Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Really Surprised!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I came to this expecting something more or less gratuitous, a ghastly backwoods crime along with some lurid mystery. It does open with the mangled bodies of children discovered by Arkansas police in the woods and we go on to experience the baleful place that surrounds this crime, ruled by a vengeful god.But centered on the trial that follows I was surprised to see something else, entirely more revealing about a larger ignorance and worthy of Herzog as a study on delusion.The events are troubling. Three kids were horribly murdered, three kids were arrested for it, based on dubious testimony from one of the kids; an undocumented 12 hour interrogation, questions guiding answers, a frightened kid susceptible to suggestion.The rest of the evidence is not much better, from circumstantial to ridiculous. A knife dug out near someone's home, pentagrams found on a book about Wicca, tied to that hysterical malarkey about satanic murders then sweeping the media.What we have plain and simple is a case of miscarried justice unfolding before our eyes in that courtroom. This is not to say (from just having seen a film) that the kids definitely didn't do it, we would be as dogmatic as the redneck prosecutors then, but that we are far and away from any certainty.It's basically a modern day witch hunt that we see, I mean, if you ever wanted to see how these things happened, it's right here, and this is 20 years ago in a first world country. It's also direct insight of how that hysteria with satanic cults started and was kept going.But it's the larger ignorance at play that fascinates me. The baleful ire of parents is understandable I guess. But how dismaying to see a fuddy daddy in his 60s with a mailorder diploma brought on to testify as "expert on the occult"? What are we to make of juvenile witnesses who come out to testify that the kids confessed to them? Or how the prosecution just presses on to get a conviction, acting like the matter is clear cut and simply comes down to evil, just because it says in their job description that they have to prosecute?So even more chilling than kids who can be grabbed and senselessly murdered in the woods just like that is the realization that lives can hinge on such ignorant storytelling, because this is meant to be the mechanism that restores clarity, and instead we have this dogmatic insistence on using stories to explain a reality that is complex, elusive and often beyond certainty. This is an even more blind ignorance, because it thinks of itself as justice and reason and doesn't need to hide its irrationality out in the woods but can take place in a courtroom in broad daylight with us watching.You'll see this in the film itself. The filmmakers cast an accusing glance on a step-father, why, because he acts weird.

As far as the film goes, it is well made and keeps you interested.**SPOILER** I watched this movie thinking that three innocent boys were found guilty of murder and was interested in finding out how that happened. By the end of the movie I was convinced these boys actually DID commit these crimes. First of all there was a confession, even though one or two details were not clear. Second, one of the boys admitted it to a fellow jail mate. Third, at the end of the movie, when they are found guilty, there is no emotion from them. As if they knew it was going to be a guilty verdict. Not the reaction of an innocent person, who would show some emotion. Asked one of the boys, "what will you do if you are found innocent?" and he said "found innocent???" as if that thought didn't cross his mind, as he had confessed to the crime and he in fact WAS GUILTY.It's also despicable how they try to blame the father of one of the murdered children. They believe one man could overpower and control three eight year olds, rather than three teenagers doing it? If there is a flaw in our justice system, it's not that they were found guilty, but that they were set free.

In the spring of 1993 three pre-teen boys were murdered near West Memphis, Arkansas. This documentary focuses on the three young boys who were accused and tried for the murders. I had a lot of trouble with this film. One of the things that makes it unusual is that the filmmakers were given incredible access to most all the people involved, from the accused, to the legal teams, to family and friends, even to the judge. We are even given behind-the-scenes looks at defense strategy sessions. All of the participants agreed to be filmed. This special access is all well and good, but it is well known that people behave differently when they know they are being filmed and I question how much of an impact the filming actually had on the trial. Are we seeing people's real reactions, or are we seeing performances--the whole affair has the feeling of being scripted. This question of performance for the camera is particularly relevant for Damien Echols, the accused that the film concentrates on. In one scene we see him preening before a mirror. The step-father of one of the murdered children actually turned over a knife to the film crew that was ultimately submitted as evidence! It is not good when those reporting on a story become part of the story.The film is slanted toward making a case for the fact that the accused boys were wrongly convicted. I don't know how long the trials (one boy was tried separately) went on, but what we are given cannot be but a small percentage of what was presented to the jury. So many things were not covered that I began to feel that the biases of the filmmakers were dominating the proceedings. From what is presented I would not have been able to find the boys guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, but I felt that I was not given enough information to make a definitive decision.So many questions were unanswered. It seemed clear that the murders took place in a location other than where the bodies were found. How far was that location from a road from where it would have been convenient to carry the bodies. What was the relationship among the three accused? It was stated that one of them had an IQ of 72; could that guy have been a good friend to the other two seemingly intelligent guys? Was he a good enough friend to be trusted to remain silent? Were alibis checked out? Was the evidence connecting the accused boys to the crime really as tenuous as shown? And so on.Out of respect for the dead shouldn't we have been told at least something about the victims? The only role they played was to have their horrible deaths exploited by the sensational trial, the media, and by the filmmakers. Instead of a reasoned narrative to provide initial background the audience is first hit with shocking footage of the crime scene where lay the three naked young bodies. I immediately began to wonder if the filmmakers were more interested in shocking us than in objective story telling. Later we are shown a close-up photo of the castration perpetrated on one of the victims--was that necessary?I thought the Metallica soundtrack set the wrong tone, totally at odds with the gravity of the events being covered.

This is one of the best documentaries that I have seen lately. The filmmakers stick to the facts and allow viewers to slowly form their own opinion of this disturbing case. Prejudice and ignorance surrounding the trial overshadow facts. It is a movie that stays with you and forces people to think critically about our fragile justice system. After I saw it I was never able to look at a court case without thinking how much my own views might be influenced by the hype and media around me. You can see how murderers can be set free and how innocent people can be locked up in jail. The justice system becomes so obviously fragile that I even had to consider whether or not I believe in having jury is fair, for it is putting the lives of people in the hands of those who are not truly experts to examine critically any evidence. A must see!