Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky – 2011 – USA 
  

Berlinger & Sinofsky’s groundbreaking and incredibly influential Paradise Lost films – (the first two installments came in 1996 and 2000 respectively) – have become with this third film something like an epic documentary cycle almost comparable to Michael Apted’s Up series.  As with the murder trial that sparked the first film, here again it was a real-life event that justified a new one; the recent release of the West Memphis 3 – Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley – from prison after 17 years, serving time for a crime for which there is no hard evidence against them.  This release was organized by the State of Arkansas as a cover-up for its incompetent legal system; the deal essentially grants them freedom in exchange for a technical guilty plea, which preserves the life of Echols, who was on death row.  Like the McMartin preschool case of a few years earlier, this was an instance of moral panic railroading several kids on the basis of little more than their penchant for dark clothes and hard rock.  While the case itself is no less fascinating and disturbing than it’s ever been, this film is probably the weakest of the trilogy.  It is a little self-aggrandizing, having much to say about the role the earlier films played in keeping interest in the case alive.  No mention is made, or apology offered, regarding John Mark Byers, (father of one of the victims), who was a primary villain of the first two films but has since been vindicated to some extent and generally seems much less nutty.  But these are minor complaints, and the only thing I can really hold against the film is this very unsubtle aging effect used on footage from the earlier films.  It’s all scratchy and grainy, looking more like someone’s home movie footage from the 60s or 70s.  What a ridiculous and patronizing gimmick to use in such a sober documentary.  I have no idea whose idea that was or why anyone thought it wouldn’t just come off as incredibly obnoxious.  Other than that, though, the film works fine as a piece of crusading journalism.  It’s nearly impossible not to share the WM3’s relief at being free combined with the sheer aggravation at not being officially exonerated.