The third part of the Paradise Lost trilogy, examining the case of the notorious West Memphis 3. This final version chronicles the last years in prison and eventual release of the three men accused of brutally murdering three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993. The men were released after entering an Alford plea on August 19, 2011, allowing them to assert their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict.
The new film is more informational than resonant. But you can still sense a vacuum, a rat pit of stories waiting to be unearthed. The dark something that triggered the whole ordeal in West Memphis is still out there.
Destined to rank as one of the major achievements in American documentary, the Paradise Lost project comes to a presumed end with Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory.
The conclusion to the trilogy about the plight of three wrongly convicted men has an intriguingly new, if bittersweet, slant. It's an understatement to say that the documentary format comes off a lot better than the justice system.
[U]pdate[s,] reinterprets the original material and incorporates old outtakes and photographs. . .for comprehensive forensic and legal analysis [but] confusingly organized.
Each Paradise Lost sequel has assumed that the viewer is unfamiliar with the story from the first film, and has relied heavily on recaps and flashbacks to bring the audience up to speed. Paradise lost 2 did this by just showing scenes from part 1 and lots of on-screen text telling you what has happened. Paradise Lost
3 begins with a long and very well done recap of the highlights of the first 2 films told through news reports and interviews. Some footage is stuff we've seen, some is old footage we've never seen, all mixed in with new footage. Having just watched Paradise Lost 1 & 2 in preparation for this screening, I was impressed by how well this was put together. Filmmaking and editing wise, this is the best of the 3 films. Although it doesn't replace the earlier films, it does stand very well on it's own. Paradise Lost 1 has all the detail of the trials. Part 2 casts more doubt and shows the impact of the documentary on the public perception of the convicted kids, and part 3 gets to show the entire story, and really shows the passage of time and how the people involved have changed over the last 18 years. A great ender to a great series.
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