INTO THE ABYSS – The Review

The application of the death penalty in the sentencing of criminal cases has been an issue that continues to divide this country. A few months ago, at one of the many GOP presidential debates, the moderator noted the number of executions performed while Rick Perry was governor of Texas. This elicited gales of wild applause from the debate audience, while many pundits were shocked at the reaction. For his latest feature film documentary, director Werner Herzog traveled to that state to take a closer look at this divisive topic by focusing in on a horrific crime and the two young men who were brought to justice and met very different fates.

In the small, sleepy town of Conroe, Texas Michael Perry and Jason Burkett were found guilty in the death of Sandra Stotler, her teenage son, and his school pal. It seemed that Perry and Burkett shot the three for a few dollars, charge cards, and their almost-new cars. The two were arrested following a desperate shoot out at a gas station. Herzog interviews ( the film maker is always just off camera ) Perry as he is just days away from the lethal injection that will end his life. He appears smiling. affable, and ready to meet his maker although he still confesses his innocence in the actual slayings ( both men accuse the other of being the trigger-man ). Burkitt has received a life sentence perhaps thanks to a heartfelt plea from his incarcerated father ( he’s also interviewed ). Friends and acquaintances of the two men are also interviewed along with the prison chaplain and the man who must prepare the condemned for that walk to the death chamber. Thankfully Herzog also speaks with those left behind -the devastated ex-con older brother of one of the slain young men and the emotionally scarred daughter and sister of the Stotlers. She’s so traumatized by the murders that she refuses to have a telephone number for fear of receiving  tragic news once again.

Herzog has constructed a somber investigative film that has elements we’ve encountered in fiction films in recent years. The chaplain shares some of the beliefs espoused in DEAD MEN WALKING, while the death row coordinator is similar to Billy Bob Thorton’s MONSTER’S BALL character. I couldn’t help but also be reminded of Errol Morris’s THE THIN BLUE LINE which helped free Randall Adams from death row. There’s no question of the guilt of these two men, however. Herzog shows the injustice of the justice system in the sentencing of the two. He uses news reports, police crime scene video, and title cards to take us through the murders. The interviews are basically talking head shots against familiar settings. It takes a little getting used to the questions asked in that soft German accent and the subjects answers in their thick Texas twangs. Herzog is able to put them at ease and get great candid replies. He also likes to cut the sound and lets the camera linger on the interviewees in silence with the mournful score accompanying. At the end it seems that something is lacking in this film. We are never really taken inside the heads of these two men and helped to understand why they turned to violence. Perry is particularly an enigma. We never get to hear from any close friends or relatives. The film seems to be a more artful and longer version of the true crime docudramas that fill the network’s weekend schedule. The subject ( and the victim’s families ) deserve much more.

Overall Rating: Three and a Half Out of Five Stars