Tuesday, July 8, 2014

West of Memphis (2012)

Director: Amy Berg                                        Writers: Amy Berg & Billy McMillin
Producer: Peter Jackson                               Cinematography: Maryse Alberti
Starring: Pam Hobbs, Damien Wayne Echols, Lorri Davis and John Douglas

This is an incredible documentary in the tradition of The Thin Blue Line. But whereas the former film was a true exposé, West of Memphis is more a summation of the case and a portrait of a criminal justice system still very much in denial. In May of 1993, three eight-year-old boys rode off on their bikes after school and never came back. Parents were horrified and families hit the streets as night fell to see if they could be found. But it wasn’t until the next day that they were discovered. They were found dead in a swampy ditch, stripped naked, tied up, and mutilated with a knife. It was a horrendous tragedy and the people of the community naturally looked to the police to catch the murderers. Because of the mutilations of the boys, one of the detectives who had been involved studying Satanist groups suggested that teenager Damien Wayne Echols, a known Satanist, be picked up. Not only was he arrested, but two of his friends were as well, and one of them, Jessie Misskelley, confessed to everything. The trial was swift and predictable, and the three were convicted and Echols sentenced to death.

What makes this film especially good is the way in which it unfolds, because initially it pulls the reader into the very conclusions that the police, the prosecutors and parents were making at the time. Juxtaposed, then, with the efforts of people to get the three convicted killers released from prison is almost maddening at first because it seems so unjustified. But then the facts begin to come to light. Lorri Davis began a relationship with Echols in prison and eventually married him. She assembled evidence and enlisted other people, famous people, to her cause and what they discovered was shocking. What the forensic pathologists who studied the evidence realized is that it was the turtles living in the water that caused the mutilations, not a knife. There was also a hair found in the ligature that was DNA matched to one of the boys’ stepfathers, someone who had not even been interviewed at the beginning of the case. Finally, it was clear that the police coerced the confession from Misskelley and did the same with other witnesses. In the end, there was absolutely no evidence, concrete or circumstantial, tying any of the three teenagers to the murder.

As stated earlier, this is not an expose as such. The Devil’s Knot as well as two HBO documentaries, Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2, had been released earlier. But what makes this one definitive is the participation of Peter Jackson. As supporter of the cause and a producer on the project it makes for a very well done film. It also has the benefit over previous films by including the resolution of the case and the fates of the three convicted men. Amy Berg is a documentary filmmaker from Los Angeles who did a remarkable job telling this story, not only in her use of existing footage associated with the case but the way it is presented to viewers and the quality of the new interviews. It’s not an easy film to watch because of the recalcitrance of the police who, to this day, refuse to admit their wrongdoing, and the judge who backed them up all along the way. Even the resolution is bittersweet in allowing the legal system to be held blameless in the documented and proven wrongful incarceration of the three. West of Memphis is not the kind of story that I naturally gravitate to, as true crime is usually too sensational for me. But this is a very good documentary and comes highly recommended.