Truly Dreadful Film

Admirable film.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Blistering performances.

This stunning documentary captures a mesmerizing and deeply touching courtroom drama that will make you shout out in rage as well as cry. And you will cheer at a man who is a real-life hero; an angry, chain-smoking warrior whose commitment and dedication to this case provide a shining example for how EVERY defense attorney should work when there is so much at stake for the accused (alas, in real life, real justice mostly seems to be reserved for Hollywood movies). This film will stay with you long after you finished watching. 9 stars out of 10.In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:imdb.com/list/ls070242495

This documentary certainly deserved it's Oscar. If you haven't watched this then you need to. It's incredibly touching and inspiring. It shows real corruption among the police and how social and media pressure can influence a person.It follows the defence of the accused in the case of 65 year old Mary Ann Stephens who was purse-snatched at gunpoint and then shot in the face, killing her.****Possible spoilers from here**** 15 year old African American Brenton Butler was accused of the murder and armed robbery of Mary Ann Stephenson, without much evidence to back it up.When the film first started it made the case seem simple. A black guy committed armed robbery and murdered an innocent white female tourist by shooting her in the face,then confessed. However when i saw Brenton Butler on camera for the first time i found he looked nothing like the character he had been portrayed to be. He looked young, innocent, sad and withdrawn. I kept in mind though that appearances can be deceptive and that just because he looked innocent didn't mean he was.A subsequent court case followed showing viewers how Brenton became to be arrested in the first place. Mr Stephens, the husband of the murdered women, identified him. A man who had just watched his wife be shot to death, who would have likely been in shock and who wanted justice for his wife.There was no physical evidence to tie him to the crime, no DNA, no gun, no other witnesses. The police admit they didn't follow up any other leads, look for any other evidence or do much of an investigation. Instead we see how Brenton was forced into signing a statement confessing to shooting Mrs Stephen after being beaten in the woods by a detective.Huge praise must be given to the defence attorney Pat McGuiness. He not only proved Brenton's innocence to the jury but went on to help solve the case months later when the police failed to do so. The police involved in the case were lazy, unprofessional and failed to do there jobs. Thankfully the true killer was caught a few months after the end of Brenton's trial.Hopefully films like this one will teach something to those in society that are quick to judge and condemn from only what is portrayed in the media and not from ALL the evidence and facts.One criticism i had was we didn't hear from the prosecution. It would have been interesting to hear their point of view and why they thought that the evidence proved his guilt, especially beyond reasonable doubt.

The subtext which usually emerges when simplicity is avoided in the telling of a morality tale is that good and evil are actually arbitrary. The fresh and shocking impact of this film is that the contrast between good and evil is sharp and clear. So rarely do we see that contrast today that we feel revived from moral slumber, even if momentarily. That's the essence of great storytelling.Had this documentary told a tale which took place in 1965, I would have thought the film's straightfaced, understated delivery to be somewhat unengaging. However, the fact that the story takes place in 2000 and within our modern police system, it makes for a devastating revelation. The characters are archetypal, as emblemanic as the point being made. Racism, indolence and ineptitude rarely find a stage where they can be observed so pure. We also rarely get the opportunity to watch good people shake the system into behaving the way it should. This film should not be criticized for it's simplicity of point and of it's characters - if anything, we should be thankful that such characters exist and have endured this ordeal. It is a necessary and important distillation of where we still are as a nation - powerfully principled yet terribly flawed. The film is one-sided, as it should be (innocent until proven guilty), and it is deeply moving. To classify this film as a "northern liberal's wet dream" (as one online reviewer has unfairly done) is to engage the cynicism which habitually complicates and frustrates communication of basic ideas; it smacks of neo-Hollywood. The undergraduate writer's urge to dilute good with poison and draw virtue from evil is not always evidence of genuine profundity. More often than not, it's simply cloudy and ill-defined values.

Hollywood could not have written this story. Thank God fordocumentaries! This story is the frightening tale of a young, unassmuingblack teenager who is wrongfully accused the murder of an elderly whitefemale tourist. The police are arrogant, corrupt and shameless. The prosecutor seemedalmost non-chalant in her pursuit of the facts and the husband of thevictim was a victim of his own grief and bias. The heroes are the family of the accused and the defense attorney. Thefilmmaker was so priveledged to be allowed into the home and church ofthe young man's family. The warmth of scenes in the family's church werewell juxtaposed with the sterile wood paneled cortroom. This film shouldbe required viewing at every police academy in the