The Movie:
I have yet to have children of my own and, therefore, cannot
even imagine what it must have felt like for the parents of Steve
Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers to first hear of the
brutal, unimaginable crimes that were perpetrated upon their
children. I've lost many people in my family, but the pain that
one must feel for the loss of a parent or child is something that
I cannot even begin to fathom. That being said, West Memphis,
Arkansas not only experienced an absolutely heinous crime with
the triple murder of those three 8-year-old boys, but that very
crime also spurred one of the most controversial, intriguing, and
widely-talked-about trials since the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.
The impetus for all this controversy and public attention? The
arrest of three local teenagers with a penchant for wearing black
and listening to heavy metal music, and the accusation that Jesse
Misskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin killed the three
8-year-olds as part of a Satanic ritual. All this with little or
no evidence actually linking the teenagers to the crime.
Enter
filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Given an
unbelievable amount of access to the participants, crime scene
evidence, and all other areas of the case, Berlinger and Sinofsky
craft one of the most critically revered documentaries in recent
cinematic history. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin
Hood Hills pulls absolutely no punches throughout its
two-and-a-half-hour runtime, and takes the viewer through just
about every aspect of the macabre tale of the West Memphis Three.
From the very first moments of the film, we see just how far the
filmmakers are willing (and allowed) to go as they show the nude
bodies of the three victims exactly as they were found at the
crime scene. Right from the start we see that Berlinger and
Sinofsky mean business, and that this is not a film for the faint
of heart. Even for someone without children of his or her own,
the grisly details of the case are often difficult to watch.
Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival,
Paradise Lost went on to win a Peabody Award, the
National Board of Review's prize for Best Documentary, and an
Emmy®. Not to mention the fact that the film has amassed an
enormous cult following in the years since its release. My
guess is that Paradise Lost has won all these accolades
and recognition not just because it's a great film (it is
a great film), but also because it is an incredibly important
film.
Rather
than create your typical by-the-numbers crime documentary,
Berlinger and Sinofsky craft a film that presents a West Memphis
public hungry to put three young outsiders behind bars for a
crime they may, or may not, have committed. They give Misskelley,
Echols, and Baldwin a soul by allowing them to speak for
themselves. They give the three teenagers a heart by giving them
the time to develop in front of the camera. And, perhaps most
importantly, they give the accused youngsters a glimmer of hope
by allowing them to tell their side of the story. Instead of
painting Misskelley, Echols, and Baldwin as three ragtag kids
that wear all black while listening to Metallica, practicing
Wicca, and performing Satanic rituals in their parents'
backyards, the filmmakers show the teenagers as people who –
although, yes, they liked to wear all black, listen to Metallica,
and had an interest in the Wicca religion – had girlfriends,
had gone to church, and were very possibly easily coerced into
offering up a quick confession. Berlinger and Sinofsky do what
the residents of West Memphis had failed to convey to the public;
they showed the teenagers as human beings rather than
the monsters that most people made them out to be.
Now,
I don't want you to get the wrong impression by what I'm saying
here. I absolutely do not know if Jesse Misskelley, Damien
Echols, and Jason Baldwin murdered and mutilated those three
8-year-old boys. I do not profess to know that the accused
teenagers are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, not guilty of the
heinous crimes for which they've been incarcerated. That's not really my point here anyway. My point is that what put those
three teenagers behind bars (and, for Damien Echols, on Death
Row) was not good hard evidence, quality prosecution, or great
police work. What put Misskelley, Echols, and Baldwin behind bars
was something far more horrible than any simple miscarriage of
justice. What made them into the Monsters of West Memphis and
what put them in jail for the rest of their lives was simple,
unadulterated intolerance. After the despicable triple murder in
West Memphis, the police and the people of the small Arkansas
town needed someone to be held accountable for the crime. The
easiest target: three outsider teenagers that are
"different" than everyone else. It's been said many
times that people often fear what they don't understand, and this
very fact is what landed the West Memphis Three in jail. Their
black clothes, love of heavy metal music (especially Metallica),
interest in alternative religions, and disinterest in the
"normal" teenage activities made Misskelley, Echols,
and Baldwin an easy target for a bloodthirsty group of intolerant
people.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky use Paradise Lost as a
way to combat this intolerance, at least as best they can, by
showing the public the entire picture. And when one sits back and
takes it all in, the injustice served to these three teenagers is
astounding. The lack of evidence. The rush to judgment. The
preconceived notions of what "normal" really is for a
teenage boy. It's all there in plain sight when you really look
for it. Since the film's release, the West Memphis Three have
garnered support from all types of people including celebrities
such as Henry Rollins, Jack Black, Margaret Cho, and Stephen
King, and there have been numerous fundraising concerts, books,
and CDs produced. Once Paradise Lost exposed the
injustice, the public support started filtering in and continues
to thrive to this day.
The
fact still remains, however, that no one knows the real truth but
the perpetrators of these horrible murders. I hope the evidence
needed to convict someone does come out, and I hope the killer
(or killers) of the young boys is brought to swift justice. Jesse
Misskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin may very well have
murdered Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, but
as of right now, there's no solid evidence to prove that's the
case. Everyone deserves a fair shake and a fair trial. These
three teenagers had no such thing and were likely put behind bars
for the rest of their lives because of their preference in
clothing, music, and religion. That is injustice if I've
ever seen it.
The DVD
Video:
Paradise
Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills is presented in
its original 1.33:1 full frame format and, despite being a
low-budget film shot mostly on 16mm, this transfer holds up very
well. There are a few problems, such as excessive grain in spots,
lack of detail at times, and some older faded courtroom video
footage, but most of the film looks much better than it ever has
before. Flesh tones appear accurate and black level is
quite good. Colors and detail, in some of the grislier footage,
are sometimes appear a bit faded, but it merely adds to the film's
ambience. This is, overall, a very good visual presentation, but
there is one glaring issue. The layer change is a bit of a mess.
Around the 1:30:00 mark in the film, the layer change occurs and
causes a noticeable pause. The real problem, however, is that the
film then immediately repeats about one minute's worth of
footage. At first, I thought it might have just backtracked to a
previous chapter or a minute earlier in the film, but after
testing the disc on three separate players it became clear that
this is an error with the disc. The time continues to run during
this repeated minute (making the film a minute longer than it
should be), and it appears that when the film picks up on the
second layer of the disc, that repeated minute must have been
copied not only onto the end of the first layer, but also the
beginning of the second layer. This isn't a huge problem
– it's certainly better than missing a minute's
worth of footage – but it is a slight annoyance that the
quality control department at New Video and DocuRama should have
easily caught.
Sound:
The audio on this disc is presented in a Dolby 2.0 stereo format
that actually handles the film's soundtrack very well. Dialogue
– clearly the most important part of this documentary –
comes through clear, crisp, and distinct. Each aspect of the
track is nicely balanced with the soundtrack never overwhelming
the dialogue or the few sound effects throughout the film. The
film's music – provided by the band Metallica – sounds
excellent throughout, although could have certainly benefited
from a bit more low-end. Pumped through Dolby Pro Logic II
decoding, Metallica's music sounded even more ambient and
enveloping. Though I'm not sure it's even necessary, it would
have been great to hear what a Dolby Digital 5.1 track would have
sounded like for the film. This track, nonetheless, does a fine
job of providing a quality aural experience.
Extras:
The
most substantial, and interesting, extra feature on this disc is
the Damien Echols Trial Testimony that runs
about forty-five minutes long and includes much more testimony
footage than what actually appears in the film itself. This
courtroom footage was originally shot on videotape and the
feature wisely includes a warning that states: "Due to
deterioration of the original videotapes, the picture and sound
quality are not optimal." While there are some issues with
the audio-visual presentation of the feature, it's not nearly as
bad as the warning suggests. There are a few video blips here and
there, but they never really distract from what is definitely a
welcome addition to the DVD. Nevertheless, this is wonderful
footage to finally be able to watch, and it's great to see
Echols's testimony in its fuller form without all of the editing.
We also have a brief chronology of events text feature
that provides the broad strokes of the course of events discussed
in the film, the theatrical trailer for Paradise
Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, and a downloadable
PDF file of the extended timeline and case updates.
Although they are also available for free download at www.wm3.org, it
would have been great to have the extended timeline and case
updates available as a set-top text feature as well, for those
who would rather explore all the features on their set-top
players.
Also included on this disc are text biographies
of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, a brief text feature
on DocuRama, and the entire text of the DocuRama catalog. A few trailers
for other DocuRama features are also included.
Final Thoughts:
A
groundbreaking documentary in many ways, Paradise Lost: The
Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills exposes the absolute
injustice dealt upon Jesse Misskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason
Baldwin as they were accused, arrested, and incarcerated for a
triple murder which there is no solid evidence to prove they
committed. The three teenagers, rather, were jailed because of
the way they looked, the music they listened to, and the
alternative religions they chose to study. Joe Berlinger and
Bruce Sinofsky do a superb job of crafting a film that not only
works as a straight crime documentary, but also functions as an
expose on the intolerance of people and the shortcomings of a
justice system that clearly does not always work. Misskelley and
Baldwin will never step foot outside of prison for the rest of
their lives and Damien Echols awaits his turn on Death Row. All
this without any hard evidence linking them to the crime. If the
evidence eventually surfaces that can prove their involvement,
then they deserve their place behind bars. For now, however,
listening to Metallica is not (and never has been) a crime worthy
of incarceration. In fact, it's not a crime at all, last time I
checked. One of the most searing and tension-filled documentaries
you're ever likely to see, Paradise Lost exposes the
truth about three teenagers who may or may not have simply gotten
a really bad rap.
Despite some slight problems with the audio-visual presentation
on this disc, the inclusion of nearly an hour's worth of extra
trial testimony makes this disc one well worth owning. New Video
and DocuRama could have really upped the ante with a commentary
track from Berlinger and Sinofsky or even a preview of Paradise
Lost 2: Revelations (for those who haven't already seen it),
but the incredible power of the film alone is easily enough to
make this disc highly recommended.
Related Links: Free the West Memphis Three
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