"The Central Park Five" - Film Review

Before I get into my review, I want to speak about documentaries more broadly. We close off documentaries as a genre of films separate from all other kinds of movies. Too many people are unwilling to watch documentaries and it’s a shame because some of our best filmmakers are making documentaries and they don’t get the press they deserve. I know I’m as much to blame for this phenomenon as anyone else, but it’s my sincere goal to watch more documentaries in the future.

Everyone perceives documentary as people telling the “truth” about real life events. But the fact of the matter is that documentaries are carefully calculated and how documentarians present information to us is often just as manipulative as many well-wrought fictional narrative.  

The Central Park Five tells the fascinating story of five African American and Latino teens falsely accused of the rape and murder of a white woman in Central Park in 1989. The case soon blows up, and, pressed to find the culprit, the predominantly white New York police force coerces a confession out of the five teens. Years later the actual person responsible, a serial rapist terrorizing New York in that same year, admits responsibility to the crime. It’s too late though; the five have been gone through 6 to 12 year prison sentences and their lives have been forever changed. 

Co-directors Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon focus the story on the five victims as they recount events. Through their testimonies, the film creates a deeply humanistic, moving, frustrating story of racial strife and political expediency.

The film does a great job of couching the personal stories in greater social, historical, and cultural trends. It grounds the incident in a larger narrative of racial animosity, rising crime, and urban decay in New York City in the 1970s and 80’s.

It’s at times uncomfortable to sit through as one injustice after another is retold, but it’s an engrossing, captivating story that’s not only well-crafted but told with compassion and resolve.    

Grade: A-