Murder in the Heartland

Murder in the Heartland
Genre	Drama Thriller
Written by	Michael O'Hara
Directed by	Robert Markowitz
Starring	Tim Roth Fairuza Balk Brian Dennehy Randy Quaid Renée Zellweger Kate Reid Milo O'Shea Rondi Reed
Theme music composer	Patrick Williams
Country of origin	USA
Original language	English
Production
Producer	Michael G. Larkin
Cinematography	Ronald Victor Garcia
Editors	David Beatty Scott Vickrey
Running time	157 minutes
Production company	O'Hara-Horowitz Productions
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	May 3, 1993

Murder in the Heartland is a television miniseries that aired on ABC in 1993. It was based on the 1957–58 murder spree carried out by 19-year-old Charles Starkweather throughout Nebraska and Wyoming. The first half of the miniseries covers the murders. The second half covers the trials of Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, his 14-year-old girlfriend accomplice. Their increasingly disparate versions of events are contrasted as the trials unfold.

The film received strong praise from critics and multiple Emmy nominations.

Production

The entire film was shot on location in and around McKinney and Dallas, Texas.

Brian Dennehy was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special. Ronald Victor Garcia was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography.

An edited version of the production saw a limited release on VHS.

Other films based on the Starkweather story

Previously inspired by the Starkweather story were The Sadist, a 1963 film by James Landis, Terrence Malick's 1973 movie Badlands, and the title song from Bruce Springsteen's 1982 album Nebraska. The 1994 film Natural Born Killers was also partly inspired by these events. The 2004 film Starkweather directed by Bryon Werner, starring Brent Taylor as Charles Starkweather and Shannon Lucio as Caril-Ann Fugate is also based on the real life events of Starkweather.

External links

• Murder in the Heartland at IMDb