West of Memphis

 This is a good documentary because it shows the mockery of justice the original trial was. The cops coerced a developmentally delayed individual to confess, and then manipulated the confession until he said what they wanted him to say. Forensic evidence was misinterpreted and lied about, all to frame this killing as the result of a satanic cult.  Why people would believe that is a fascinating story by itself, (look up Satanic Panic) , but out of the scope of this review. Two boys were sent to prison for the rest of their lives, and a third to death row. For some reason, the case attracted the attention of famous people like Peter Jackson and Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.  Eventually they did enough investigation to establish very credibly that the boys were innocent.  In, the end, the boys were innocent and left out of prison, but the true killer is still out there.  Maybe it would be a good idea if criminal cases were periodically reviewed to see if the prosecutions original theory holds up, because we all know just because you convict someone doesn't mean you have convicted the correct individual. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Race to Witch Mountain

 While this film is not a great or even a good movie, it is still much better than the first two parts of this franchise. Those films take the idea of aliens with superpowers visiting the Earth and presents it in a monumentally boring way. This film sticks to a formula of an alien or two aliens out to do good, but being pursued by nefarious government agents. Dwayne The Rock Johnson does a good job in this movie as a character who is down on his luck, but with a big heart. He is, of course, full of charisma and this movie came out before both his body and his ego ballooned. He does lose fights in this movie. The special effects in the first two films were bad, but they were made around 40 years ago. The special effects in this movie are also bad, and it's only 11 years old. I think perhaps they wanted to release it in 3D, or they did release it in 3D and now the version we watch has very bad effects. This is a forgettable film with a few nice scenes, so it's probably a movie to...
Read more

Scout's Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America

 This is not a particularly well done documentary, but I think it is a very important story. It's the story of how the Boy Scouts of America hid abuse from parents and the authorities. It's also the story of how an immensely powerful organization is using bankruptcy proceedings to evade justice. It's also the story of how an organization can claim on the one hand that it doesn't have any problems with abuse and on the other blame any problems it does have on homosexuals. Because, the logic goes, if they can keep homosexuals out of the organization, they can keep abusers out. But that does not make any sense whatsoever. Just think about the logic of that argument for one second, and you'll see how flimsy it is. It's an important story, as I have said, but I think the history of it is much better detailed in a podcast serious called behind the bastards. So if you want it better understanding of this topic you would do better to listen to that podcast about the fou...
Read more

The Pez Outlaw

 This is one of those rare documentaries that would actually be better told as a fictional movie than a documentary. It's the story of Steve Glew who made millions of dollars smuggling Pez dispensers into the United States. Steve's story is interesting because he grew up very poor, and he discovered something which would ultimately make him wealthy, but then he got bored with doing that, and he wanted to be more creative, and then he crossed a line which he was unable to come back from. Also interesting is how Steve's nemesis is presented as this arrogant villain, but in actual fact everything that Steve was doing was technically illegal. So you feel kind of bad for him because he seems to be a sweet, good-natured individual, but on the other hand it was a completely predictable failure. So an interesting watch
Read more