Amazon Prime 1 - Paradise Lost (1996)

A quick note. I know the point of this blog was supposed to be me watching all the movies on my shelf, but that is not the only place where movies pile up for me waiting to be watched. When I signed up for Amazon Prime, I found an entirely new way to procrastinate about watching movies.

Now on to the review:

In 2002, Henry Rollins got together the various members of Black Flag and a group of singers (and rappers) including Iggy Pop, Chuck D, Lemmy Killmeister and Ice T to record 24 songs to benefit the West Memphis Three. Some time around then, I was browsing Blockbuster Video (yes, that long ago) and found Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. These two incidents introduced me to the sad and tragic events that happened in Robin Hood Hills, Arkansas in 1993 and how it tore apart the community and the three teenagers blamed for the murder of three young boys.

Paradise Lost is a documentary made by HBO right in the middle of the original trial. The filmmakers get intimate interviews with all of the people wrapped up in the fresh chaos of the murders including the victims' families and the convicted teenagers and their families. I don't know of any case that was captured in this much detail and from so close inside of the incident. Not to mention that this documentary ended up only being the beginning of a trilogy. Paradise Lost changed the way true crimes were covered and by whom. This was no longer just a local news piece. Now the entire country and eventually the world was following this small-town killing.

The story behind the Robin Hood Hills murders is that there were two tragedies. The first is the horrible, brutal and unfathomable slaughter of three young boys. The second is the awful way that the local police focused their investigation on a couple of teenagers who were different and didn't fit in. The cops and the community seemed to agree that only devil worshipers could have committed such a heinous crime...and the weirdo teenagers in town must be them. Damien and Jason were best friends that wore a lot of black t-shirts, listened to heavy metal and read horror fiction. Jessie, on the other hand, had gone to school with the others, but was a bit of a loner who has some ... developmental issues. I couldn't help but feeling that the police were praying on the three boys that were convicted, who in reality weren't much older than the victims.

Another hard part to comprehend about the way the cops handled this case is the confession that they used to bring the two teens in. The key witness was Jessie, who was known to be slow. The fact that the police were able to get him to confess to not only watching the murders, but in helping the other two teens seems hard to believe...especially since the details in his story changed several times. Throughout the film, Jessie is constantly referred to as a confused kid. Again, not what I would call a reliable witness.

Damian comes across as strong and confident outsider throughout the events. He rarely shows fear at his fate. He even seems to accept that his community is too ignorant to understand that he is just different. A pivotal point in the trial is when the lawyers try to prove that Damian is a satanist by analyzing books he had owned or borrowed from the library. These books were about Wicca and Aleister Crowley.

Jason, on the other hand, just seems like a metal head kid that is stuck in the middle of a bad dream. He doesn't seem to get why the lawyers think its strange that he listens to bands like Metallica and reads books by Stephen King. You can't help but feel bad for the guy as he nervously smokes a cigarette and waits to find out if he will ever be able to leave jail and see his girlfriend.

I can't help but put myself in their shoes. I think that is why so many musicians and celebrities tried to raise awareness of the West Memphis 3. I can relate to these kids so much. When I was their age I was listening to thrash metal, reading Stephen King and Clive Barker books, watching horror movies, playing role-playing games and had an interest in the occult. I could say this is true for many of my friends too. It could have been me and my friends going through this nightmare. Perhaps the difference is really all about where you grew up. It felt like these three teens were getting blamed for growing up in a town that didn't want to understand them.

Watching the documentary now, even knowing the story and the eventual outcome, it is still powerful. The filmmakers were bold in using actual news footage from local affiliates to show how the locals perceived the crime and court case. It is amazing to see the level of access the camera crew was given during the investigation and trial. They very effectively used this access to show how the families of both the victims and the convicted boys were affected by the circus that their lives became. A particularly poignant scene is when we watch the father of one of the victims practicing shooting in his back yard...while imagining that his target was the teens that the cops had taken in. You have to wonder if the men and women being filmed realized just how this would look to the rest of the country.

Overall the film creates a bleak atmosphere and uses the interviews, news stories and courtroom footage to create the narrative. This is backed up by excellent use of music by Metallica to help tell their story. I can't emphasize just how powerful it is to watch behind the scenes of not just the court trial but also the press coverage. All of the interviews and news footage show how so many of the people had made up their minds long before the trial even began.

It is absolutely mesmerizing to watch the events unfold and particularly heartbreaking to see just how many lives were ruined over these tragic murders. Knowing that this is only part one in a trilogy of documentaries that chronicle this case put me, the viewer, in such an odd point of perspective now. I knew that this was long from being over and that these families would keep suffering for years to come. I also couldn't help but think that this film caused such outrage in audiences all over the world that the West Memphis 3 movement would blossom in its wake. So many people, like myself, couldn't help but relate to these kids and be deeply affected by what they saw. This is such proof of just how powerful a documentary can be.

So yeah, this is an excellent if not disturbing and heartbreaking movie. I recommend it to anyone that watches true crime documentaries. Be warned though, the crime scene photos were so haunting that I had a hard time getting them out of my head.

Wikipedia entry on The West Memphis Three

imdb entry on Paradise Lost