Director: Amy J. Berg
Cast: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley, Lorri Davis
Running time: 180 minutes
Plot: Based around the 1993 killing of three 8 year-old boys, this documentary follows the three defendants’ fight for freedom, based on an unfair trial.
As most documentaries go, 180 minutes can be hard to fill, especially if you’re dealing with a rather ‘closed-off’ topic. However, the story of The West Memphis Three is anything but closed-off – and WEST OF MEMPHIS makes for (at times) rather challenging viewing.
‘Starring’ Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, WEST OF MEMPHIS focuses on the 1993 killing of three young boys, and the eventual trial and charges that followed for the accused. At the time, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were charged due to their affiliation with ‘satanic’ rituals and cults. But as the last 18 years have gone by, people (especially those in the boys’ native Arkansas) have changed their minds.
Carrying on from PARADISE LOST (1996) and its sequels, the documentary is made up of numerous interviews, long segments of news footage, photographs, court videos and voice-overs, covering the last few years of the teenagers’ (now adults) struggles for freedom and justice. Produced by none other than Peter Jackson (LORD OF THE RINGS) and Echols himself, WEST OF MEMPHIS is not for the faint-hearted. The film uses footage and post-mortem photographs that were taken at the time of the killings, including using some rather disturbing images/video showing the bodies being recovered. However, if you can control your emotions for the 2-and-a-half hour running time, this documentary is truly spectacular. Bringing in some very intriguing points-of-view, troubling family history facts and some upsetting statements, The West Memphis Three changed the opinions of many people, with WEST OF MEMPHIS not only featuring interviews with Jackson, but also clips from Johnny Depp, Henry Rollins (of Black Flag), Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam) and The Dixie Chicks.
Proving that all is not as it seems, WEST OF MEMPHIS will open your eyes to the torment of not only the accused, but also the sad deaths of three innocent little boys.
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