I feasted on quite a number of documentaries lately: Girl in the Picture, Our Father, Baby God, The Most Hated Man on the Internet and Paradise Lost (all 3!).
HBO’s Paradise Lost was absolutely above the rest. It was so disturbing, thought provoking and moving.
I only stumbled upon it because I was googling great HBO documentaries and an article came up saying HBO has been killing it since 1996 with Paradise Lost. So I immediately checked to see if HBO Go had it, and it did!
I was absorbed from the opening scene. I did not expect actual footage of the crime scene and images of murder victims. Not just that but three 8 year old murder victims completely naked and mutilated.
It was a strange coincidence, but I had saved a tweet just before watching Paradise Lost. The tweet had had 10 “laws” @philsophypath had picked that would improve your life. The documentary was proof of this one.
Damien Echols was unconventional and unorthodox. He dressed unconventionally and never hid his interest in magic or satanism. He lived in Arkansas surrounded by fundamentalist Christians. Damien was essentially punished for being himself.
It was so sad because I also discovered from reading Devil’s Knot that Damien was also just being a typical teen chasing skirts. He had a horrible ex who told him he looked nice in black and he got into minor skirmishes with local law enforcement because of her as well.
Police, prosecutors and judges just wanted public pressure to end and chose to kill 4 birds with 1 stone. Close the unsolved murder and get rid of the outcast/troublemakers Damien, Jason and Jessie.
Another reason the documentaries were great for me, was that it made me realize that I’m not very different from the people of West Memphis. Whilst watching the second instalment, I kept accusing someone else of the murders and only realised my accusations rest on my own biases when I watched the third.
So yes, highly recommended.
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