Sundance #4: West of Memphis
Picture this…you’re sitting at home with 2 of your friends watching tv. It’s afternoon and you are 17 - your life consists of school, watching tv and simply trying to find yourself; the next moment, cops are breaking-in and arresting all three of you. After being tried, sentenced and serving time you are released into the World - 18 years later…for a crime you NEVER committed.
WTF?!?!
What hasn’t already been said about the West Memphis Three? A sad and disturbing tale of three teenagers from West Memphis, Arkansas who were wrongfully accused of killing 3 young boys in a creek bed in 1993. The public and Celebrities alike have all came forward asking for the defendants to be released but nothing was done.Throughout the three previous films on this subject all angles have been examined but one glaring side…
The West Memphis Three trials stand for lessons on prejudice, law school ethics and knowing when to admit that you may have been wrong, but what happens when those who defend the defendants don’t know what to think either .
Director Amy Berg’s documentary West of Memphis examines the crime and its aftermath, providing a voice for the victims’ families, including those with doubts about whether the right people are behind bars.
========
When growing up, I can still remember hearing the Metallica soundtrack to Paradise Lost playing softly in the background while I lay on my couch watching a disturbing story of the West Memphis Three trials play late in the Summer of 1996…and.I.was.hooked.
I have to admit that I really have no idea what draws me to this particular subject, trial or interest but it does. The people involved are all out of a novel, the subject is blown up larger than life, the setting of the small town, the wrongfully accused as pinnacles of what it means to be an anti-hero or the overall feeling that you are getting a peak into one of the first reality tv experiences.
Whatever the case may be I love it and I want as much as I can get….pack it in boys, I’ll be in the darkened theater loving every fps.
