WEST OF MEMPHIS – The Review

There have been many feature-length documentaries over the years that have explored the same subject matter. Docs about the Holocaust have almost become a sub-genre (and usually get a slot in the Oscar nominations becoming a go to entry in Oscar ballot contests). There have been several about different wars, particularly World War II and Vietnam. Many profile celebrities and music genres. Then, there are the true crime films. Usually they begin with the crime, follow-through with the police investigation, and conclude with the trial. It’s a popular format on broadcast TV with CBS’s “48 Hours” and fictionalized with the long-running “Law and Order” franchise. There’s also a few cable channels just devoted to these stories. It’s still surprising that one true crime story has inspired countless TV reports and investigations in addition to four (!) full-length documentaries. I’m talking about the gruesome murder of three 8-year old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas twenty years ago. Three teenagers, Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin, and the enigmatic Damien Echols (whose goth attire would fuel speculations that the killings were part of a Satanic ritual) were arrested, tried, and convicted (with Echols placed on death row). This was the subject of the “Paradise Lost” trilogy of films that started airing on the HBO premium channel beginning in 1996 (the final entry aired last year). These films outraged people around the world who believed that the trio (dubbed the West Memphis Three) did not get a fair trial. One of those outraged was New Zealand film maker Peter Jackson (of “Lord of the Rings” movie fame). He, along with partner Fran Walsh and director Amy J. Berg, decided to produce a theatrical feature doc that finally arrives in theatres now. The makers of WEST OF MEMPHIS luckily were on hand as the Three were back in the headlines last year.

Certainly much of WEST has been presented in the “Lost” trilogy (and the new doc addresses several points brought up in the previous works). There’s the flickering police video footage of the bruised, sliced boys’ bodies floating in the shallow,dank water. We view the local news footage of the emotional press conference. And then the arrest of the three with townspeople screaming as they are lead into the courthouse is presented. The frustrations of the trial are replayed with the young men shuttled off to prison after sentencing. WEST disputes much of the testimony (on camera a witness recants her trial testimony) and gives an alternate reason for some of the physical evidence. The marks on the boys’ bodies may not be from a knife, but bites from a vicious type of turtle (try not to wince as a researcher allows one of these “nasties” to chomp down on his arm). Much of the focus then shifts to Lorris Davis, one of the heads of the “Free the West Memphis Three” movement who eventually married Echols in 1999. She was the person contacted by Jackson and Walsh. The two film makers are interviewed on camera along with rockers Eddie Vedder and Henry Rollins (who organized fund-raising concerts) and footage of Johnny Depp from a “48 Hours” piece is excerpted. As the years pass, the pressure increases for a new trial with many of those involved feeling the heat as they seek higher office. Then the realization that Echols’s health is rapidly deteriorating. The time locked away has nearly taken his sight and may take his life. They begin to explore one option, the Alford plea,  an admission of guilt which would gain their release. But all three must agree to this. The suspense builds as Echols tries to hold on and stay alive.

The movie’s strengths are with those scenes of Davis gathering forms and signatures and conferring with new determined lawyers. On the other side we see the original prosecutors refusing to budge on some very flimsy evidence and testimony. WEST only loses its way as it points the finger at the “real” killer. Berg and Jackson dismiss the colorful culprit of the “Lost” trilogy John Mark Byers. For a good half hour the film makers scream “J’Accuse!!” at another stepfather. There’s some interesting interviews, one an eyewitness story that could be used in court and several “here say” stories which would be thrown out immediately, along with some leading, secret telephone recordings. The accused does come off as a creepy thug in the filmed interviews, but it doesn’t seem enough to convict. Aside from this sleuthing, WEST OF MEMPHIS is one of the better investigative documentaries made on a true crime case. It’s compelling and even uplifting as who see how the power of the public was able to bring these young men out of the depths of prison. They’ve been given a second chance. But there’s a shadow across the film’s final moments. Three little boys were brutally murdered 20 years ago and the perpetrator may still roam the streets. Their chances ended at eight years, and justice may be never be dealt for them.

3.5 Out of 5 Stars

WEST OF MEMPHIS screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas