Despite manifest flaws, the first two installments radiated passion and curiosity the third speaks of exhaustion and compunction, of a job that needed to be finished. But the new film, despite the astounding story it tells, is the most conventional, least urgent and, cinematically, the least interesting of the three. Sinofsky and HBO have been celebrated, by some, for their roles in focusing attention on the case in two previous films (“Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills” in 1996 and “Paradise Lost 2: Revelations” in 2000), and “Purgatory” is on the shortlist of documentaries being considered for an Oscar nomination. It sits on the shoulders of the filmmakers just as it does on parents, judges, law enforcement officials and the West Memphis Three, the men who spent those years in prison, convicted of the murders, before being freed last summer.
He is the co-director, with Joe Berlinger, of the documenta&”173 ries Brother’s Keeper (92), Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (96), Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (00), Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (03) and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (11).Watching “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s third documentary for HBO about the 1993 murders of three children in West Memphis, Ark., you can feel the weight of more than 18 years bearing down. He is the co-&”173 director, with Bruce Sinofsky, of the documentaries Brother’s Keeper (92), Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (96), Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (00), Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (03) and Paradise Lost3: Purgatory (11).īruce Sinofsky was born in Boston. Joe Berlinger was born in Boca Raton, Florida. As the case awaits a new hearing, the film forces viewers to re-examine their own prejudices and think carefully before jumping to conclusions. New DNA evidence points away from Byers to another, previously neglected suspect. In Paradise Lost 3, old perceptions are called into question yet again. Although Byers was never prosecuted, many viewers of Paradise Lost 2 came away convinced that he must be the real killer. Byers drew suspicion over his criminal record, a history with weapons and a wife who died from mysterious causes. In Paradise Lost 2, the filmmakers docu&”173 mented accumulating evidence against an alternate suspect, Mark Byers, the step&”173 father of one of the murder victims. The film attracted support from high-profile figures such as Metallica, Eddie Vedder, Johnny Depp and Natalie Maines, who have helped raise funds for a new investigation. When HBO broadcast Paradise Lost, many viewers were troubled by the prosecution and inspired to create a legal defence group. They made conve&”173 nient scapegoats for a legal establishment under pressure to deliver a guilty verdict. were sensationally depicted in the media as satanic cult followers. The first Paradise Lost chronicled how the accused teenagers - Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. Paradise Lost 3 supplies ample background for those unfamiliar with the murders, revealing new testimonies and turnabouts that are as rivet&”173 ing as any detective story. Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky followed the case from its beginning and made two previous films that galvanized support for the accused. The teenagers - known as the West Memphis Three - steadfastly maintained their innocence, yet they were convicted and remain in prison, one of them on death row. In 1993, three teenagers were accused of killing three younger boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory opens a new chap&”173 ter in an eighteen-year-old murder case that has become an iconic example of a legal witch hunt. Description from TIFF 2011 catalog by Thom Powers:
0 kommentar(er)
