various authorities and witnesses saw but a tiny piece of the puzzle, since Bundy was eerily adept at moving about, covering up his tracks and devising aliases and alibis. His was a protean evil, changeable, versatile and resourceful.
The second great asset of "The deliberate stranger" is the powerhouse performance by Mark Harmon. Harmon's Bundy looks nice but unremarkable ; the worst one could say about him, if one wanted to say something negative, is that there is something of the lovable scamp or charming rogue about him. But behind this pleasant mask there burns a rage so seething, so inexhaustible that it turns its owner into an anti-sun. This is a man who only lives for, and through, the hope of expressing that rage by turning on some unsuspecting girl. He kills and kills and keeps on killing ; one gets a sense that he would still try to kill if he were a paraplegic lying in an hospital bed.
The moments when Mr. Harmon turns on the rage are stupendous - and unforgettable.
The second great asset of "The deliberate stranger" is the powerhouse performance by Mark Harmon. Harmon's Bundy looks nice but unremarkable ; the worst one could say about him, if one wanted to say something negative, is that there is something of the lovable scamp or charming rogue about him. But behind this pleasant mask there burns a rage so seething, so inexhaustible that it turns its owner into an anti-sun. This is a man who only lives for, and through, the hope of expressing that rage by turning on some unsuspecting girl. He kills and kills and keeps on killing ; one gets a sense that he would still try to kill if he were a paraplegic lying in an hospital bed.
The moments when Mr. Harmon turns on the rage are stupendous - and unforgettable.