A very good movie

Since I heard some pretty good things about this flick and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Of course, I had heard of the West Memphis Three (I have even watched ‘Devil’s Knot’ which was probably one of Atom Egoyan’s weakest directorial efforts) but I haven’t watched the ‘Paradise Lost’ trilogy (on the other hand, I’m not sure if I would need to watch 7 hrs on this topic) but, with this documentary, they covered pretty much the whole case so if you would watch only one movie, it would be the best option. Anyway, it was such a heartbreaking story, not only 3 young boys were brutally murdered but also 3 other young boys had to spend 20 years in jail for a crime they obviously didn’t commit. While watching this movie, I was thinking about some fictional crime shows I have been watching like ‘True Detective’ when you get to see some incredibly smart detectives but I think that, in reality, many (most?) police officers involved in such cases are actually vastly incompetent. I mean, even though it was a wild story in the media in the 80’s and 90’s, the whole satanic angle has been debunked by the FBI, it was actually never a thing. Anyway, it was quite ridiculous how they went for this and the locals completely eat it up. Then, there was the fact that they had no evidence whatsoever, that at least one of them had 5 people testifying he was not  even near this area and, finally, that they coerced a confession from the weakest minded of them after interrogating him for hours. The only thing that didn’t really work for me was the focus on Terry Hobbs’s possible guiltiness which was, in my opinion, rather inappropriate. I’m not saying that Hobbs couldn’t have possibly did it but the evidence against him was too thin in my opinion. Above all, the bulk of what they had against him was some testimonies of people talking about him and what happened almost 20 years after the fact. Basically, just like with the West Memphis Three, these testimonies were just not reliable at all (seriously, don’t ask my ex-wife what I might have done 20 years ago… She might tell you the most terrible stories) and I’m really surprised that they went down this road. In fact, even though it was barely mentioned in this movie, a similar thing already happened to John Mark Byers who also became a suspect at some point during the 2000’s. Anyway, to conclude, this movie was another proof that the judicial system in the US is pretty much a joke, especially if you are poor and this movie is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject. 

8/10