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Filmmakers in a search for justice
By David Germain |
December 30, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PETER Jackson owns the box office right now with "The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey," part one of his "The Lord of the Rings" prelude.
With the magnificent documentary "West of Memphis," Jackson reveals the results of his own unexpected journey, from New Zealand to rural Arkansas, where he and an unwavering band of filmmakers, artists and other dissenters challenged the judicial system and won.
The case of the West Memphis Three - Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, imprisoned as teens in the 1993 murders of three Cub Scouts - has become widely known through the activism of A-list actors and musicians who took up the cause, along with three "Paradise Lost" documentaries that called the convictions into question.
After seeing that first "Paradise Lost" film in 2005, Jackson and wife Fran Walsh stepped in, financing their own investigation and enlisting director Amy Berg (the Academy Award-nominated "Deliver Us from Evil") to chronicle the convoluted case and the new findings.
"West of Memphis" is nonfiction filmmaking at its best, a film with a fierce point of view yet one that doesn't pretend to have all the answers or a monopoly on truth. It beautifully blends the detachment of objective observation with the conviction of informed judgment.
The case shocked the people of West Memphis, Arkansas, where eight-year-old Michael Moore, Steven Branch and Christopher Byers were found naked and hogtied in a drainage ditch.
The suspects were convicted in part on a confession Misskelley later recanted, one filled with conflicting details that critics claim was coaxed and prodded by police interrogators. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison, while Echols was condemned to death.
Unequivocally, "West of Memphis" is on the defendants' side, characterizing police and prosecutors as either inept, deceitful, or both. Yet Jackson, Berg and their collaborators are nothing but thorough, providing detailed segments with witnesses who now retract testimony that helped convict the defendants and hiring not just one, but half a dozen, of their own forensics experts, who all dispute evidence presented by prosecutors.
After 18 years in prison, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were freed in 2011 after entering guilty pleas that allowed them technically to maintain their innocence. It's a triumphant moment in "West of Memphis," one that likely would not have come to pass without the efforts of the filmmakers.
The abiding image, at the end of the credits, is that of the other West Memphis Three, little boys who died horribly, for whom justice has not been served.
With the magnificent documentary "West of Memphis," Jackson reveals the results of his own unexpected journey, from New Zealand to rural Arkansas, where he and an unwavering band of filmmakers, artists and other dissenters challenged the judicial system and won.
The case of the West Memphis Three - Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, imprisoned as teens in the 1993 murders of three Cub Scouts - has become widely known through the activism of A-list actors and musicians who took up the cause, along with three "Paradise Lost" documentaries that called the convictions into question.
After seeing that first "Paradise Lost" film in 2005, Jackson and wife Fran Walsh stepped in, financing their own investigation and enlisting director Amy Berg (the Academy Award-nominated "Deliver Us from Evil") to chronicle the convoluted case and the new findings.
"West of Memphis" is nonfiction filmmaking at its best, a film with a fierce point of view yet one that doesn't pretend to have all the answers or a monopoly on truth. It beautifully blends the detachment of objective observation with the conviction of informed judgment.
The case shocked the people of West Memphis, Arkansas, where eight-year-old Michael Moore, Steven Branch and Christopher Byers were found naked and hogtied in a drainage ditch.
The suspects were convicted in part on a confession Misskelley later recanted, one filled with conflicting details that critics claim was coaxed and prodded by police interrogators. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison, while Echols was condemned to death.
Unequivocally, "West of Memphis" is on the defendants' side, characterizing police and prosecutors as either inept, deceitful, or both. Yet Jackson, Berg and their collaborators are nothing but thorough, providing detailed segments with witnesses who now retract testimony that helped convict the defendants and hiring not just one, but half a dozen, of their own forensics experts, who all dispute evidence presented by prosecutors.
After 18 years in prison, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were freed in 2011 after entering guilty pleas that allowed them technically to maintain their innocence. It's a triumphant moment in "West of Memphis," one that likely would not have come to pass without the efforts of the filmmakers.
The abiding image, at the end of the credits, is that of the other West Memphis Three, little boys who died horribly, for whom justice has not been served.
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