Advance DVD Review: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

In 1996, I saw a documentary called Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills on HBO. The film has haunted me ever since.

Paradise Lost tells the story of three teenagers who are on death row, convicted of the brutal, ritualistic murders of three second-grade boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. After watching the movie, I became convinced that the three boys are innocent of the crimes; that they were, in fact, convicted because they listened to heavy metal music, read Stephen King books, and were an easy target in a conservative and somewhat backward town.

As a teenager who grew up listening to heavy metal, reading horror fiction, etc, I could identify with the boys... especially one of them, Damien Echols, a boy who reminded me so much of my teenage self that I literally got chills.

Paradise Lost is one of the most powerful and dramatic documentaries I've ever seen, and the fact that it's been unavailable on DVD always bothered me.

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the film-makers behind Paradise Lost, recently had some serious commercial success with their latest documentary, Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster. That may be the reason why, thankfully, Paradise Lost is finally getting a DVD release. It will be available on October 25th of this year.

Sinofsky and Berlinger have said in the past that they went to Arkansas intent on making a movie about how three kids could have been corrupted enough to commit the ritualistic murders they'd been charged with... however, as they were actually making the movie, the focus changed. The film-makers became convinced that the kids weren't guilty of the crimes at all. It's interesting to watch the movie objectively and see that major shift a little over an hour into the film. I think the movie makers were wise to trust their instincts and not try to remain "objective" about the innocence or guilt of the teenagers. To have done so would have been fraudulent and transparent. Their film's focus and tone changes as their beliefs about the case change, and while the shift is dramatic, it's also extremely compelling. As difficult as the subject matter is to watch, it's impossible to pull yourself away from this movie after you've started it.

I don't just recommend Paradise Lost as an outstanding film, I urge you to see it for political and social reasons. I try to avoid doing that kind of thing at film geeks, but this is an exception. I hope that more people will become educated on this case, and that somehow, a strong enough public response will prevent these three boys from being executed for a crime that I don't believe they committed. I'm not saying this just because I'm opposed to the death penalty. While I don't support the death penalty, I'd likely not mention this case if I believed that the boys were guilty. I don't believe that Leonard Peltier or Mumia Abu-Jamal should be executed, for instance, purely because I'm opposed to the death penalty. I do, however, believe that they are guilty of the crimes they've been convicted of (especially Abu-Jamal, who's clearly a murderer), and I have no urge to argue on behalf of killers.

That is not the case with the West Memphis Three, however. These three kids are innocent. I believe that Paradise Lost makes that case clearly and brilliantly, and that the real murderer of the three young boys accidentally reveals himself on camera during the movie. It's really something fascinating to see. After one scene in particular, during which the guilt of another party becomes palpable, you'll find yourself wondering how and why that particular person was never arrested.

Please consider watching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills. I'd urge you to just by the DVD, the movie really warrants your purchase. The cheapest advance-order price I've found for the film is $16.17 at Deep Discount DVD.

I encourage you to also get informed about the West Memphis Three. You can read about the case at Court TV's Crime Library. These three kids are probably as innocent of murder as anyone, and their upcoming execution is a miscarriage of justice in every sense of the word.

One brief aside to my Christian friends... Damien Echols, the teenager I said that I could relate to, is a Wiccan. You'll find that out about him if you do even a small amount of internet research. No, for the record, I don't agree with or endorse the Wiccan belief system. However, I don't think that this kid should be executed for practicing it.... and as far as I can tell, that's the only thing anyone could convict him of.

  ¶ 11:16 PM