Murder on a sunday morning movie review PDF

Preview

Summary

Murder on a sunday morning movie review...

Description

Murder on a Sunday Morning Movie Review Murder on a Sunday Morning is a movie that portrays the corruption of the justice system in the recent years. In May of the year 2000, Mary Ann Stephens who was a tourist from Georgia, was shot and killed by a black man in Jacksonville Florida. Mary Ann and James Stephens were approached by this man in a parking lot who was pointing a gun at them and demanding Stephens to hand over her purse. He then shot her and ran away with the purse and weapon. The Jacksonville police force did not want to scare their tourism so they rushed to pick the first black suspect they could find. Brendon Butler, a fifteen year old boy was arrested as their suspect while on his way to a job interview. The murder victim’s husband, who had seen the killer from afar, was threatened by the officers to identify Butler as the murderer, however due to his interrogations, and absence of counsel, Butler confessed to a crime that he did not commit. There was no solid evidence against him, and he was beaten by a detective who claimed he did not touch Butler. His defender, Pat McGuinness went on to defend Butler with fair and great jurisprudence. McGuinness was the first to find doubt in the eyewitness’ identification of the murderer. The creators of this film were observing the case rather than looking deeper into the facts and this makes it different from other documentaries. They pointed out the hypocrisy of law enforcement who convicted an innocent man. However, this makes the film sort of biased because there is only really one side of the case that these filmmakers have full access to and show to the public. No matter how revealing of the truth this movie may sought out to be, it has a very obvious bias, which should not make the message appear differently, but that makes it impossible to see both sides of the story. This is not necessarily a good thing because while

seeking the truth and showing it to the public, the documentary manipulates an audience into thinking a certain way, and this may lead to generalizing and not thinking thoroughly through different situations. Instead people will view the justice system as completely corrupt. Every documentary has a angle on the truth, and can edit the film to their liking. The viewer is invited into the Butler family home, church and to their community, therefore creating a trust in the family and their innocence. The film accomplishes sympathy and empathy for Butler and his situation, based on the convictions of the prosecutor and the bond between family, prosecutor and filmmaker. In watching this documentary, it has been noticed that the filmmakers filmed Butler almost entirely without hearing him talk. This in a way shows to say that Butler’s voice has been silenced, which symbolizes the corruption of the justice system and is a good part of the film however the little access to the Stephen’s family hinders the public from seeing the other side of another victim's story which makes it seem like the filmmaker is hiding something. This bias is great to show that there is a corruption in the justice system, and it is filmed in an unique way, however the lack of footage from the other side of the story, criminalizes the officers and investigators, without really giving an explanation as to why they did what they did. This movie would be a whole lot stronger if the story of the officers and investigators were shown, and if they were interviewed, instead of just showing their part in the trial....