West Of Memphis: Film Analysis

Damien Echols’ experience as someone who has had the system flip on him and later guaranteed that it was going to kill him shows that one has a significant amount of time to reflect that’s practically forced since there are no other options in the last years before execution. Echols had shown repeatedly in his book said that he is constantly under stress and there’s not that much of an escape to his situation. His point-of-view may have changed since he had written much of the book in prison and that he might have switched between misery and joyful reminiscing depending on what he was writing-- this draws the reader into sitting next to him on that turbulent roller coaster of dealing with pain. Echols seems to build on the notion that his life was not fortunate by recollecting a lot of it and while it’s not clear, he seems to have made peace with it, even while on death row. In …show more content…
West of Memphis’ primarily highlights are the story of the crime and falls under showing a fault in the justice system. There are scenes set to show that the three men in prison are miserable, and the film makes appropriate use of that, but unfortunately, that does not gain as much traction. Without going into a speculative tangent, America’s murderers and rapists feeling miserable in prison are normally justified in most people’s minds, but the impact of having to go through that as a result of a justice system that failed three young teenagers is a mind-warping thought. Without the film starting a massive inquiry into the case, Echols’ story would’ve never been published or even remotely heard of-- and he would’ve been another child killer getting what he deserves. Echols, when being introduced to the audience had been speaking to Lorri and immediately starts talking about childhood “... when I was a real little kid, I had a pet turtle, for a while, a boxer