West of Memphis... aka Arkansas

*Spoiler alert*

I was in one of those moods, my brain was overcome with the desire to be enraged, horrified and then overloaded with facts that, even though I had no prior knowledge of the case/ conspiracy/ law etc etc, would lead me to make a definite decision that I would share with anyone who would listen. You are now the person who is listening and this week's documentary, West of Memphis.

So I should probably clear my prior statement up a bit first - No, I do not believe every documentary I see... I've seen films about the holocaust and films made by holocaust denialists so if I did indeed believe every documentary I saw I would be, simultaneously, a holocaust-denier and a holocaust-believer. Fortunately I do not, because that  sort of paradox would leave you crazy. I do, however, find some documentaries so hell-bent on forcing an opinion upon the viewer and so little time presenting their facts that you, as a viewer, just kind of get lost in a surreal world of marginal fact and bias fairy-tales... sort of like The Sun, or Piers Morgan. Whichever makes you less nauseous I guess.

I have been wanting to see West of Memphis for a while, I never saw the Paradise Lost saga but I read the Milton book so I think I have that pretty much covered. West of Memphis, for those of you who haven't heard of Johnny Depp or Eddie Vedder, is the harrowing case of the West Memphis Three (not to be confused with the West Memphis Free, which they later became known as - it saved a lot of PR work, re-branding etc...) who at the ages of 16, 17 & 18 were convicted of the murder of three 8 year old boys in Arkansas. The case against them... being a Goth, Hillbilly and "Just plain stupid" - outsiders, "AHHHH SCARY". There's no evidence, no motive, no nothing... except Forrest Gump rats on them because he a) is manipulated by the Police or b) forgot that it was supposed to be a secret and accidentally told everyone (ahhh shit - it happens!)

So Johnny Depp and Eddie Vedder and that Nazi guy from Sons of Anarchy decide to put on a concert to promote the case and raise money to get those three young roustabouts out of prison. I trivialise their efforts even though they literally saved three people's lives - kudos! However Henry Rollins' frequent reference to his own similarities to the West Memphis Three left me confused and concerned that he was actually just confessing that he was one of the West Memphis Three but had maybe got a double to stand in for him, you know so he could carry on with his movie career and stuff... sort of like when they changed the actress who played Mrs Banks from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Like we weren't going to notice that!

Stop! Back to the film....

Although the film does speculate significantly, and I did find myself walking away from it determined that I knew who the killer was, it was still a excellent compilation of fact, celebrity, dramatic sound scoring and powerful portrait shots. Joking aside, it was an extremely powerful film, one that left me feeling genuinely concerned about the judicial system not just in the US but all over the world... no one is safe from the LAW! 

An additional plus for this film is that it ends on a sort-of happy note which, compared to most documentaries I find myself watching, is a pleasant rarity.