I am sure there was a film which appeared between 20 and 35 years ago,
in which a sniper killed victims at random in a manner similar to the
current horror in Washington and Maryland. Can anyone remember which
film that was?

Hi keano,

Given the time frame and plot, the most likely candidate is "Dirty
Harry", released 31 years ago in 1971. Although probably best known
for the immortal Clint Eastwood, "Go ahead, make my day" and "Do I
feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?" lines, the plot of "Dirty Harry"
revolves around Detective "Dirty" Harry Callahan's attempts to capture
a skillful sniper who is randomly killing San Francisco citizens. The
murderer was (very) loosely based on San Francisco's Zodiac Killer who
terrorized the city during the late `60s, and who was never officially
captured.

More info on "Dirty Harry" can be found at the Internet Movie Database
at...

http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0066999

This is a less likely candidates but another non-war sniper movie made
in the `70s  is "Two-Minute Warning" (1976) "A psychotic man, armed
with a hunting rifle and acting alone, goes on a sniping spree and is
hunted by the police and a SWAT team."

Even probably less likely are these "made for television" sniper
movies released during the 70s.

- "Nightmare" (1974) "A murder witness can't convince the police that
the killer lives in the apartment across the courtyard from him,
realizes he is the sniper's next victim."

- "Winter Kill" (1974) "Someone is shooting the residents of a
mountain resort town. Sheriff McNeill (Andy Griffith) must figure out
the connection that links the victims and find the sniper before he
(or she) kills again, and before the town council relieves him of
duty."

I've confined my answer, as I said to "likely" candidates, as I said.
You can look at my full IMD sniper movie (as titles) search through
this link...

http://us.imdb.com/Tsearch?sniper

I also tried plot searches which also revealed essentially the same
results.

Search strategy "sniper" at the Internet Movie Database
http://us.imdb.com

rico

---

Clarification of Answer by rico-ga on 09 Oct 2002 10:14 PDT

My researcher friend and colleague, the notorious pinkfreud, pointed
me to yet another movie that may fit the bill, "Targets" (1968) based
on the Charles Whitman case.  More info on "Targets" can be found
here...

http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/notorious1/targets.html

... and gain, at the IMD at...

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0063671

regards,

rico

Here's one more that just sneaks in under your 20- to 35-year
parameter.  It's "Targets" (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich and
starring the *great* Boris Karloff.  Haven't seen it but it's now on
my list.

http://us.imdb.com/Details?0063671

Google search criteria:
"movie" "based on Charles Whitman"

"A girl brings home her latest boyfriend to meet her parents. This is
done against the background of random shootings that had just begun in
NYC at the time the play was written. How the family's failings are
magnified by the social confusion of the times is the crux of the
plot."
"I read Jules Ffeifer's play a few years ago and was struck at how
brilliant it was, a superb mixture of pitch black comedy and biting
social commentary it remains to be one of the most seminal plays of
the late sixties/early seventies."
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0067350

You might want to look through this list:
http://us.imdb.com/List?tv=on&&keywords=sniper&&heading=19;sniper