Excerpt taken from my SXSW review:
"What Keith Maitland has created in "Tower" is a singular technical achievement, but also, for its first hour or so, a bracing indictment of quite possibly the very beginning of the mass shooting phenomenon that is still occurring to this very day in the United States. Maitland creatively combines still photos, 8mm footage from the tragedy, and rotoscopic animation, much like Linklater's "Waking Life" to create a fully fleshed-out depiction of that fateful day in 1966 when a lone gunmen rode an elevator to the 22nd floor in the University of Texas tower and started randomly shooting at innocent by-standing students and staff. It feels like the most visceral action movie in quite some time, but also showcases an immaculate example of true heroism. Although its last half hour doesn't come through as expected and the film changes its tune dramatically by looking at the aftermath of the event, the first hour is well worth a watch. "