Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)

A further followup of the case of the West Memphis Three and the decades long fight to exonerate them that finally gained traction with new DNA evidence.

Directors:

Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

Stars:

Gary Gitchell, Todd Moore, Dana Moore

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 5 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gary Gitchell	...	Himself - Former Chief Investigator, West Memphis Police (archive footage)
Todd Moore	...	Himself - Parent of Michael Moore (archive footage)
Dana Moore	...	Herself - Parent of Michael Moore (archive footage)
Pam Hobbs	...	Herself - Mother of Stevie Branch (archive footage)
Terry Hobbs	...	Himself - Stepfather of Stevie Branch
Melissa Byers	...	Herself - Mother of Christopher Byers (archive footage)
John Mark Byers	...	Himself - Stepfather of Christopher Byers
Damien Wayne Echols	...	Himself - Perpetrator (as Damien Echols)
Jason Baldwin	...	Himself - Perpetrator
Jessie Misskelley	...	Himself - Perpetrator (as Jessie Misskelley Jr.)
John Philipsborn	...	Himself - Post-Conviction Attorney for Jason Baldwin
Don Horgan	...	Himself - Post-Conviction Attorney for Damien Echols
John N. Fogleman	...	Himself - Prosecuting Attorney (as John Fogleman)
Mike Allen	...	Himself - Detective, West Memphis Police (archive footage)
Domini Teer	...	Herself - Suspect's Girlfriend (archive footage)

Storyline

In 1993, a horrific triple child murder was discovered in West Memphis, Arkansas, but the reaction to it precipitated a horror of its own. This film follows up on the story of the three boys, called the West Memphis Three, who were convicted for this crime with questionable evidence. For years, the boys' fate sparked a mass movement striving to prove their innocence while the state is equally determined to avoid admitting it could have been wrong. Through the swirl of new evidence and suspects, the Three tell their own tale about enduring this injustice against the opinions of the victim's families in a debate that eventually came to an inadequate resolution.

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Plot Keywords:

west memphis three | injustice | arkansas | murder investigation | tattoo | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Crime

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

HBO [United States] Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 October 2012 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Elveszett paradicsom 3: Purgatórium

Filming Locations:

West Memphis, Arkansas, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

RadicalMedia, Home Box Office (HBO)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Todd and Dana Moore, the parents of 8 year-old victim Michael, wrote a letter to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences asking that the film be removed from consideration. In the letter they said that the film glorifies Damien Wayne Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. Director Joe Berlinger had in fact acknowledged during an interview with salon.com that he determined Echols was innocent after speaking with him for five minutes prior to the trial. Despite the Moore's request(or perhaps because of it) the film was nominated for Best Documentary, Features for the 84th Annual Academy Awards. It lost to Undefeated (2011).

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Quotes

Damien Wayne Echols: If I focused on the things I can't change, the things that have hurt me, what people have done to me, then they would have already broken me. They would have killed me inside and out. I can get up in the morning and I don't feel sorry for myself, I don't hate my life. You have a lot of people in here that all they can think about is what they don't have and how much they want out and how much they want something else. But for some reason, this situation has helped me to see more of what I do ...

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Alternate Versions

The directors said that audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011 would be the only audiences to see the film in that version. The reason is that events which took place the previous month necessitated a new ending to the film.

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Connections

Featured in West of Memphis (2012)

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Soundtracks

Fade to Black
Performed by Metallica
Written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Cliff Burton
Published by Creeping Death Music (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Corp
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

A life in prison wasted

Back in 1996, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky set out to make a documentary for HBO on the West Memphis 3 – three teenage kids that were accessed of murdering three 8-year-old boys and sentenced to life imprisonment with one of the teenagers been given the death penalty.

The documentary focused on the questionable evidence and lack of thorough police investigative work that lead to their incarceration and hit such chords with the American public that soon celebrities such as Johnny Depp were championing the cause in an attempt to get the three boys a new trial.

Four years later, Berlinger and Sinofsky followed-up their story with Paradise Lost: Revelations which was a more biased account of the teenager's innocence and used new information and footage to help promote their cause.

Fifteen years later, Berlinger and Sinofsky finish the trilogy with Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory that takes one final look at the teenagers that have grown into 30-year-old adults in prison for a crime that lacked the forensic evidence to convict if put on trial today.

Paradise Lost 3 opens in 1994 and we get the hard-to-watch actual crime scene footage of the three naked 8-year-old boys who were left hogtied with shoelaces in a small wooded area known as Robin Hood Hills.

With pressure from the media and the increasing tension amongst residents of the town, authorities soon charged teenagers Jason Baldwin, Jessie Miskelly and Damien Echols with murder and sentenced two of them (Baldwin, Miskelly) to life in prison without parole and Echols with the death penalty. The case was built upon their association with each other and loose allegations that the three were part of a satanic cult thanks to their preferred dark clothing and various graffiti and doodles of skeletons that were part of the group dynamic.

Although not as engrossing as 1996's Paradise Lost, Purgatory again presents its case of innocence by interviewing or taping experts in their fields discuss the case and with a 2007 re-examining of the evidence by authoritative members of their fields (DNA, forensics etc). Scattered interviews from 1994 through 2010 help assert that justice may not have been done and that stubborn individuals who had involvement in the case provided the judicial roadblocks to impede any progress.

Paradise Lost 3 spends a bit more time in an assumption of another potential murderer of the three boys and they are fueled by celebrities Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder and even a member of the Dixie Chicks in their attempts to have new evidence presented and justice served.

Paradise Lost 3 wrapped filming in August 2011 – three days later, the Memphis 3 were released from prison on a lesser charge that does not clear their innocence. Berlinger and Sinofsky informed the sold out crowd at the Toronto International Film Festival that we will be the first and the last to see this theatrical version as a new ending has since transpired (which drew a loud applause from the agreeing audience).

One of the real tragedies of the now trilogy of Paradise Lost films is watching three teenage boys age while in prison. They have missed out on an entire life's worth of experiences (one did get married while incarcerated to a female fan) and we can only hope that a follow-up film 10 years from now shows us how the three were able to assimilate back into society and become everything that they should and could have been had they not been wrongly accused.

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