Lost Again

Several weeks back, I wrote about an HBO documentary I watched, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. It told the story of three teenagers on trial for the brutal murders of three young boys in a small Arkansas town. The film presented a compelling case for the teenagers' innocence, made all the more poignant by the end, as all of them are convicted and sentenced with scant evidence and a surplus of emotion.

A few years later, the same crew went back in to make a follow-up documentary, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. The subtitle is a bit of a misnomer, as the film doesn't actually deliver much in the way of new revelations about the case. But what it does deliver is a very different treatment of the material that stands apart as separate from and interesting in comparison to the original.

One major difference is that the three young men are featured much less in this film than the original. This is of necessity, of course -- they are now imprisoned, and access to them is much more limited. Even though an appeal is in progress as this second film is being made, the documentary cameras are barred from the courtroom. Where the first movie gives us a front-row seat to events, this story is told at a greater distance, as we watch events outside the courthouse, and sit in on interviews involving other people surrounding the case.

Two people become more of a focus in this film that were minor "characters" in the first. One is the stepfather of one of the murdered boys. He came across as quite the freak show in the first documentary. Here, he's presented as a full-on candidate for "the real killer." And whether you believe that or not, the film "entertains" (if that's not too ghastly a word to use, given the real-life context) on the strength of how crazed a character he is.

Second, the film focuses on one of the defense attorneys from the original trial. Five years on, he is the only lawyer still actively working on the case and trying to secure an acquittal for his client. He's still turning over new stones, working on the case without compensation. The film tracks his efforts as he works with new experts, motivated to help him in part because of the original documentary, and you really find yourself rooting for him.

Speaking of people motivated by the original documentary, this film also devotes time to a group of people who have organized under the "Free the West Memphis Three" banner upon seeing that first film. They provide another interesting voice here. They articulate many of the things that you find yourself thinking as you watch both this film and the original. And yet for all their determination, you feel frustration as there seems to be very little they can actually do. It's an interesting texture unlike anything from the first documentary.

In all, I'd say this second film isn't quite as compelling as the first, but I found it still very much worth watching. I rate it a B-.