Directed by: Werner Herzog.
Werner Herzog wanted to make a documentary about
the death penalty in America – and in 2011 he made Into the Abyss, a stunning
film about crime, punishment, violence and poverty in America, that was for me,
the best documentary of the year. But before Herzog settled on the story of
Michael Perry and Jason Burkett for Into the Abyss, he considered four other
cases – and even conducted interviews with the offenders. Not wanting to waste
these interviews, Herzog decided to make four mini-documentaries, each 50
minutes long, about their stories. While none provide the depth of Into the
Abyss, all four stories are well told by Herzog and simply add to his basic
premise – that the death penalty is wrong, even for offenders who are guilty of
the crimes they committed. As he says at the start of each of these mini-docs
>As a German, coming from a different historical background, and a visitor
to the United States, I respectfully disagree with the practice of the death
penalty`.
Herzog tells each of the five inmates her
interviews over these four films that just because he`s here, it doesn’t mean
he likes them – or that he has any interest in trying to prove their innocence
– which two of them proclaim. He wants to examine their cases and what led them
to do what they do, and what the experience of being on death row is like. He
is not really making an advocacy documentary.
The first doc concentrates on James Barnes, one of
the only people who will fully admit to his guilt. He was convicted of
murdering his ex-wife in Florida, and while serving out his life sentence, he
confesses to the rape and murder of a nurse way back in 1988 – for which he
receives the death penalty. While talking to Herzog, he even admits to
committing at least one other murder. He is a serial offender, who has no hope
for rehabilitation. He led a troubled life as a youngster; in and out of
trouble from the time he is a teenager – who may have molested his twin sister.
Yet, he seems to value family – he wants some sort of approval, or at least acknowledgment
for his family. He tries to manipulate Herzog, but he sees through him. This is
the most disturbing of the docs, but Barnes is so clearly guilty, so clearly
evil – and even rather unrepentant – even blaming the nurse for her own murder,
although not wanting to disparage the dead, he refuses to explain why it was
her fault.
The second doc is the only one that concentrates on
a woman – Linda Carty. This is the strangest, most incomplete of the docs,
mainly because I do not think that Carty ever really levels with Herzog. She
remains evasive throughout, trying hard to milk sympathy out of the audience.
Her case is disturbing, because it involves Carty apparently hiring three drug
dealers to break into the apartment of neighbor, to steal her newborn child.
She tells the drug dealers that there is nearly a ton of pot in the apartment –
which simply is not true. Eventually, the young mother is found dead in the
trunk of a car, and her baby found barely clinging to life in a car right next
to it. Carty proclaims her innocence, and she does have serious, legitimate
concerns about her representation at her trial. But based on what I saw in this
documentary, I think she probably is guilty. But because she is so evasive, and
the case itself so complex, I do not think Herzog ever really nails this
segment down. It does have one of the best single moments in the series though,
when a prosecutor says it is easy to concentrate on the criminal, and forget
the victim, in these cases. That it is very easy for Herzog to "humanize
Carty", to which Herzog very bluntly replies “I do not make an attempt to
humanize her. She is simply a human being, period”, which is one of the
underlying points to this series by Herzog – the people who commit these crimes
may have done evil things – but they are all still human.
Next up is two of the infamous Texas Seven, inmates
serving out life sentences in a Texas penitentiary, who inexplicably were able
to escape from prison. They didn’t kill anyone getting out of the prison, and
survived for weeks on end on the run. One night, while robbing a sporting goods
store, they do kill a police officer – for which all are sentenced to death
when they are caught. The segment starts with Joseph Garcia, sentenced to 30
years for a murder, which he claims self-defense, who had no part in the murder
of the police officer – he was shot outside, while he was still inside the
store, but because his co-conspirators committed the crime, by Texas law, he is
just as guilty as the one who pulled the trigger. Next, Herzog interviews
George Rivas, the mastermind of the escape, and the man who pulled the trigger
to kill the police officer. This is stronger than the Linda Carty segment, but
not as strong as the other two – Herzog, by necessity, has to spend so much
time going over how they escaped, that the crimes for which they found
themselves in prison in the first place, and their life on death row, and
doesn’t get quite as much attention.
Finally, there is the case of Hank Skinner, in what
is probably the strongest of these mini-docs. Skinner was convicted of a triple
homicide back in 1993, and vehemently claims his innocence (but does seem to
hedge at points, coming up with excuses as to why his DNA may well be on the
murder weapon when he eventually gets them tested). Skinner speaks most
eloquently on his life on death row – on the Pollunsky unit, and how it felt
when he came very close to being executed – only receiving a last minute stay
of execution. Skinner gives the clearest picture of what day to day life on
death row is like – how dehumanizing it is, and how difficult it is to maintain
your sanity.
I think these four documentaries are better taken
as a whole than any one segment is. Along with Into the Abyss, it makes for one
large film about capital punishment in America. Yes, Into the Abyss is a
masterpiece in itself, because Herzog takes the time to flesh out the crime,
the victims and their families, the perpetrators and their families, and the
people who are tasked with the impossible job of executing these criminals.
Herzog does not have the time to do that with any of these cases. And yet, taken
together, the movies make a devastating portrait of crime and punishment in
America. You can be for capital punishment or against it, and these films will
still make you question what you think. That is what great documentaries do –
not simply confirm or congratulate you for believing what the filmmaker does,
but makes you re-examine why you think it.
No comments:
Post a Comment