Witch Hunt (2008)
My Rating
Movie Info
Academy Award-winner Sean Penn serves as producer and narrator of this documentary detailing the disturbing spike in child-molestation allegations and sex-abuse cases in the small California community of Bakersfield during the 1980s, and the rash of convictions that quickly followed. It was during the Reagan era that the citizens of Bakersfield began to grow concerned about law-and-order issues, eventually electing a new district attorney to crack down on crime. What happened next, no one could
Apr 14, 2009
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All Critics (2) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (0)
It's the sort of documentary that can reduce a grown man to tears. I know because it certainly had that effect on me.
Audience Reviews for Witch Hunt
Super Reviewer
However, there is no mention of the eerily similar McMartin Preschool case which would have lent more context to the documentary. This is worth mentioning for a couple of other reasons. First, when I watched an HBO movie called "Indictment: The McMartin Trial" starring James Woods, I believed going in that these charges were true, and watching this dramatization, I was blown away by the absurdity of it all. This comes from a presumption of guilt that exists in this country, no matter how idealistic we think we may be, especially when it concerns the most serious charges. Also, were the two cases connected or was there something in the drinking water in California at the time? So, the Bakersfield cases were not as isolated as stated in "Witch Hunt." In the end, a lot of the hysteria around incidents like these can be explained by what Bill Hicks termed Child Worship Syndrome which only shows how some people can get creepily emotional over children.
Super Reviewer
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