New Cooper Movie Review
Synopsis of: "I am DB Cooper."
Add another confession to the list. This time it's a fella from the Sedro Wooley, WA area named Rodney Bonnifield. Yes, this is the guy that I was told about by a gal named "Kari" a year or two ago. Good news, though. Although Kari was unable to provide me with any substantive details, such as Date of Birth, height, weight, build, etc., the movie did deliver at least one definitive data point: DB Cooper/Rodney Bonnifield was born in 1952, which means he was 19 for the skyjacking. When the lights came on at the end of the movie, I exclaimed sotto voce "Boy, it sure is good to know that DB Cooper is younger than me," and the whole audience around me burst out laughing.
Even the film crew began to doubt Rodney by the end of the movie, especially as he led them on a wild goose chase in the northern reaches of Tena Bar and Ridgefield/Woodland. But Eric's gonna find a lot of new holes dug downstream from his own little spot where he's been digging for the past year.
The movie may be interesting for some, as it provides a lot of back story on Rodney's life as a bona fide rural American gangster. For instance: He started his life of crime at 9-years old by stealing ice cream and robbing the til at the local soda shoppe. Rodney is now doing time in the Walla Walla Penitentiary for stabbing someone with a knife. He'll be out in a couple of years. It was a four year stretch. Aggravated assault.
His confession to being DB Cooper is a hot mess, but he tells it so well. He never missed a beat whenever anyone asked him a question. And he gives such delightful and juicy side comments - such as describing a conversation with Larry Finegold about Larry's sloppy hairpiece - that blows the mind of those not well-schooled in Cooper Lore.
In short, Rodney seems to believe his story well-enough and his emotional affect seems to be legit. Hence, all his buddies believe him.
Further, it was fun seeing how Rodney grabbed so many tidbits of details from the Mountain News, Google, and general Internet searches to concoct his DBC story. In reality, we have a Walter Reca kinda of candidate who is alive, full of confidence, and telling his tale to anyone who will listen. His bail bondsmen - Mike and Carlos Rocha are a true believers - and they are the guys who put the story into the filmmakers hands. It seems that the movie's director, JT Regan, is dating Mike Rocha's daughter.
It's a well-made movie, and the production values are excellent. But for those of us in the Vortex, the movie's probably gonna make ya scream. I saw the movie tonight as part of the Seattle International Film Festival, and the movie's producers said that they are about to enter into negotiations with all the big boys in Hollywood They expect the flick to be on streaming services in a couple of months.
For more information: I am DB Cooper the movie.com.
Note to Darren: Bro, if you're gonna interview these guys, ya gotta ask them why they never bothered to get a scintilla of corroboration from anyone outside the Rodney Bonnifield universe. That absence makes the movie doubly maddening.
Lastly, they portrayed Tina as a married woman, and that bothered me....... Ya know what I'm saying....