The widely acclaimed director Ken Burns teamed up with Sarah Burns and David McMahon to film a documentary that would be considered controversial and borderline taboo.

The story

In 1989 a Caucasian female was jogging in Central Park when she was raped and left for dead. With the inability to confirm or even understand what had been done to her and by who, the police force was left with the task of finding the perpetrator. Coincidentally, on the same night, five young men had been hauled down to the police station for assaults in the park. The young men were about to be released for the misconduct when the police found the woman and were told to detain the boys. From that point on the lives of Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kharey Wise, and Raymond Santana, were forever changed.

The film

The film, which was released in November of 2012, documents the Central Park Jogger case from the beginning to its current state. Through photos, archival footage, drawings, reenactments, and interviews, the directors portray the lives of the five men from the time they were first brought into the police station on assault charges to when they were acquitted on all charges of acts against the victim, Ms. Trisha Melli. The film starts in a rather Hollywood-esque manner. The camera goes around Central Park on an eerie night. There is a voiceover narration of a man’s testimonial and certain key words appear on the screen. Afterwards, a transition is made to stock footage of police and the crime scene in 1989, proceeding to the beginning of the interviews of the accused. Just like the first few minutes, the rest of the film carries on in a similar manner, constantly changing the editing techniques used to tell the story. Though this keeps the audiences attention, from a more technical viewpoint the constant change in style can seem a bit overwhelming. The story line on it’s own is quite strong and controversial that not much needs to be done to keep a viewer’s attention from going astray.

Some have criticized the film for being one-sided, and depicting the NYPD and justice department in a bad light. However, Ken Burns shared in an interview, that when asked to participate in the making of the film, none of the prosecutors and police who worked on the case wanted to be a part of the production. With this being said, the film did a substantial job in conveying to the audience what truly happened and capturing the sentiments of the accused whom were also victims, of racism and inequality in America.

Rating

In rating the film I have taken into account the story, how will the story was conveyed, the cinematography and the editing of the film. The story, without question, is a brilliant topic for a film. The media spent more time on covering the men’s conviction than the men’s freedom, the five men’s innocence was a unique and film-worthy topic. The message was also conveyed in simple and time efficient manner. The facts were paired up with the viewpoints of those accused in a way that those hearing about the case for the first time could follow along and appreciate. The cinematography also played a very essential role in this, as it helped with conveying emotions. For example, the camera becomes shaky when the written testimonies of the accused are read and years later they listen to what they wrote. This unstable camera really helps convey the uncomfortable feeling that builds inside the victims and it transcends that feeling to the viewer. The editing, as I mentioned previously, was a bit too much in my opinion. I felt that it would’ve been fine with just raw footage and the interviews. However, I understand that getting such footage can be difficult and therefore different techniques must be experimented with therefore I do not hold the editing to be an issue.

Overall, I give The Central Park 5, four stars out of four and would recommend it to anyone who wants to see the effects of racism and injustice in America or who just want to know what truly happened in the case of the Central Park Jogger.