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Well if you want to start a fight with your girlfriend. Watch this movie.
This is actually a brilliantly told story,and really well don for featuring both sides of the story. The rest of this review could probably be int he philosophy section. Anyhoo.
How can a documentary about a crime syndicate be two sided? Well the problem is, that is how we approach most documentaries about crime. Usually we already know that Ted Bundy and Charles Manson committed the crimes, and we are watching to find out how. So that is how this movie starts.
An affluent US suburb on a peninsula of Long Island is rocked when customs officials, following the trail of some child pornography magazines, find the owner also teaches computer classes to young boys from his home. The officials go door knocking and all of a sudden the suburb is racked when a bunch of little kids start coming forth about the terrible abuse they suffered there. There are some interviews with people, family of the abuser, and victims too, but its hard to like any of them. Somethings not right. But you follow the scenes like any normal documentary. Then there are some inconsistencies. The police say there were piles of pornographic magazines everywhere - but photos THEY took don't show any. The only witnesses who testified about the abuse are pretty screwed up characters, but this is a situation that you would expect to leave any one screwed up. But it all starts to unravel as you get further into the case. The son of the abusing computer teacher is now brought into the case, some victims claim he is much worse.
If this was happening in your neighborhood - wouldn't you do anything to make sure they both spent the rest of their lives in jail. But slowly, and cleverly,director Andrew Jarecki draws your attention to the gaps in the case.
And its a tough sell. Child molesters need to go to jail, for protection of more kids, and to stop others from doing it. But what if the cops were so intent on the idea of child molestation rings, that they made sure they found it? What if there one hole in the case was that the son had been there, and would bear witness that the father had NOT done any of those things. So they made sure the son was implicated? Is that possible?
The real crux of the matter is how the students were repeatedly and forcefully coerced into testifying. They started off not knowing anything about abuse, but the cops were intent on getting the information they expected from the kids, until some kids just broke down. Did little kids tell the cops what they wanted to hear to get respite? One witness admitted that he didn't remember anything until he was hypnotized, and to this day it is still so clear. But hypnotism has been shown to implant suggested memories as easily as uncover real ones.
The real bone of contention here is now about how you feel about a potential child molester walking free, but about the perversion of the US justice system. And that's why this is so difficult to talk about. If you shout for the side of justice to be served, others see you (indeed the whole community at the time would view you) as a pervert protector... So you can imagine, naysayers keep their mouths shut, while angry parents and community members rally their hate, anger and coerce and bully and ensure the Friedmans go away for a long time.
But is it right to punish anyone like that with falsified evidence just in case? If thats' true, couldn't it happen to you?
The toughest part of this case was the fact that Friedman himself, confessed to like young boys, and having crossed the line with two young boys in another incident many years ago - but this does not mean that him or his son did these terrible things to those children - but its such a sensitive issue - no one will talk about it. Until this movie. I challenge you to watch this with loved ones, and come out agreeing on what actually happened and what should happen....
score 8/10
kalaharilionresearch 20 December 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2722450/ |
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2-12-2019 06:54:56
