The Central Park Five (2012)

The Central Park Five (2012)

7.9

Movie

United States of America
English
Documentary
2012
DAVID MCMAHON, KEN BURNS
Al Sharpton, Angela Black, Antron McCray
119 min

What it's about

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, this is the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.

The take

The Central Park Five is a harrowing documentation of the unseen narrative surrounding the 1989 Central Park Jogger case. Five men – four black and one of Hispanic descent – have been wrongly accused, tried, and convicted for the assault, rape, and sodomy of female jogger Trisha Meili the night of April 19. No (DNA) evidence was found implicating the involvement of any of the kids to the crime and no one could identify them, but because the crime was sensationalized by the masses and the authorities were put under pressure by the media to pin a name on the case, they settled with coercing a confession out of the juveniles. This is a telling of their tale years on.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (2016)

An understated and unusually modest sports biopic that celebrates love rather than championships

7.4

MoviePass, MovieCrash (2024)

An enlightening study of how one of the fastest-growing subscription services came undone through racial bias and corporate greed

7.2

Green Day: Bullet in a Bible (2005)

Unabashedly 2000s and peak Green Day energy

8.5

The Sacrifice (1986)

In his final film, Andrei Tarkovsky contemplates the end of the world in this meditative modern twist to the Sacrifice of Isaac

8.1

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

La Femme Nikita (1990)

Luc Besson crafts one of film’s most iconic femme fatales in this stylish spy thriller

7.3

Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (2024)

A mesmerizing Pixar-like film about pure, utter friendship

8.5

Yuni (2021)

A powerful drama depicting a coming-of-age journey strangled by societal oppression

7.7

System Crasher (2019)

A tale of trauma and one of the most talked about movies on Netflix in 2020.

9.0

Terrorizers (1986)

Three couples search for truth in this fascinating jigsaw puzzle of modern urban living

7.7

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.