WEST OF MEMPHIS (Amy Berg)

[Johann]

WEST OF MEMPHIS


This is one of the most beautiful films ever made. I just saw this documentary, which focuses on the West Memphis Three, three youths from West Memphis, Arkansas who were wrongly convicted of the deaths of three 8-year-old boys in 1993.
This is what the film medium was made for, uplifting works of Art like this.
This film has the power to change lives, and did in fact change lives, hell, even changed the Justice system in no small measure.
William Kunstler would've taken on a case like this.

This doc has extremely disturbing content, and anyone with heart conditions or queasy stomachs be warned.
The 3 boys who were murdered were killed with blunt-force trauma to the head, their hands and feet were bound, and they were thrown into a creekbed, where they drowned. It's incomprehensible.
But what a story this turned into.
You won't believe it, actually, what unfolds here. Revelations and shocking facts come at the viewer at a brisk but not overwhelming pace.
This is Masterful filmmaking.
Modern Master Director Peter Jackson got involved when he heard the story.
His insights and info is delivered with concern, reason, and profound humanity. It's not explicitly stated, but he funded a large part of the legal defence for the WM3. Henry Rollins speaks in the film, and seeing that album cover for the RISE ABOVE: 24 Black Flag songs in benefit for the West Memphis Three on the big screen was amazing. Henry got a few music industry Legends (Lemmy, Iggy Pop, Tom Araya, Chuck D. Ice-T Dean Ween and others) to do Black Flag songs and all proceeds went to the WM3. Buy IT. Henry signed my copy when I saw him in Ottawa last June.
Henry says that when a parent of a dead child has no doubt in their mind that someone is guilty of murdering that child, you can't reason with that person. And one of the dead boys' mothers is at the very center of this whole saga- I'm very interested to read other members' thoughts on her.
I urge everyone here to run and see this one. You will be moved in a very direct and very emotional and HUMAN way.
What we witness with this film is humanity. In all of it's horror, beauty, terror, love, incomprehension, mystery and awe.

I don't even want to say anymore until people here see it. I have a lot to say about it.
Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks helped to free these men on death row. You won't believe it.
Celebrities like Patti Smith also got the word out. This became a HUGE deal , with WORLDWIDE attention.
This film is the culmination of that journey to Justice.

Justice IS served at the end, and you will walk out of the theatre proud of your fellow man, moved, changed and a little more aware of how fucked and complicated the State level of criminal Justice can be corrupted in a way that is simply NOT HUMAN.

[cinemabon]

Here is some background on the film(s) as there are actually three documentaries on the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_of_Memphis

[Chris Knipp]

It looks like there are four related films but WEST OF MEMPHIS, a Sony Pictures Classics release, has gotten the attention. Limited US release Christmas 2012 but it is rolling out now through April, with calendar (http://www.sonyclassics.com/westofmemphis/dates.html)on the movie's website. Maybe I will miss it because its NYC run is over and it's Bay Area run will be while I'm in NYC. DVD may not be till summer. However a number of southern and rural venues will get it.

[Johann]

Thanks cinemabon and Chris.
This film is one I'm still thinking about.
It has seared me.

[Johann]

The State of Arkansas is not shown in a very positive light here. Damien Echols (who wrote a book called Life After Death) says the case, his case, of the West Memphis Three is not uncommon in Arkansas: bottom of the barrel white trash can go to jail for things they didn't do, as long as Justice seems to have been done.

I mean, the mother of Stevie is the mother I was speaking about- she is happy with the verdict on her sons' killers.
What she didn't know was that her husband Terry Hobbs did it. The things he perpetrated....My God. The film ends with leaving his fate uncertain. I'd like to know where exactly Terry is right now, today, in the Arkansas criminal justice system, because Lord Almighty he is one sick evil fuck. Tell me what your opinion of Terry Hobbs is when the film is over.
His wife is an attention whore. They exploited Stevie's death to me. They are on Geraldo. They are on talk shows. She wears makeup to the courthouse. There is lots of footage- from 1993 to today- of the trial, the families, Damian's prison phone conversations, letters read aloud- that is what Henry Rollins is reading on the soundtrack CD: one of Damian's letters from death row.

The judge who freed the 3 men was an idiot. He makes it clear in a cringe-inducing moment of embarrassing pandering that high-profile people like Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines made the difference. Eddie is interviewed and he says the judge did not have to say that. It wasn't Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks and Rollins Band freeing the WM3. It was a worldwide movement to see Justice be done, as Damian was facing death by lethal injection. He needed to be freed from a death sentence. They wanted these boys to have money on the day they were released from prison. And when their case was to be overturned, they had to be released IMMEDIATELY. No more waiting. That trial in 1993 was so shameful and unjust it is astounding. And the judge back then almost did not allow the case to hear new evidence all these years later- he just wants to forget it ever happened. Luckily he wasn't stopping Justice a second time. Political careers were on the line in 1993. Nobody wants to admit mistakes were made. Especially in Arkansas.

WEST OF MEMPHIS is extremely powerful, and I'm still thinking about it.
It only played for 3 nights here in Toronto.

[Chris Knipp]

The play/presentation in Lower Manhattan 2002-2003 by THE CULTURE PROJECT (http://cultureproject.org/highlights/exonerated/)("SHINING AN ARTISTIC SPOTLIGHT ON INJUSTICE") had a dramatic effect on me and on my understanding of the justice system. It was THE EXONERATED. Look at the Culture Project's web page for details. It consisted of a series of readings of testimony about cases of people who were wrongly convicted and incarcerated for decades, often on death row, only to be found innocent and released later. Usually different famous actors would sit in to participate in the readings. People of an optimistic nature like me normally have no inkling of the level of injustice perpetrated day to day by the courts.

Culture Project has now returned to its original home on Bleeker Street. All of its presentations have high political relevance. Another I saw was about Bobby Kennedy; another, about Guantanamo, HONOR BOUND TO DEFEND FREEDOM, based on the experiences of the three UK prisoners who got released; another, about Iraqis who worked for the Americans but could not gain American help to get out of the country, where their collaboration put them in permanent danger.

[Johann]

Great stuff.
The level of injustice is amazing. Not just in the U.S. but all over the world.
This documentary is expertly edited. Pay close attention to the editing- boy do they ever weave a story. And apparently they had 8 hours worth of material to show...

Johnny Depp and Damien Echols both got matching tattoos to seal their friendship.
Jason and Jessie are doing great on the outside. I'd love to meet all three and buy them dinner.
They have really great personalities, and they inspire me. 18 years of their lives were taken away and they are not hard-hearted.
That's a miracle.
Their story is a miracle, because they were dying in prison.