RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

chaos-rampant There are some pretty eyeopening realizations raised by this case of the Memphis Three but for me these are poignantly tucked away in the first film. That one really was a searing depiction of ignorance and delusion worthy of Herzog, in large part because it was unfolding 'now' in some backwoods court that was deciding the lives of kids.This has an altogether different aim. It presses a case that had by then garnered wide traction, attempts some investigative journalism about who really did it and offers a summation of a fight that was justly won, however late for these people. It was the third film at this point, everyone by now looks more accustomed to the presence of the camera, more self-conscious about us being there to see. It has closure and a moral.So it doesn't feel like we are catching ignorance unawares and seeing it as it mangles lives. I see instead an article about how terrible it is. I'm glad that it documents what it does of course, dismayed at the redneck judge who is now in the state senate, but that's it.

Sindre Kaspersen American documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinosfsky's third documentary feature about the The Robin Hood Hills Murders which took place in West Memphis, Arkansas in USA in early May 1993, was preceded by "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" (1996) and "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations" (2000). It premiered in the Real to Reel section at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival in 2011 and is an American production which the directors co-produced with producer and director Jonathan Silberberg.In 1993, 17-year-old Jessie Misskelley Jr, 16-year-old Jason Baldwin and 18-year-old Damien Echols were arrested for the murder of three eight-year-old boys named Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers. The killings were initially perceived as some kind of satanic ritual and due to Damien Echols listening to the hard rock band Metallica, dressing in black clothes and being interested in occultism, many of the inhabitants in the populated city in Crittenden county regarded him as a devil worshiper and a ringleader which made him a probable suspect in their eyes. Almost two decades years later these three boys who became known as The West Memphis Three are revisited by the two brave filmmakers who after learning about their case eighteen years earlier decided to make a documentary that would shed light on the city of West Memphis, it's inhabitants, it's law enforcement and how the faith of three young boys who a witness claimed to have seen on that spring day in 1993 with the three victims was sealed by a society who whilst afflicted by a bestial crime, blinded by vengeance and in need of a scapegoat started a witch-hunt.Some justice might exist after all in this "lost paradise" which contains interviews with people from both sides, and that thanks to all those who recognized the obvious miscarriage of justice that Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky managed to document, went out of their way to support Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin, became activists in the name of justice and saved the lives of three young men who in the worst case scenario could have ended up as the three innocent young boys who were deprived of their lives in a very horrific way.This scrutinizing documentary which is as judicial as it is humane, leads this shocking, provocative and heartrending true story which gained worldwide recognition in the late 1990s closer to the truth, and confirms the invaluable importance of critical journalism and documentary filmmaking. A commendable, poignant and to a certain extent liberating non-fictional feature about solidarity, survival and human greatness which shows how much people are willing to do and how far they are willing to go for the sake of someone else.

twztd7609 I gotta say that I heard nothing about this horrific story until I was bored on my couch flipping through channels. Saw that they were showing the 1st 2 docs on HBO so I dvrd them. I was sucked into this story and for a while couldn't decide who to believe. I related to the kids in the whole being an outcast thing, but also found myself wondering how I would react if in the victims parents shoes. In my opinion, the people in this southern town are absolutely nuts. For those who've seen it know what I'm talking about. The sentences that came outta the mouths of these people had my jaw to the floor. I'm not a religious man and have no problem w/ others and their beliefs, but DAMN!!!! I've never heard verbal hellfire like this. Pretty funny actually and I definitely felt smarter after watching it all. Worth checking out unless you're easily offended by off the wall religious hoopla. Oh and yes, graphic crime scene photos are included and not recommended for weak stomachs, just a warning.

valleyjohn PARADISE LOST 3 : PURGATORY - 9 out of 10If there is one thing that you should be proud of in Britain it's our justice system. Be thankful that we don't have the clowns in our courts that were involved in the court case that sent The West Memphis three to prison back in 1993 and who still have influence as to the outcome of the lives of these three innocent men. This is the third film of The Paradise Lost documentaries about three men sent to prison for the murder of three 8 year old boys back in 1993. It starts by covering some old ground that we have seen in the first two films then follows the fight to get the men ( they were only teenagers when it happened) freed and even has insight into who possibly could have been the real killer.I have found all three documentaries fascinating but his one has to be the best of the lot. It is still immensely harrowing because it shows very upsetting scenes of crime footage of the dead 8 year old boys ( and i still question why we need to see those pictures ) and because of new DNA techniques it comes some way to helping the three who incarcerated - but not in a way that is satisfactory.It shows up the deep flaws in the American justice system and how blinkered these ageing judges are that have the fate of so many people in their wrinkled little hands.You don't have to have seen the first two films because it quite self explanatory as to what has happened and i recommend that everyone gets to see this fascinated film. I don't think it will be the last either.