Amanda Knox': Netflix documentary plays like a thriller, but we know the outcome already; wrongful convictions and double jeopardy
Name: 'Amanda Knox'
Director, writer: Rod Blackhurst, Brian McGinn
Released: 2016
Format: 2.35:1
When and how viewed: Netflix instant play
Length 92
Rating PG-13
Companies: Netflix Red Envelope
Link: subject
'Amanda Knox' (2016), directed by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, seems to be the first major documentary film about the young woman seemingly wrongfully convicted for a murder in Perugia, Italy in November 2007.
The film starts with Amanda Marie Knox speaking, saying either interpretation of her life is scary for some people. She man be the 'sheep in snake's skin, or she may be 'everywoman' and that what happened to her can happen to anyone. The Netflix documentary appears intended for theatrical presentation, using a 2.35:1 aspect, effective for scenes of Italy and around Seattle, but unnecessary for interviews.
Know says she was naive and immature and sheltered when she left her comfort zone in her Seattle upbringing and went to Italy to study. She became venturesome, and soon had a part-time job in a local bar. She also met a boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who would, because of his connection to her, spend four years in prison himself, probably wrongfully convicted. Today he runs a software company.
The details of the case are laid out in a Wikipedia article . The outline of the history is that she was convicted once, then essentially acquitted. She returned home to Seattle, but Italian law allows double jeopardy, so she was tried again in absentia but finally an Italian appeals court (or supreme court) finally threw it all out because of the lack of biological evidence connecting her to the murder (of British roommate Meredith Kercher). During that time, there was debate in the US as to whether she could be extradited, since double jeopardy is not allowed in the US. Knox would also be acquitted finally of calumny and robbery charges.
The film telescopes the appeals (although it shows the family in Seattle not being interesting in making quick money from media deals after the final acquittal), and focuses on the early aggression by police and prosecutors, who seemed egged on my tabloid-style media coverage, presenting Knox as a femme fatale, and with political ambitions of a particular prosecutor. Although a common thief, Rudy Guede, who would be convicted, appeared to have committed the murder in a robbery-gone-bad, prosecutors seemed disbelieve that interpretation from the evidence, saying Guede would not have faked a burglary; they interpreted Knox's delay in calling police after returning to the apartment (she didn't chek on her roommate at first) and certain other sequences of acts as suspicious, even though they could not find DNA evidence connecting her and Sollecito of the crimes.
Knox has appeared in several television and cable specials, including giving grueling interviews to CNN legal journalist Chris Cuomo, who appears in the film.
As with 'Dream /Killer' by Andrew Jenks, the new film shows how easily people can misinterpret circumstantial evidence or biased or non-credible witnesses or theories, whenever one's reported behavior is perceived as overly self-serving. I lost a substitute teaching job in 2005 after a bizarre set of circumstances, with some improbable coincidences; prosecution might actually have been conceivable. I've embedded my own story in a screenplay ('Do Ask, Do Tell: Epiphany') but I can almost imagine a Jenks-style film on my own incident. Life has more improbable coincidence than we expect.
Wikipedia attribution link for picture of Perugia by Georges Jansoome under CCSA 3.0
(Published: Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 8:15 PM EDT)