Review of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
The Assassination of Gianni Versace is the second instalment of the American Crime Series after The People v OJ Simpson. The 9 episode FX series is based on Maureen Orth’s book “Vulgar Favors” and is directed by Ryan Murphy, starring Edgar Ramírez as Gianni Versace, Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace, Ricky Martin as Versace’s long term live in boyfriend Antonio D’Amico.
The opening episode The Man Who Would Be Vogue immediately grabs the viewers’ attention by portraying the fateful morning when Gianni Versace was brutally shot down right in front of the gate of his own paradise of a mansion near the Miami beach. It was a theatrical scene, the gunshot, the panic, the blood on the marble steps and even a dove killed by the fragments of a bullet lying next to the corpse all seem very stagy. The reactions of the crowd were somewhat mixed, most are shocked, however, some are opportunistic and lurking around the crime scene trying to sell photos or first-hand stories.
Before the killing, the killer Andrew Cunanan seems to be a young man tormented by his inner demons and is nervously on edge. After his violent deed, he soon quickly gets away using effective tactics of police evasion. There were not many dialogues involved, it was action action action all the way through, keeping the audience engaged in eager anticipation.
The two main characters’ lifestyles build a stark contrast, one is relaxed, successful, living in luxury and surrounded by loved ones, while the other is tired, drifting, living in destitute and desperately alone. There seems to be a clue as to why the killing happened hidden in the background.
After the high drama, the entire series is a train of flashbacks one after another in each episode going more and more back in time, exploring the backstories of the victims as well as the killer. In the line of Freud psychology, childhood experience is instrumental in the development of a person’s adult behaviours. Therefore, it is essential to understand childhood, especially the childhood traumas of the killer in order to make sense of his murderous acts.
Cunanan’s father Modesto is a charlatan from the Philippines who joined the US Navy and later became a broker as a civilian. He seemed to be hardened by his struggles on his way up and was violently abusive towards his wife Mary Ann. Andrew’s mother is a caring Italian housewife that was unfortunately married to his extremely harsh and manipulative father. She had depression and was further victimized by her callous and cruel husband as he continuously calling her weak-minded in front of their children.
Andrew was the youngest of his siblings. He was very bright and considered the chosen one by his father. Andrew was enrolled into The Bishop’s School where the well to do society children went and groomed by his father to be an entitled little brat. His father moved the family into a comfortable bigger house in an affluent neighbourhood, let Andrew have the master bedroom and even bought him a car when he was still too young to drive. Every night, his father would wise him up with books that teach Machiavellistic social manipulations. But one day his father just bailed after he got busted by the FBI for embezzlement.
Cunanan is a complex and tragic character. He seemed to have inherited both his father Modesto’s psychopathic personality and his mother Mary Ann’s borderline personality and depression mixed with substance abuse. Although psychopaths in real life rarely kill, Andrew seemed to have crossed the threshold. I would think the event that helped him manifesting his killing practice was the incident where he accidentally witnessed one of his elder male client being brutally murdered by another man. He realized a part of him he never thought was possible that day and started down a darker path.
Growing up with an unbalanced strong father figure and weak mother figure, especially after frequently witnessing his father demean and abuse his helpless mother, Andrew seemed to have daddy issues. He idolized his father and tried hard to please him by emulating him. Cunanan seemed to be in search of a daddy figure all his life and was involved with elder gay men at a young age. He seemed to get along better with older people than people of his own age as he himself frequently stated.
Cunanan was a highly intelligent and organized killer. Like Ted Bundy, he was young, curious, good looking, well dressed and articulate. He researched his victims meticulously, planned and acted accordingly to interest, entrap and kill them. He was extremely resourceful and was able to come up short term plans impromptu in order to procure needed items. However, due to his personality flaws, he was unable to gain sustainable long term friendship and loyalty. He was a pathological liar and lived a predatory lifestyle extorting his elderly clients for a life of convenience. Without a clear vision for his future and lack of the will to put in any real hard work, he drifted from one exploit to another with lofty dreams and lies of grandeur.
Unlike Ted Bundy, Cunanan was gay and highly emotional. Hopelessly in love with Madson and obsessed with Versace, Andrew was depressed and deeply unhappy in that fact that others do not share his love or passion in near equal measures. Watching all his dreams shattered in front of him, he was eating away by loneliness and drugs was the only substance that sustained his spirit. As a narcissist individual, he was incapable of self-reflection and taking responsibility for his own actions. Therefore, he resented Jeff and blamed his misfortune on him.
Amongst all Cunanan’s spree killings, William Reese and David Milligan were collateral opportunistic killings that provided him with the means to achieve his ends, namely transport and finance. Jeffrey Trail, David Madison and Gianni Versace are crimes of passion, the result of unrequited love, jealousy and rage. Of all the killings, Versace is of most significance because I don’t think Versace has the same weight in Andrew’s heart as Madson. He’s very talented, for sure, but he’s after all just another talented old man with power, fame, wealth and status. Versace embodied everything Andrew wants but could not have, a dream. Rather than having him, Andrew wanted to be him.
Deep in Cunanan’s psyche, it’s the fever of achieving the dream his father planted in his head that drove him. To Andrew, if he could not live the dream, there’s not much point in living. Being a nobody is not much better than being dead, it is intolerable. As a matter of fact, being dead and remembered is better than being a nobody. So not surprisingly, if he can not manifest the dream on his own merits, he chose to tie his name with his idol in death. And he succeeded, now, anyone mentions the name Versace utters the name of Cunanan. Just as his father commented in the last episode Along, his old man said he wanted the film title to be A Name to be Remembered By. It is hunting and resonates with the caption under his school yearbook Most Likely To Be Remembered.
