Review of West of Memphis (2012) by Brad D — 31 Mar 2013

This documentary tells the story of the West Memphis Three, three teenagers from West Memphis Arkansas who were tried and convicted of murdering three children in 1993, a sensational murder case which put pressure on police, judges, and jury members to find and convict someone for committing such a horrible crime.

As a result of three HBO documentaries about the case, numerous people, from celebrities like Eddie Vedder, to thousands of others, took up the case of the three teenagers who were eventually found guilty and worked tirelessly to exonerate them and get them released from prison.

The film covers the crime, the trial, and the long aftermath in detail, though with somewhat less material than the HBO documentaries which are longer and more thorough. This film focuses on the experience of one of the three, Damien Echols, and also presents a much more substantial case against another suspect who seems far more likely to be the person behind the crime.

This is a fascinating movie about our society and what it is capable of doing through the mysterious inner workings of the justice system, where responsibility gets distributed among a vast network of bureaucrats and functionaries and accountability can be sorely lacking.

It also shows how those abuses can be amended with great effort, making that effort valuable and worthwhile.