Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

It is a tempting bit of exaggeration to say that filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky saved lives with their previous twoParadise Lost films, helping to get three men out of jail and one of them off death row. Shining a light on the story of three teenagers, now middle-aged men, convicted of the brutal 1993 murders of three young boys in a small Arkansas town, the Paradise Lost films stand as an example of the activist impulse in documentary filmmaking at its best. The new film, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory serves as both a point-of-entry for those who have not seen the previous two and a powerful summation and conclusion for those who have already been following the series and the case.

Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley came to be known as the West Memphis 3 after being convicted on the circumstantial evidence that they wore dark clothes, listened to heavy metal music and generally didn't fit in. Echols in particular had a certain swagger about him, a rock-and-roller's air of soulful insouciance that made him both the main target of the investigation and something of a natural leading man. Berlinger and Sinofsky's first two films on the case, released in 1996 and 2000, garnered a certain cult popularity and inspired a grassroots support movement (also bringing in the support of celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, Natalie Maines and Peter Jackson). Meanwhile, the West Memphis 3 languished in jail.

Arguably the greatest feat of Purgatory is how Berlinger and Sinofsky have created something that works both for those who have seen the previous films and for those who have not. Using vintage news footage to cover a lot of ground quickly they layer in new information even while seemingly in summation mode, so that the film never feels like it is idling for anyone to catch up. As new pieces of evidence and possible alternate suspects emerge, the film gains the momentum of a solid legal thriller, with the defense team finally beginning to make headway with a new evidentiary court hearing.

With that hearing on the docket for late 2011, the film reaches a conclusion that seems to have caught everyone by surprise. In August of last year, through unusual legal wrangling, the trio were allowed to submit an "Alford Plea," pleading guilty while proclaiming their innocence, which allowed them to walk free and shield the state from civil damages or obligation to reopen the murder case.

The film was programmed at festivals before the stunning turn of events, originally intended to stoke the fires of the now-thwarted new hearing. In the epilogue that covers the most recent events Berlinger and Sinofsky evoke the sense of bittersweet victory in the release of the West Memphis 3, with so many years lost and the true killer still unknown. It doesn't feel like justice, exactly, but it gets the job done. Sometimes that may be the best one can ask for.

Distributor: HBO
Director: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Producers: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, Jonathan Silberberg, Nancy Abraham
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 121 min.