Toilet Review: Retro “Making a Murderer”? Sure! Why not?
In each genre of movies, there is a movie that is often considered the greatest example of that genre. It typifies everything about that genre in a way that movies that follow it can only hope to emulate. It’s the movie that if you wanted to introduce people to that genre of cinema, it’s the first movie that comes to mind. The slasher horror genre has “Halloween”. The sci fi genre has “Aliens”. You get the idea. The documentary genre has “The Thin Blue Line”. Often touted as one of the best documentaries ever made, it sits in a place in the film landscape that was untouched for a long time. If you’ve watched the Netflix series “Making a Murderer”, its exactly like that.
The story focuses on the murder of a police officer in Dallas, Texas, in 1976, and the suspects involved in his killing. We meet Randall Adams, the man who was found guilty of this horrific crime, and the consistent failures of law enforcement to investigate other lines of inquiry, even when presented by what would seemingly be concrete evidence of Adams innocence. We also meet David Harris, a troubled young teenager in 1976, who eventually confessed to the murder of the police officer, Robert Wood, but not until 1986, and after killing another man. There is something deeply unsettling listening to Harris talk about Adams, and about how he was only blamed because Harris was there. No other reason other than that.
This movie forces you to confront the rattling feeling that perhaps justice doesn’t work for everyone, and honestly, if that is the case, how can we have a society at all? When the system fails because of ignorance, either pretend or real, prejudice or just goddamned laziness, the problems that we all face just became a little bit more concerning. Adams was jailed for nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. People all too happy to get their names in the papers signed up to nail a guy who did nothing more than offer a young guy a ride.
This movie has no voice over, no narration, no comforting title cards telling you updates or soft reassurances. The movie ends the same way it begins, with Randall Adams in jail with no hope of being released. This isn’t a flashy movie, there isn’t any cheesy graphics or weirdly interruptive sound cues, its just people talking about this murder and the man who did it.
It was only afterwards when I was researching the story to write this review, I came across the fact that Adams was indeed released from prison in 1989. He tried to sue Errol Morris, the film-maker as he thought Morris had profited from his life story. The pair settled out of court. Adams never received any recompense from the state of Texas for the 12 years that he spent behind bars, and passed away in 2010, out of the public eye, from cancer.
Yeah, cheery end. Sorry.
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