Paradise Lost 2 - Revelations

Starring:Michael Moore, Burk Sauls, Damien Wayne Echols, Kathy Bakken, Jessie Miskelly, Jason Baldwin, Melissa Byers, Pam Echols, Grove Pashley, Christopher Byers, Steven Branch, John Mark Byers, Jessie Miskelly Sr., Bruce Sinofsky
Director: Kathy Bakken, Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Studio: Docurama
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky return to the scene of the crime with this urgent follow-up to their harrowing 1996 documentary, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. That profoundly disturbing film chronicles the tragic and twisted case of three young men--Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley--who were convicted of the brutal 1993 murders of three second graders. The film suggests that perhaps their only crime was dressing in black and liking Metallica. To the townspeople, this smacked of Satanism and marked them as made-to-order suspects. Meanwhile, Mark Byars, the stepfather of one of the victims emerged from the film as a "Why-isn't-anyone-following-up-on-this?" suspect. Revelations, which, for those who missed the first film, efficiently recaps the case, and charts the trio's maddening appeals process (police browbeat a confession out of Misskelley, who has an IQ of 71, after 12 hours of questioning), as well as the efforts of a group of Internet advocates to "Free the West Memphis Three." Byers is back as well, and he is infinitely more terrifying than anything in Book of Shadows, Berlinger's Blair Witch sequel. We learn that Byers had all his teeth extracted in the years after the murders (human bite marks are among the new evidence introduced). We also learn that his wife has since died of undetermined causes. When Byers passes a suspect lie detector test, he exults, "I knew I was innocent." A further mystery is why both Paradise Lost films have not garnered the media attention or sparked the outrage that attended Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line, which led to the release of an innocent man who was imprisoned for more than 10 years. Both films give new meaning to the concept of reasonable doubt. --Donald Liebenson
Description
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations revisits the 1994 Arkansas murder of three 8-year-old boys and the three teenagers convicted of the crime. A follow up to Paradise Lost, Revelations features new interviews with the convicted men, as well as with the original judge and police investigators. While focusing on advocates who believe the young men are innocent Revelations also includes footage of the stepfather of one of the victims, who some suspect might be involved in the crime.

A disturbing and moving documentary, Revelations is investigative journalism and advocacy at its best. This case, as with the OJ Simpson and Jon Benet Ramsy murder trials, for better or worse, will remain in the spotlight for years to come as an example of America's judicial system gone astray.

Amazon.com

Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky return to the scene of the crime with this urgent follow-up to their harrowing 1996 documentary, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. That profoundly disturbing film chronicles the tragic and twisted case of three young men--Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley--who were convicted of the brutal 1993 murders of three second graders. The film suggests that perhaps their only crime was dressing in black and liking Metallica. To the townspeople, this smacked of Satanism and marked them as made-to-order suspects. Meanwhile, Mark Byars, the stepfather of one of the victims emerged from the film as a "Why-isn't-anyone-following-up-on-this?" suspect. Revelations, which, for those who missed the first film, efficiently recaps the case, and charts the trio's maddening appeals process (police browbeat a confession out of Misskelley, who has an IQ of 71, after 12 hours of questioning), as well as the efforts of a group of Internet advocates to "Free the West Memphis Three." Byers is back as well, and he is infinitely more terrifying than anything in Book of Shadows, Berlinger's Blair Witch sequel. We learn that Byers had all his teeth extracted in the years after the murders (human bite marks are among the new evidence introduced). We also learn that his wife has since died of undetermined causes. When Byers passes a suspect lie detector test, he exults, "I knew I was innocent." A further mystery is why both Paradise Lost films have not garnered the media attention or sparked the outrage that attended Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line, which led to the release of an innocent man who was imprisoned for more than 10 years. Both films give new meaning to the concept of reasonable doubt. --Donald Liebenson

Description

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations revisits the 1994 Arkansas murder of three 8-year-old boys and the three teenagers convicted of the crime. A follow up to Paradise Lost, Revelations features new interviews with the convicted men, as well as with the original judge and police investigators. While focusing on advocates who believe the young men are innocent Revelations also includes footage of the stepfather of one of the victims, who some suspect might be involved in the crime.

DVD Features: Filmmaker Filmographies; Exclusive Photo Gallery; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

Customer Reviews:

Lesson learned or lesson forgotten?.......2007-04-08

I loved Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. It had a great message, teaching us how important the notion of "innocent until proven guilty" really is. With that in mind, the sequel to it should have never been made.

The first movie focused on rightfully condemning those who were quick to judge three teenaged defendants, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Misskelly, as guilty while ignoring the complete lack of evidence supporting this verdict. "Those boys wear black and listen to heavy metal music; they look like they worship Satan; they must have committed the murders," many people thought around West Memphis, Arkansas, the rural, backward community in which the murders took place. Watching the first Paradise Lost, we were shown exactly how absurd this thinking is. Somewhere between the making of that film and the making of its sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, the films' producers lost sight of that important notion.

In Paradise Lost 2, the filmmakers are essentially judging one of the murder victims' stepfather, Mark Byers, as guilty of the Robin Hood Hills murders without really giving sufficient evidence to back this theory. There seems to be some evidence supporting his guilt (okay, a lot of evidence supporting it), but one can't help but wonder what facts the filmmakers are exaggerating, what facts they are manipulating, and what facts they are leaving out.

Mark Byers is a man who has never officially been a suspect in the West Memphis murders, and frankly there seems to be about as much evidence against him as there was evidence linking the murders to the three defendants who were found guilty of them. Mark Byers' main offense is that he looks like how a killer would look, or that he acts like how a killer would act. Sound familiar? Sounds ironic to me.

The "witches" in the first film were Damien, Jason, and Jessie and the witch hunters were exposed for what they were. In the second film, the monster is Mark Byers and the people chasing him with torches and wooden stakes are we who are ignoring the lesson learned from the first film.

Propaganda and a Witch Hunt to Boot.......2007-04-04

Paradise Lost 2 - Revelations is a poor excuse for a documentary. It never rises above the level of a tabloid. Logic and reason have been discarded in favor of attempting to paint the stepfather of one of the murdered boys as being the real killer. There is all sorts of grandstanding by likes of the unrepentant killers and their ignorant supporters.

A disturbing aspect of this documentary is the fact short shrift was given to 2 of the convicted murderers, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelly both of whom are plain looking. However, a huge amount of attention was paid to convicted murderer Damien Echols. This was done because Echols is quite handsome.

This movie is also a witch hunt. Specifically, it attempts to make the case that the real killer is one John Mark Byers who was the stepfather of one of the murdered boys. There is no attempt at balance here. All sorts of aspersions are cast on Byers without ever attempting to talk to Byers' dentist, doctors or the police officer who cleared Byers of suspicion via polygraph test. The producers of this documentary claim that Byers' wife died under mysterious circumstances. The claim was made that the dead children had bite marks all over them without disclosing that well before the documentary was made, the assertion about bite marks was thororughly discredited. Additionally, the documentary claims that Byers had all of his teeth removed without proof of it. The reality was that Byers had a disease that caused most of his teeth to fall out, but the documentary left that fact out to make Byers look as guilty as possible.

At the beginning of Paradise Lost 2 - Revelations, it was stated that most of the relatives of the 3 victims (who are the real West Memphis 3) did not want to be involved in the making of this production. Given the facts that the first Paradise Lost was horribly slanted in favor of the convicted murderers and also that this sequel was a witch hunt directed at Byers, it appears that the families of the victims showed very good judgment.

Interesting but ...........2007-02-07

Like it's predecessor, this is a fascinating and probing look at a case that continues to rouse many questions and controversies. Made a few years after the original "Paradise Lost", it is interesting to see where the people, especially the accused Memphis Three, had come to, and how they now viewed all that had happened. But a great deal of this documentary is just footage from the first - which is important in giving context - but it means that there is not all that much new content here. But what is there is very good, and very interesting. I just in some ways think it would have been better to have found a way of adding the new material onto the original documentary, turning into a single "extended version". If you watch the two together, chances are you will find this second one just a tad tedious because you will have already seen so much of it before.

"All of them showing up to the hearing in their...goth glam, isn't going to help Damien's case". Right on........2007-02-05

There aren't very real-life events that get me. But the whole deal with the West Memphis 3 did just that when I saw Paradise lost a few weeks ago. Like most people, I was astounded by how pitiful the case was against the three boys convicted, and how the entire court just dismissed evidence that clearly showed they were innocent without giving it a chance. The now overused "modern day witch trial" is exactly what it was. If you somehow are reading this without having seen the first movie, do yourself a favor and watch it first. But as a small summary, 3 teenagers in Arkansas were charged with murdering 3 young boys as a part of a Satanic ritual. There was no evidence to support that it was a ritual, and the crime committed was so precise and done expertly (no blood at all at the scene where the bodies were found, meaning it was just a dump site), yet the police arrested the 3 kids in town who wore black and listened to metal. The whole town and jury had made up their minds before the trial even began, and things didn't end well obviously, as this is the sequel to that, and a third one is in the works. Revelations here continues to look at the lack of evidence and lack of justice in giving Jessie, Jason and Damien life sentences, and one death, and looks into new autopsy records and other various reports where they try to figure out who really did the murders. It's fairly obvious who the prime suspect would be when you watch the first one, and that happens to be the focus.

Unlike the first movie, which is understandable since they're all in prison now, Revelations doesn't really key in on any of the 3 boys. In fact, we only see Jessie for a few quick minutes in the beginning, his dad a little after, and that's it. Jason and Damien get much more screen time, but it's still fairly limited. It's nice seeing them a few years older than when we last left them: Jessie looks the exact same, Damien has lost weight and sports glasses and shorter hair, and Jason still talks slowly, but seems a bit more responsive to questions he's asked. I want to say about 60-70% of the movie's runtime is directed to Mark Byers, and getting the viewer to see how suspicious he is. While the first Paradise Lost did a good job of not quite helping one side over the other, here it's pretty obvious where they're going. A nice touch was when Mark is talking to a WM3 support member, and the second they're about to be interviewed, Mark starts talking bad about the member. Just then, the guy mentions that before the cameras were rolling, he had been nice and buddy-buddy to him. There's something to think about. The WM3 support group gets a lot of time on film as well, and it's not a bad bunch from what they're shown. They never degrade Byers or the town, but do stress how the entire court sessions were messed up and point out the lack of evidence over and over again. The most they bug Byers is try to get him to take a tooth print test to see if his teeth match those found on the children. His story changes more than 3 times as to how he lost them, and when it happened. At the end of the movie, it's explained that dental records show he lost them a few years after the murders. And why isn't this guy going on trial again? More or less, Revelations is a movie that focuses in on who the "real" murderer is, even if a lot of it is redundant when you've seen the first movie. There are many cuts to the first film, which got annoying after a while. I know this was made for HBO and all, but c'mon- the majority of people watching this saw the first movie, and are probably very familiar with everything. Also, did they have to use THIS MUCH Metallica music? I've never been much of a fan of theirs, but after hearing Sanitarium probably 8+ times in one sitting, my stance isn't going to get any better.

I guess I should take a few minutes to mention how wacked out Byers is now. When we last left him, he seemed like an idiot. Throwing religious passages and holier than thou messages, cursing the boys convicted, and mentioning what he'd do to their graves if they died before he did. It's now official that he's a complete nut case and should be locked away. The guy guess back to the crime scene, and digs up 3 graves for Jessie, Jason and Damien, makes little markers for each, then proceeds to burn them all, stomping on them for what must've been 5 minutes. Isn't burning part of a creek's natural appearance breaking a law of some sort? He also gets even more dramatic as the film progresses. When he visits his now deceased wife's grave, he walks slowly toward it, then collapses, only to curse the boys once again, looking dead into the camera. He's trying so hard to seem like he's a good guy that it's sad. His voice rarely sounds serious, his eyes remain neutral most of the time, and his body language is totally off. Byers even tries to get more sympathy from the viewer by showing that he went from living in a nice house to a very small (300 square feet) apartment, and even gives out his room number. Way to milk it there, Mark.

Visually, everything looks quite good compared to the first movie. There's not as much grain or fragmenting. It's presented in widescreen for obvious reasons again, but still looks good. There was a bit of a weird look to some close ups- faces would have a watery texture to them and move around a bit on certain areas. I don't see this much in movies, so I'm unsure of what to call it. Unless you're watching the movie on your computer right in your chair, or on a huge tv, you won't notice it too much. The audio got a bit louder as well- I had to end up turning things down a few minutes into the movie.

Sadly, there are practically no extras. Filmographies for the directors/creators of this series, trailers for other movies, and that's about it. Why was there no extra footage of Jessie's great defense lawyer, who's STILL working on this case (for no money too!)? We see him and another lawyer working out some new info through the movie, but not very much aside from inspecting bite marks. Surely there was more footage of them finding out some new info. Or how about a commentary by the WM3 support group? Man I hope the third film gets something good. I know there's only so much you can do for a documentary like this, where most of the info is available on various sites, but at this price, I expected more. This disc made me feel like I was back in 1998.

When a movie that's a collection of real-life events and interviews makes me wish it were all fake, and the people involved were actors, that's a good and a bad thing. Good because it shows how much it affects me, and bad for the people involved. Revelations isn't anywhere near the quality of the first film, but for what reason? Easy- the big part of the first was that it was mostly about the initial trials and their conclusions. Here, we're revisiting the town and some of the people from the first movie. The judge for the cases and the ones here even states that had he known how people were going to take in the first Paradise Lost, he wouldn't have allowed cameras in the court room. For the movie itself, 4 stars. But the lack of extras, even less than the first's in terms of both quality and quantity, I have to knock off another. But don't get me wrong- this was very much interesting and I stuck with it all the way through, watching it 3 times before this review. I can't say that about many other movies, or even real-life situations like this. Here's hoping that Jessie, Jason and Damien all get released before they hit their 40s.

I guess .......2007-01-22

the makers of this film felt they had exonerated the defendents in the first film, so their intent was to find the real killer, and of course they focused on the step father of one of the victims, Mark Breyer.

I say 'of course' becasue the circumstantial evidence to convict Mr. Breyer is far greater and more convincing than anything shown to conivct the three boys accused of the crime.

If you think he's a stupid hillbilly, you weren't paying attention. He only talks like a hillbilly. This is a highly intelligent, very manipulative, probably narsacistic sociopath that lies incessantly throughout the movie.

Of course, that doesn't mean he's a murder, but on the other hand, the one time they call him on it, with a polyograph, he passes. (this guy is good)

It irked me that they didn't focus more on the elements of the crime, that cast serious doubt on the guilt of the defendents.

1> No physical evidence links them to the crime scene.

2> No physical evidence links them to the victims.

3> It is virtually impossible for the crime to have occured at the place where the prosecution says it did. (Even the procecution pathologist agreed to this)

4> The prosecution's theory of the crime is not supported by one single piece of convincing evidence.

The scary thing is a guy can go to death row, and the original court judge can uphold that decision with no regard what so ever to the concept of reasonable doubt.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Last Orders

The Sopranos: Series 1

Vampires in Havana (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Standing On Fishes

Thunderbirds