Directed by Amy Berg
On screen, miscarriages of justice often possess the same allure as a car wreck. As bad luck runs headlong into ill will, wrongs pile up, and lives are destroyed, viewers are incapable of averting their gaze. Given the injustices suffered by the West Memphis Three, its not surprising that theyve already been the subject of three documentaries: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofskys celebrated Paradise Lost trilogy. And yet, a viewers familiarity with their tragic story doesnt make this new telling of it any less enthralling or essential.
Skilfully assembled and fuelled by a muted sense of outrage, Amy Bergs documentary takes us from the wrongful conviction after an inept and corrupt investigation of teenaged outcasts Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin in 1993 to their eventual release from prison minus an official exoneration in 2011. As Berg interviews the accused, their advocates, and the parents of the little boys whose grisly murders incited this multifaceted tragedy, it becomes abundantly clear that the emotional fallout from the horrifying crime will never fully dissipate. There can be no closure.
And while theres much to cause dismay here primarily the unwillingness of Arkansas authorities to acknowledge their failings West of Memphis ultimately proves an uplifting experience. In part, this is accomplished by illustrating how an often apathetic public rallied to create the first crowd-sourced criminal investigation. Even more so, it comes from watching Echols grow from a petulant outcast to a scholarly, thoughtful Buddhist who, inspired by The Master and Margarita, refuses to lose his faith in humanity. Rather remarkably, this dark tale ends on a note of hope. Curtis Woloschuk
