The Central Park Five (2012)

Pretty Good

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

... and that was ponderous to me considering some of the evidence. First, the brutality of the crime - a young woman gang raped and nearly beaten to death with a pipe to the point where even today she has some cognitive problems - grabbed headlines nationwide.The five young men charged with the crime all confessed. It seemed so open and shut. But there were problems. All five confessions told different accounts of the crime. The crime scene itself showed that there was not enough room for five suspects. And most concerning, the DNA evidence from the crime matched none of the suspects. The prosecution's explanation -there must be a sixth rapist that they didn't catch. The victim herself could not help with any ID because she had been unconscious throughout the attack.What was not clear to me is how much of this the jury that convicted the five got to hear. Back in 1990, DNA was new, and not really understood by the public like it is today. All five were convicted on all counts and got fairly short sentences considering the brutality of the crime - 5 to 10 years - mainly because all but one was a minor.In 2002, the actual rapist crossed paths with one of the Central Park Five in prison - they had a short conversation - and the actual rapist began to talk to other cellmates about how these other people were doing time for a rape he had done. It was only then that investigators interviewed him, found his DNA matched that at the crime scene, and that his confession matched every detail of the crime and cleared up some details of the crime that the police had never been able to figure out. Very quickly thereafter the Central Park Five had their convictions vacated. Yes, they could go back to their lives, but they had lost half their teens and all of their 20's. As you get older you realize the worst thing you can waste or be robbed of is time.There were a few eyebrow raising moments besides the obvious ones. For one, the alibi of the Central Park Five was that they had been beating up and harassing people in another part of Central Park at the time the rape was committed, so these kids were hardly Sunday school teachers. The second eyebrow raising moment was when one African American journalist said that the black community turned against the five because many had been "harassed, raped, pushed around, and pocket book snatched" by young black males. I'm sorry, but what crime does not belong in this list? As long as a community does not see rape as the ultimate violation of a human being, just shy of murder, then any conversation about crime and punishment is probably going to have a disconnect. Then there was Donald Trump (yes THAT Trump) putting full page ads wanting the death penalty. I mean - Really? the woman was not dead, the suspects were minors.I'd recommend this documentary. It just lets the participants and the facts speak for themselves, like Ken Burns' documentaries usually do. Definitely worth looking at if you remember the crime but only faintly remember the exoneration.

Any story of justice denied, of people wrongfully imprisoned is inherently dramatic. But Ken Burns uses this case of five frightened teen aged boys prodded and manipulated into confessing to a crime they didn't commit to dig into some larger societal issues as well. Yes, the police and prosecutors look bad for the way they mislead the kids into confessions, and then steadfastly refuse to look at other evidence. But the press also comes off badly for exploiting the case to sell papers and satisfy a frightened city's desire for law and order, instead of asking questions when it became clear things simply weren't adding up. And politicians for expressing condemnation and outrage at these young men before they were even (wrongly) convicted. A strong and pointed warning about those times when society's desire for revenge overcomes it's sense of logic, humanity and fairness.

The Central Park Five (2012) **** (out of 4) Excellent documentary from Ken Burns, Sara Burns and David McMahon about the 1989 crime that shocked New York City. A white woman went jogging in Central Park where she would be severely beaten and raped. Five black teenagers were eventually charged with the crime with the only evidence being their own confessions, which were pretty much planted in them by the police. I was only vaguely familiar with this case and hadn't really heard about all the events that happened back when the crimes happened. With that said, it's pretty shocking to see these five were convicted of these crimes and it's pretty clear that the only reason they were prosecuted was the media attention and all the hatred that it stirred up among people. Yes, race was certainly a factor and it was also a factor that the crime happened in Central Park. As the film mentions, other crimes were being committed everywhere yet very little media attention happened. There's no question that the material was given to the right people as there's all sorts of great information given about the case, the trial and what would eventually clear the five people. If you're familiar with the work of Ken Burns then you know he always talks about the "other" situations around the subject. That happens here when they discuss the crime rates in NYC and how this played a part in the police needing to solve this crime even if they went after the wrong people. Another great aspect is that all five people are interviewed and hearing from them is certainly priceless. Sadly, those who cost them years of their lives were too big of cowards to appear on camera and what's even more shocking is that they still seem to think they did nothing wrong.

"Central Park Five" serves as a warning about legal incompetence, innocent lives destroyed, and a judicial system vulnerable to manipulation. The documentary details a nightmare scenario for five Harlem teenagers facing hard time, and the condemnation of America for a crime they didn't commit. The production sets the situation immediately, introducing the viewer to NYC in the 1980s, where Wall Street is in the process of rebuilding its reputation, while crack ravages the inner city, creating an explosive racial divide.The film examines the infamous 1989 Central Park Jogger case, where a young white woman is brutally beaten and raped in New York's Central Park. At the same time, a group of five young black and Latino teenagers were quickly arrested for the crime and imprisoned. Following swift arrests by law enforcement officials, the prosecutors proudly declared the conviction as a step forward in the reclamation of a the city. Despite the lack of concrete evidence, all five are found guilty on multiple charges. Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, and Kharey Wise each spent between six to 13 years in prison, professing their innocence, while maintaining that it was a coerced confession to the crime. However, a chance encounter between the oldest of them and convicted serial rapist Matias Reyes, who years later yields his free admission of sole responsibility for the crime, and the claim is further substantiated with DNA evidence.The documentary's approach seamlessly blends past and present, re-examines the assault, and walks you through what happened to the teenagers, from their arrest through their exoneration. Burns captures the complexity of history with startling results, yet "The Central Park Five" isn't quite as comprehensive as hoped, and fails to add anything substantively new to the story. Additionally, an element of balance is missing that would have turned a very good documentary into an exceptional one."The Central Park Five" presents the facts of the case with clarity, and it is a courageous, revealing look at the often complex and broken legal system in the United States. Unfortunately, there is no avoiding the conclusion presented by historian Craig Steven Wilder: "Rather than tying (the case) up in a bow and thinking that there was something we can take away from it, and that we'll be better people, I think what we really need to realize is that we're not very good people."