Prior to watching this film I had taken a class that spent about a month or so looking in-depth into the case of The West Memphis Three very heavily and even getting the opportunity to meet with Dan Stidham, Jessie Misskelly's defense attorney. So watching the film for the first time I was pretty critical to see how the characters would be portrayed and perhaps hint at specifically that Terry Hobbs had in fact been the real murderer. I was quite pleasantly surprised that the movie took a rather objective stand about the suspected murderer besides the three West Memphis teens, Damien, Jason, and Jessie. The movie presented the other theories that have surfaced; including as mentioned before, Terry Hobbs, John Mark Byers, and the mysterious "Mr. Bojangles". I appreciated those view points and really gave the viewer the chance to create their own theory. I thought the facts in the film were almost entirely accurate and had a few misconstrued details, but where won't one find that in a movie 'based' on real-life events. One of the things that I enjoyed thoroughly about the film was the credit and presence on Ron Lax in the trials of the three teens. In the film he took on the role of most likely the lead male character which I did not expect. When reading and researching the case by itself Lax does not really play a large part in the trials of the three teens. I felt as if this film gave Lax the credit he deserved as well as Stidham's dedication to the three teens when the two other attorneys dropped off after the sentence. Another character that I felt got a little lost in the film was Micheal Moore along with Chris Byers. All in all I felt like the film gave an accurate representation of facts and visual images to the story. However, the documentaries would hold more fact filled information if one desires more information about the West Memphis Three.

It's always interesting with films based on true stories to see how they go about things. How closely to the truth do they stick, do they give their own opinions on matters, what narrative do they use etc. 'Devil's Knot' goes for a bizarre mix between being an emotional drama at times, through to be nothing more than a factual reenactment you'd find in nearly every documentary at others. Without the former there really wouldn't have been much point in making it, let alone bringing in big stars such as Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. It's hardly a seamless crossover between the two however, mostly due to poor direction by Atom Egoyan.What carries it though is that it's an interesting case and that's enough to keep the viewer tuned in. Withersoon and Firth are far from top form - Witherspoon looks like she's phoning it in in most scenes and Firth looks disinterested and never changes his emotional level once in the film. For a film dealing with the death of 3 young boys things never reach the emotional peak they should have. The one effective scene was the hugging scene in the classroom with Witherspoon.It's far from perfect, but it is fascinating at times nonetheless. It doesn't force its opinion on you (at least not too much) which I really liked. None of the scenes drag and the dialogue, while occasionally clunky, is well written for the most part. The case itself it probably more memorable than the film, but I wouldn't have known about the case without the film so I won't complain too much.

Well, I seem to be at odds with the critics (not surprising) and the viewers of this movie. I knew virtually nothing about the case of the "West Memphis 3" before seeing the movie - and maybe that was an advantage for me.I found the story compelling - the acting very convincing - and the sense of unease in relation to the story upsetting. This true story occurred in 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas and (evidently) garnered national attention at that time (I must have been asleep). It tells the story of the grisly murder of three young boys and the subsequent "witch hunt" to find their killers. This story demonstrates what can happen when people in a community are scared, the heat is on the police, and everyone just wants to get through it. You guessed it - not a good set up for justice. And, early on it is clear that justice will not be done in this case.Interesting that the South seems to have a reputation for shocking travesties of justice (remember George Zimmerman?) yet these things happen throughout our nation (OJ in LA and recently the non indictment in the NY police strangulation case). Where ever you land on these current cases, this movie does an excellent job of laying out the case against the police (unforgivable) and the town (understandable) in this case.Both Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon give good performances and I loved the cameo by Mireille Enos (one of my favorites - from The Killing.)Well you can believe the critics or me. I really liked it and learned from this film. I think you will too.BTW: check out the top 10 IMDb movies of the year:http://www.imdb.com/best-of/imdb-countdown?ref_=hm_hp_i_1It is clear that I cannot cancel my Netfilx membership for a while. I have only seen 3 of the top 10!!! All the best DonB

I could realize why this movie is too low, it doesn't deserves a great answer from the normals.The story of the movie (which is really based on true attempts) is the only thing that saves it from being terrible at all, after that. the rest of the movie is disappointingly.But, terribly, this movie connects some things stupid from the story using them in the movie, making it feel disappointingly for a lot of people, just like (SPOILER) the decisions of the judgment to charge down the guilty for murder with... Heavy Metal music and black dressing, hey that's stupid at all, what's wrong with Heavy Metal music, with wearing black clothes and reading a little about occultism, just for that things, you're a serial murdered, that's not good.