West of Memphis (Amy Berg, 2012): New Zealand/ USA

Reviewed by Whitney Murdy. Viewed at the AFI Fest 2012.

West of Memphis follows the 18 year story of the arrest of three teenage boys for the murder of three 8 year old kids. Chris Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore were all friends and went missing one night until they were later found in the water nearby. The boys on trial were teenagers Damien Nichols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin. They were all charged based on an account from Jessie and no authorities were looking for motives because they believed the crime was part of a Satanic ritual. Damien faced the death penalty and the others had life in jail.

This documentary sums up all of the Paradise Lost series with a more enlightening ending with they boys’ release. Along the time in jail, others took notice of the case and began to rally the community together to free the “West Memphis Three.” With funding help from director, Peter Jackson, the film turns more into a promotional tool than in a story about the power of the people. Though he did aid in the help to free them, it still feels that Hollywood has a hand in everything.

One thing this documentary does do is shed light on the harsh reality of our justice system. They don’t promote a change but rather show a way for how the system should work. In their case, evidence was discarded because it did not fit the authorities simple profile and attorneys mistreated handicapped Misskelley into giving a false statement. The story is told in a linear timeline fashion with archival footage from the trial in 1993 and interviews from victims’ parents, Damien Nichols and director Peter Jackson.

The problem faced by the end of the film is that the West Memphis Three were set free but there was still no justice in the murder of those 3 boys.  There is justice in their release but not in a clean way as they had to plead guilty to be let out and were not declared innocent. West of Memphis spotlights how society valued injustice in the world in an almost 3 hour tale. Echols quotes Stephen King when he talks about how even through all this murder and horror, there is still good in people. The people of America rallied enough to open their eyes and see the innocence of these three. The real story is that mistakes from the beginning of the case could not be turned right and that is the real shame in the system.