Audio Reviews - West of Memphis - Audio Review

Tags:  movie review, audio, spill, spill.com, west of memphis, documentary

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  March 17, 2013 at 11:18 PM, Stephen Cary said ...

  Cyrus: You used the phrase "furious anger" in your review, so of course I couldn't think of anything but Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction" for the rest of it.

• March 17, 2013 at 7:08 PM, said ...

  I've been watching everyone of the documentaries on this over the years and its fuckin ridiculous how no one is going to be held accountable for this shit.

  
  
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  March 17, 2013 at 5:39 PM, Kelly said ...

  I know this story, I don't think I'd want to watch this because it would be too infuriating. I hate this kind of mob mentality where people are out for blood instead of truth of justice but use it as an excuse to feel justified for ganging up unfairly on someone or something, and this case is an ugly result of that.

• March 17, 2013 at 10:04 AM, said ...

  Movie pissed me off. Very frustrating.

  But i did have a nagging thing the whole time... Why weren't Echols and his pals screaming the walls down with their innocence? Man i wouldn't have been sitting there all cool and smiling.

  Great doco!

  
  
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  March 16, 2013 at 7:51 AM, Issac Valdmir Kojiro said ...

  Creepy thing, at the end when the trailer clip plays as it hit the part about the real guy being free and the childern laughing I turned a corner(listening on my blackberry) to see a bunch of kids.

• March 16, 2013 at 6:59 AM, stalksthemoon said ...

  @movieartman, the problem with that outlook is, what happens when there's overwhelming evidence that keeps pilling up that back them being innocent? Are prosecuters still serving the system then or their own agendas. Their responsibility should be to the truth should it not, and also trying to find the real culprit when they are possibly still out there? Sorry but when new evidence surfaces that pretty overwhelmingly suggests that they were innocent and they basically ignore it and still try to keep them in jail, that seems to support Cyrus' point of view on the situation more than yours. If you think these people don't have agendas than you're pretty ignorant to the world in general, no legal system is perfect, least of all ours. Sometimes we need reminding that this is the case.

  That being said, I do agree it is a little hypocritical of Cyrus to be ready to lock up Terry Hobbs and throw away the key over very flimsy evidence presented in a somewhat biased documentary. It is worth looking up some more information on the case, there are several facts the documentary leaves out. Everything is not as cut and dry as the documentary presents it, even if  I agree that there was enough reasonable doubt to look at the case again. 

  
  
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  March 16, 2013 at 3:43 AM, Jon Baley said ...

  Kinda reminds me of the Rubin "Hurricane" Carter story. With the exception that he was a black boxer in 60s New Jersey and these were a bunch of goth kids in 80s Arkansas. That and Carter has his own 8 1/2 minute  Bob Dylan song. 

• March 16, 2013 at 3:12 AM, Kyle Voltti said ...

  I wonder if either of you guys have ever seen the documentary After Innocence.  Had the most chilling moment I've ever seen on film of a prosecutor saying that it wasn't important that the guilty or innocent party was in jail as long as the system didn't appear wrong.

  
  
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  March 16, 2013 at 2:34 AM, Witherspoonfan said ...

  Atom Egoyan? Screw that film!

• March 16, 2013 at 12:53 AM, Rodney Hart said ...

  As someone who has been involuntarily detained in a psychiatric ward, I know how easy it is to be "diagnosed" and how vacuous their evaluations of patients can be. That said, I feel we're too ready to invest in the narrative of small town hicks vs. The precocious intellectual type. I don't know what happened. My opinion of Echols isn't evidence against him. However, I'm skeptical of documentaries backed by thr accused that just as recklessly accuse another man of the crime through the same type of innuendo as was levied against The Memphis 3. Likewise, suspicion against Echols and the others was more than just heavy metal and black clothes. It was alibis proven to be lies and demolished on the stand. It was apparent knowledge of details of the crime not yet released to the press. It was numerous confessions before and after their arrest. This, and their records read like serial killer cliiches in crime novels. Now either this entire town is conspiring against him and he's all too willing to look guilty or he had something to do with it. I don't believe in the Satanist horseshit and that small town gullibility poisoned the well as badly as the prosecutors calling OJ a nigger.

  
  
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  March 16, 2013 at 12:24 AM, said ...

  @TheDarkAdonis I can't agree, Damien Echols was someone I studies at length as an undergrad. He's a fascinating person and I hope he goes on to do some truly great things.  A lot of the material you are probably reading is heavily biased by the court appointed Psychiatric team.  These doctors are paid to find something wrong, and add evidence to a presupposed theory, they are not interested in the truth.  The problem with this case has always been, you can't punish someone for "being" a textbook psychopath if they've never done anything to truly prove that hypothesis.  Additionally, you can't trade righteous indignation for doing your JOB as a police detective.  

  After he was incarcerated a lot of the so called bizarre stuff Damien did was pandering.  Ok you want me to be crazy...I'll show you crazy.  Put yourself in his shoes for a moment.  He was at an age where rebellion in a small town was looked at as being something wrong or evil. Something happens in his community and all eyes shift to him and his friends.  If dressing like a goth and being emo is an automatic brand of guilt whenever something happens in some Podunk town lord help us.  Aside from acting like a jerk early on, the only crime Damien Echols' and his friends committed was being perceived as different by their UBER Holly Roller community.          

• March 15, 2013 at 10:19 PM, Rodney Hart said ...

  Damien Echols, by all accounts written and videographic, is a textbook psychopath.

  Even ignoring the 500 pages of psychiatric stuff including reports of Damien licking the blood from the wounds of other patients, you can find video on youtube of him admitting to liking the attention people give him as a child-killer claiming they'll "remember him for years" and he'll become some legendary West Memphis boogeyman children check under their beds for.

  This isn't a small town thinking Rock n' Roll is the devil's music; it's Charlie Manson: The Younger Years. Echol's reputation as someone capable of murdering a child was well-earned. I don't get why Hollywood is so willing to rally around such a guy even if he is innocent. He isn't the only allegedly wrongly convicted prisoner. Why not find one who doesn't come off like a humorless Freddy Krueger?

  
  
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  March 15, 2013 at 9:39 PM, justin whitman said ...

  you can really be be biggest fools sometimes, the prosecutors arent wary about re entering the case just cus of the fear that they where wrong, its the fear that they where right and re entering the case will set free Guilty people to murder and rape over and over.

  they are not only responsible for getting justice to begin with they are more importantly responsible for keeping the bad guys in jail so no more children get horribly butchered.

  IF these 3 where in fact guilty and after they get released they kill more people, more children all the bloody idiots that pressured for there release will be just as much at fault as them.

  and cyrus you idiotically saying that the 3rd new suspect is so obviously guilty they dont even need a trial, is EXACTLY the mind set that send innocent people to jail. Hypocrite

• March 15, 2013 at 9:26 PM, Dr. Detfink said ...

  I am going to be a betting man, say a good 2/3rds of people incarcerated have some kind of underdeveloped cognitive awareness and/or mental illness. In NYC, arrests have to be cleared at Bellevue, Metropolitan, Lincoln before they can be brought down to the station. STILL not the most effective system because of the sheer volume. I'm sure all cities today have a Similar protocol. Back then, there was NOTHING...due process was a guideline. That becomes important when it comes to confession, interrogation, knowing your rights... Again, I highly recommend Central Park Five. Hands down the best documentary of 2012. Sorry Sugar man. :) Why is it the best documentary of 2012. It is reflective of today's media where emotion is generated to BLIND the public from facts. Meeting those kids, now adults was one of the most profound experiences in my life.

  
  
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  March 15, 2013 at 7:46 PM, Rodney Hart said ...

  I've been reading some supplemental material on this case, mainly the official documentation of the case, and I'm not ready to just chalk it all up to lazy redneck cops and small town bible-belt zealots targeting the weird kids.

  Damien Echols has an extensive history of mental illness (there was a 500 page dossier compiled from it) and a history of violence (having attempted to gouge out another student's eye). Echols could have been scapegoat, sure, but he was certainly a hell of a compelling one beyond just wearing black and reading Stephen King novels. He reads like an FBI profiler's wet dream, not some offbeat teen going through a goth phase.

  The alibis presented by the accused were also conflicting to the point the defense attorney decided that not presenting their alibis at all would be less detrimental to their case.

  My point isn't that they're guilty beyond doubt. It's that I'd admit to not knowing enough about the case to passionately reach one conclusion over another or use this as an example of legal malfeasance. If I were a celebrity, I certainly wouldn't be among the many staking my reputation on it.

• March 15, 2013 at 7:29 PM, said ...

  So when some white people are wronged by the law, persecuted with weak evidence and later get exonerated, millionaires go out of their way to support them and they get movies and documentaries. Black people who deal with the same situation get a brief headline on the CNN ticker at the bottom (if even that). That's America for you.

  
  
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  March 15, 2013 at 4:21 PM, said ...

  Yes, cops and the Justice system in these places care about themselves and upholding the illusion of safety, security, peace, and justice often at the expense of actual safety, security, peace, and justice.  West Memphis Arkansas is a shithole little city with Memphis, TN right across the river being a big shithole city.  At least they know how to make good food, especially BBQ.  Memphis is the Detroit of the South, white flight, businesses leaving, really the only thing holding that city together after all of the political corruption and crime, is that FedEx is still headquartered there and it is their major shipping and processing hub.

• March 15, 2013 at 2:45 PM, said ...

  I heard about this story through a friend that had been keeping up with their stories over the years. She mentioned the HBO specials and said they were really good. We will unfortunately have to wait for this to come to DVD before we can watch it, as it is only showing in very select theatres across Canada. Great review guys!

  
  
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  March 15, 2013 at 2:41 PM, said ...

  Wow just wow that trailer got me angry and wanting to see this movie.

• March 15, 2013 at 2:41 PM, Alex Thompson said ...

  Haven't heard of this movie, but after watching the trailer now I have heard of this case.  Might be interesting.

  
  
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  March 15, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Jordan Cobb said ...

  I can properly attest being from the state itself, West Memphis is a goddamn shithole. I been following this for years and was ecstatic when they got released. Arkansas is a beautiful looking state with a boom film industry and scene here, we just have some the dumbest people making the wrong decisions here.

• March 15, 2013 at 12:27 PM, said ...

  Food for though for Spill guy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293593/Debra-Milke-Arizona-mother-sentenced-death-killing-4-year-old-son-1989-conviction-TOSSED--set-freed-unless-state-decides-retry-her.html

  
  
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  March 15, 2013 at 9:00 AM, Dr. Detfink said ...

  Saw Damian Echols with Henry Rollins at 92Y. Great talk. Must be Bizarre experience being fought over with celebrities and this reintegration with society. Loved his frank sense of humor. It's like, "Have you heard of the Internet? Blu ray?" Again, recommended reading. I thought the West Memphis Three and Central Park Five were the two BEST documentaries I have seen in quite some time.

• March 15, 2013 at 7:46 AM, Dr. Detfink said ...

  Great book. Can't wait to see this. Great string of Documentaries. Right up there with Central Park Five.

  
  

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