The Unabomber was Theodore Kaczynski, a domestic terrorist who sent several home made bombs through the mail from the late 1970s onwards.
Kaczynski was a mathematician and academic who developed a critique which opposed industrialisation and modern technology and advocated a form of anarchy which he developed as part of his manifesto.
His bombing campaign lasted from 1978 to 1995 and killed three people and many were injured. His devices were usually aimed at Universities and there were lengthy gaps between the bombing campaigns. He was only brought to justice because his brother recognised his style of writings.
The movie follows a fictionalised postal inspector played by Dean Stockwell who spent years trying to track down the Unabomber. Robert Hays plays the brother, David who at first gets on well with his brother and shares a passion of outdoor living and self sufficiency but over time falls in love with a woman and moves back to the city.
Tobin Bell plays Theodore Kaczynski but we only see him living in the woods in a hut and the film never tells us much about his character. Not for one moment you believe he was a former academic or what was about him that made what was regarded as elegant home made devices. You see scenes of him conversing with his brother but then they fall apart and become distant which happens off screen but its implied because of his decision to get married.
The film was made soon after the Unabomber was convicted. Its a straightforward if slightly fictionalised telling of the story in a movie of the week style. Stockwell is dogged, Hays suddenly suspects his brother but you never get much of an idea as to shy he suspected him in the first place.
The film does shy away from the graphic details of the bombings and places an emphasis on the victims of the Unabomber that were injured. How they were affected by his actions and subsequently rebuilt their lives which is good to see.
