{"id":2543,"date":"2012-12-17T16:31:38","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T15:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=2543"},"modified":"2012-12-17T16:31:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-17T15:31:38","slug":"west-of-memphis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2012\/12\/17\/west-of-memphis\/","title":{"rendered":"West of Memphis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
West of Memphis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 21 December 2012

\nVenues:<\/B> Key cities

\nDistributor:<\/B> Sony Pictures

\nDirector:<\/B> Amy Berg

\nNew Zealand\/USA 2012

\n147 mins
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A long haul, two-and-a-half-hour documentary that absolutely needs that length. Amy Berg’s film details the ‘West Memphis Three’ case from 1994, when three eight-year-old boys were found dead in Arkansas, in what was suspected by the police to be a case of satanic ritual abuse. Three likely teenage suspects were rounded up and tried. The film then follows events through the 18 years they spent in a supermax prison as clamour slowly grew to overturn a miscarriage of justice and set them free. The clamour first took the shape of the documentary Paradise Lost<\/i>, which galvanised the likes of Henry Rollins and Eddie Vedder into campaigning and fund-raising for the long battle, and, more pertinently, gained the attention of producer Fran Walsh and director Peter Jackson, who got on board to bankroll investigations to produce new evidence, and demolish the prosecution’s case. This is a Wingnut film, produced by Walsh, Jackson, and Damien Echols, one of the WM3.<\/p>\n

Considering that, West of Memphis<\/i> is fairly even-handed, giving voice to a fair few interviewees who still believe, or profess to believe, that the three teens committed the crime, but it’s clear where the film is coming from, and it’s difficult to argue with that perspective. The flimsiness of the original prosecution beggars belief: an alarmist conflation of dodgy ‘witnesses’, spurious medical evidence and the heavily coerced testimony of a borderline retarded teenager, it’s simultaneously blackly amusing and enraging to see it all torn apart. More enraging still is the state of Arkansas justice, where opportunities for retrial after retrial are denied for clearly political ends despite DNA evidence and new witnesses. One of the odder moments sees the campaigners praying for Judge Burnett’s bid to run for senator to succeed, purely so that he’ll no longer be in a position to stonewall.<\/p>\n

It’s a fascinating story, full of twists and turns, dark ironies and striking characters, and Berg’s film largely shapes it as a long march to justice. Ambiguities remain, however. The outcome of the campaign is highly unsatisfactory, a baffling piece of legal chicanery that means that the likeliest suspect (Terry Hobbs, stepfather to one of the boys) is never going to see a courtroom. There is a glossed-over element of the tale, when the makers of Paradise Lost 2<\/i> seem to have tried to finger the wrong man for the crimes, based partly on the same logic of the WM3 conviction (i.e., that he was kinda funny lookin’, being a mulleted redneck, rather than a goth). And we’ll probably never know what actually happened to those boys in 1994. It’s an indication of how weird and twisted the whole thing gets that the only time Terry Hobbs is placed on a witness stand to answer questions about the murders is as a result of his attempt to sue one of the Dixie Chicks.<\/p>\n

All of the key players are interviewed, and the unobtrusive soundtrack is by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. I wish I could say it makes the locale look starkly beautiful, but it really doesn’t, a polyester-clad trailer park hellhole of foetid water and barren scrub. But you only have to spend a hundred and fifty minutes there. I was never bored, it’s very much recommended, but viewers should be warned that it contains a lot of distressing forensic footage. And a scene where a snapping turtle attacks a dead pig\u2019s testicles. I’m not going to forget that in a hurry.<\/p>\n

This review was first published as part of our coverage of the London Film Festival 2012<\/A>.<\/div>\n

Mark Stafford<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a fascinating story, full of twists and turns, dark ironies and striking characters, and Berg’s film largely shapes it as a long march to justice.
\nReview by Mark Stafford<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[43,539,538,537],"class_list":["post-2543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-cinema-releases","tag-documentary","tag-miscarriage-of-justice","tag-teenage-murderers","tag-true-crime"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-F1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":282,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2008\/02\/01\/my-blueberry-nights\/","url_meta":{"origin":2543,"position":0},"title":"MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"February 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Deserving the lukewarm reception it got at last year's Cannes festival, Wong Kar Wai's first American feature is visually striking but disappointingly banal and unsubstantial. Review by Sarah Cronin","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema releases"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema releases","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/cinema-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6034,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/11\/13\/the-fear-of-13\/","url_meta":{"origin":2543,"position":1},"title":"The Fear of 13","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"November 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A fascinating storytelling tour de force and an ambiguous documentary about a Death Row convict. Review by Sarah Cronin","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Fear of 13","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Fear-of-13-594x334.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Fear-of-13-594x334.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Fear-of-13-594x334.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4470,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/06\/05\/the-sacrament\/","url_meta":{"origin":2543,"position":2},"title":"The Sacrament","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"June 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ti West\u2019s creepy slow-burn new thriller is one chilling, scary-ass movie with muted violence and no cheap shocks. Review by Greg Klymkiw","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Sacrament","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/The-Sacrament-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/The-Sacrament-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/The-Sacrament-594x395.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2010\/03\/02\/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats\/","url_meta":{"origin":2543,"position":3},"title":"No One Knows about Persian Cats","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Bahman Ghobadi's exploration into the world of underground music in Tehran is a welcome antidote to the blas\u00e9, pedestrian, apathetic state of the music industry in the West. Review by Lucy Hurst","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/review_persiancats-594x445.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/review_persiancats-594x445.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/review_persiancats-594x445.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2011\/08\/17\/silence-has-no-wings\/","url_meta":{"origin":2543,"position":4},"title":"Silence Has No Wings","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"August 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Kuroki's ground-breaking 1967 film, an elliptical, experimental, abstract and poetic vision, mixes genres, from documentary to road movie and spy thriller, with stylistic elements of the nouvelle vague. Review by Sarah Cronin","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/silence_has_no_wingssmall-594x445.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/silence_has_no_wingssmall-594x445.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/silence_has_no_wingssmall-594x445.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4202,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/03\/20\/jodorowskys-dune\/","url_meta":{"origin":2543,"position":5},"title":"Jodorowsky’s Dune","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"March 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Frank Pavich's documentary is as close as we're ever going to get to seeing what might have been one of the great movies of the late 20th century. Review by Greg Klymkiw","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jodorowskys Dune 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Jodorowskys-Dune-1-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Jodorowskys-Dune-1-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Jodorowskys-Dune-1-594x395.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2545,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions\/2545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}