Review of The Witness (2015) by Mark H — 25 Jun 2016

4 out of 5 stars. A sad and powerful documentary, re-examining the notorious Kitty Genovese murder in 1964 New York. Focusing on her younger brother's obsessive quest for the truth, it shows how one crime can shatter a family and haunt them forever.

What Kitty's name has come to symbolize is urban (specifically New York) apathy, when a New York Times front page story declared that 38 people witnessed her murder at 3AM in Queens, where she was repeatedly attacked and no one helped her. The story was picked up nationally for years and still confounds people 50+ years later. The public outrage led to the creation of the 911 phone number to call police in emergencies.

The film however, made over the last 15 years, undermines the NYT story, which was never questioned due to the paper's prestige and reputed mantle of truth. In fact most of the 38 only heard the murder and only a couple of people actually saw anything. One neighbor did shout at the man & another woman, a friend of Kitty's, ran to help, where the young woman died in her arms.

Kitty's brother Bill becomes the focus of the film in his search for answers. The family was so inundated by press at the time and shocked by her death that they turned away from the trial and coverage. Both parents died young shortly after their daughter's murder, plunging the rest of the family into years of grief. Only in recent years has the family closely examined what happened to Kitty and come to peace about her life.

Due to the apathy, Bill joined the Marines, went to Vietnam and during an attack, lost both his legs, so the film follows this wounded veteran, who returned and raised his own family, as he puts his grief to rest. He finds the witnesses, however few, still alive, reaches out to the murderer himself, locked up for life and talks to the newsmen who vividly remember the case.

If the NYT had not exaggerated the witness neglect, the murder might have just been a forgotten statistic by now, but that would have derailed the story. While not prosecuting the press, the film definitely condemns the exaggeration of heartless New Yorkers and gives inspiration that humanity does care. The film is worth seeing for its study of news coverage, lifelong guilt, what staying uninvolved can mean and how strangers do need to reach out in times of emergency to help each other.