Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

ShempMyMcMalley This film is a sweeping, comprehensive and harrowing account of one man's nightmarish journey through a biased, racist and inept justice system. If you liked "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" or "The Thin Blue Line," this is a movie for you. However, much of the injustice here, conversely, is racially motivated in nature, and like the aforementioned, heaping with negligence and corruption perpetrated by "the man." Not to be taken lightly at all, dear Darryl spent 20 years of his life in prison on the basis of an erroneous conviction. A 1994 DNA test exonerated him 1o years into his sentence, clearing him of rape and murder, yet, North Carolina's courts didn't want to hear it, and Hunt served another 10 years before finally being released in 2004. Truly horrifying. Why aren't some of these corrupt D.A.'s and policemen behind bars - for they took a life, or the better part of one? Overall, this film is fairly presented, is executed exceptionally well and profoundly powerful. Which begs the question: how many more Darryl Hunts are really out there?

Ivy Margaret This film tells the story of a man so decent, so patient, and so forgiving of the injustices done to him, that if it were fiction, it would seem completely implausible. I saw it at the Bend Film Fesitval a couple years ago. At the end of the film, Darryl walked out onto the stage to a tearful two minute standing ovation.It's one thing to hear a story of a man who is wrongly accused and to be angry with the system that failed him, and quite another to see the man behave in such a saintly manner. The film is shot and edited superbly, and takes you through the roller coaster ride of hope and despair that Darryl, his family, and the community that called him their son went through for decades. You feel the pain of the people involved, and the joy of seeing that justice is eventually done is tempered by the fact that Darryl lost such a large portion of his life.

Kansas-5 While this documentary overlooks the fact that Darryl Hunt was no choirboy before his original murder conviction, it does a stellar job in showing how he was framed and the dogged determination of the "justice" system to see that that wrongful conviction was upheld. Much of his persecution was simply due to poor police work and overzealous prosecution, than deliberate malfeasance, but it cost this man a third of his life. The most poignant part is the literal trials as well as the tribulations he underwent before he was ultimately exonerated. An extraordinary documentary that anyone who holds the belief that the American system of jurisprudence is fair, impartial and unbiased should be urged to watch.

staubin At the North Carolina Public Defender's conference, I had the pleasure of watching this film and meeting Mr. Hunt and his attorneys in person. The film is a well articulated synopsis of the various legal and personal challenges faced by Mr. Hunt during his 19 and a half years in a North Carolina prison for a rape and murder which he never committed. As a film watcher, I really enjoyed the linearity and breadth of the narrative as well as the compelling players involved. The movie is able to explore all of the complexities of the legal procedures without getting bogged down or tedious. The filmmakers followed the case for well over a decade, and at many times in the movie the audience sees events as they unfold in real time. Every lost appeal, every new piece of evidence, and key hearings are well documented and the immediacy of the emotions involved really hits home. Mr. Hunt's case attracted dedicated attorneys and colorful and interesting supporters like Larry Little, who invested their heart and soul into his struggles. The movie refuses to over-sentimentalize Mr. Hunt, instead focusing more upon the systematic forces at work in his case. In fact, no over-sentimentalizing has to be done in this movie. Very few people would have accepted their situation with as much grace or courage as Mr. Hunt did and it shows from the few parts of contemporaneous and recorded dialogue we hear from him.As a lawyer, it's a case like this that makes me realize why I sit at the defendant's table. It's idealistic to think that everybody has rights, that at any time a vindictive prosecutor backed by unsympathetic individuals can rob someone of their freedom even in the United States. But it's those very ideals, that conception of rights, that makes criminal defendants worthy of our care and protection.