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Dummy (1979)
Donald Lang was not evil
I knew Donald Lang between the two killings. He was kind, bright, very strong and hard working. He had ape like qualities that Lavar Burton could not emulate, nor should he have tried.
Lang was always being victimized by pimps, whores and scumbags wandering the ghetto. Lang had a sense of honor, justice and compassion that his tormentors did not have.
I believe he was a lot smarter than most people thought and could understand volumes. He communicated with me by grunts and pointing. I could swear he could understand what I was saying to him.
The only time anyone cared to teach him sign language and communication skills was to try him for murder. That never happened. I don't know where Lang is today but I know he's not in the Illinois prison system.
He only needed a better understanding of how to deal with the evil people in the world. I really think that he felt that killing people who would rob him was okay. His world was truly a jungle and the laws of the jungle applied to him.
Lowell Myers was a fine man. Sorvino did not look like him but captured all of his humanity in the film. Someday I'd like to talk to him about this film. I had a chat with Brian Dennehy who played Lang's boss earlier in his career. It's a great story and should be released on DVD someday. A jail guard from the Cook County jail named Cheserleigh played himself in the film. He too knew Lang