Movie Summary: Blood Work

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Blood Work

This is a two thousand and two American film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. The film stars Clint Eastwood as Terry McCaleb, Wanda De Jesus acting as Graciella Rivers, Anjelica Huston acting as Dr. Bonnie Fox, Jeff Daniels acting as Jasper Noone ‘Buddy and Tina lifford as Jaye Winston who is a detective. The film falls under the genre of thriller movies. It is a crime thriller detective film where there is a serial killer and murder investigation.

Terry McCaleb is a retired FBI profiler who had a heart transplant. He is elderly, ailing feeble and lived in Los Angles harbor in a boat. He is unable to drive and takes a regular nap. He is hired to investigate the death of Gloria who is Graciella Rivers’s sister. Graciella Rivers tells him that he is living because he received Gloria’s heart and that he must investigate her murder (00:12:43). Gloria donated her heart to Terry McCaleb after she was shot. He feels he has an obligation of tracking down the murderer since he has no choice (Clint 00:13: 21). He is on recovery and enjoying the retirement in the houseboat. Terry defies the advice from Dr. Bonnie Fox his cardiologist (Clint 00:33, 00:34) and starts the investigation of the murder with the help of Buddy Noone and detective Jayne Winston.

Terry is physically impaired which makes the investigating harder for him than before. Since he is unable to drive, he persuades Buddy Noone to ferry him. Terry is a competent detective and a celebrity of a kind since he has earned a reputation of tracking killers. This is not any different and he is able to deduce that the killer could be serial killer who had staged Gloria’s death to seem as if it was a random robbery. Terry is determined irrespective of the defiant attitude of the police detectives John Waller and Ronaldo Arrango who thinks that he wants to exult himself with the findings (Clint 00:21, 00:58).

Terry identifies the serial killer from the records of the previous murder (Clint 00:20:27). The investigation is dangerous and involves hunting the serial killer who had been thought that he has been dead. Terry is so determined to succeed with the investigation at the expense of his health. Terry dreams being attacked and shot severally by the suspect wearing a mask (Clint 00:31). The identity of the killer is quite unexpected. Graciella wants to seek justice for her nephew who is now orphaned and for herself. She has been frustrated by the case delay due to law enforcement bureaucracy. The homicide pains her so much and she wants to know the reason behind it (Clint 01:00). The scenes are accompanied thrilling sound as the serial killer is tracked down.

Serial killers

            The murderer in the movie is identified as serial killer who has been involved in a number of previous murders. A serial killer is a person who kills more than three people with separated time for the next murder and is driven by psychological gratification. The serial killers often have sexual motives, thrill, anger, attention and financial gain (Schmid 35). Usually, the murders are a lot similar with the victims being of same sex, age, appearance, race and occupation. They display abnormal behavior with memory disorders. Some are drug addicts. Visionary serial killers are characterized by psychotic absence from reality imitating other people and compelled to kill. Serial killers who are mission geared try to change the society by eradicating individuals whom they think are undesirable such as prostitutes, homosexuals, particular religion or ethnicity (Holmes & Stephen p12). Serial killers are antisocial and feel no remorse towards their victims. They don’t learn from previous encounters.

Hedonistic killers are thrilled and find pleasure in killing. They kill for comfort, thrill and lust. Lust serial killers derive gratification from mutilation and torture as a fantasy for sexual satisfaction. Thrill killers induce pain and cause terror to their victims and are excited and stimulated by their actions due to the adrenaline rush. They perfect their murder strategy believing that they will never be caught. They may kill through strangling, asphyxiating, hanging, drowning. Slashing or stabbing. Other killers kill for material gain and comfort and are usually close acquaintances. These are mostly female killers and waits for some period before they kill again. Others kill to gain power and control and are mostly victims of child abuse with low self esteem (Holmes & Stephen p.12&13)

Profiling Serial Killers

Investigative profilers help to narrow investigations. The science started in United States and has been developing and is refined as a tool of investigation Profiling involves examining the crime critically in forensics. Profiling helps in solving crime mystery and is done professionally. Law enforcement unit has to collaborate with the medical and academic professionals. They assesses the psychological and behavior of serial killers. The framework of profiling should be flexible. It uses investigative tool with limited leads. It provides direction to a given investigation and psychological insight while conducting interviews. Profiling offer psychological advice for juries and witnesses (Hickey, 366)

Profiling helps to develop systematic tracking of mysterious serial killers and facilitate jurisdiction’s communication involved in the cases of serial murder. Profiling is a useful tool which applies critique investigative follow-up, forensic collection of evidence and sampling. It assists in giving insight to explain a certain criminal behavior and crime itself to corroborate evidence. Offender profiling involves collection of data by the law enforcers by use of anecdotal information or case studies. They transform the data into descriptions which are general and associate it to individuals committing a particular crime. This form is invasive and could be legally tenuous and misleading. Profiling takes various forms to assist in investigation of serial murders. These are scientific empirical profiling and geographical profiling and both helps in attaining g accurate and precise scientific investigation (Hickey p.367)

From the movie, the detectives use the previous murder records to track the serial killer. The killer was present in the crime scene and Terry had seen him (00:56). He stocks his victims and kills them on camera. The link between the murder victims was blood they both had donated blood they had similar blood type. Since Terry has had professional experience in profiling at the FBI, he quite easily points out the killer from the previous records.

Justice in the Movie

The serial killer in the movie does not face justice for his actions. He likes to play games with the detective and his cunningness is unveiled. The killer is not put to death as he deserves. This shows that justice was not achieved for Gloria’s son as well as for Graciella who are still mourning the death of their loved one. Identifying the serial killer as done by Terry McCaleb is not enough. The killer should have faced a death sentence and murdered in similar way he does. Graciella and her nephew are left in a state of loneliness missing Gloria. There is no enough justice that could compensate the death of their loved one.

Works Cited:

Clint Eastwood. Blood Work Movie. DVD. 1h 45m55s: 2002.

Hickey, Eric W. Serial Murderers and Their Victims. (5Ed) USA:Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010.

 Holmes, M. Ronald, Stephen T. Holmes. Contemporary Perspectives on Serial Murder. USA: Sage Publications, 1998.

Schmid, David Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture.University of Chicago Press. 2007.

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