Monday, October 3, 2016

Amanda Knox Netflix Movie Review

Amanda Knox (2016)
Amanda Knox - She did the time, but not the crime.
Watch Amanda Knox on Netflix
Written by: Hamachek Matthew, Brian McGinn
Directed by: Rod Blackhurst, Brian McGinn
Rated: TV-MA

Plot:
This Netflix original documentary follows the case of Amanda Knox, twice convicted and twice acquitted of murdering her roommate in Italy.

Verdict:
It's an intriguing story of how not acting right landed a woman in prison. The media made every attempt to sensationalize the story. If you search the internet you'll tumble down a rabbit hole of opinions and conspiracy theories, but interrogations are designed to break you. The evidence held little weight in the case. The investigator decided that since she didn't look sad enough she must be guilty.
Watch it.

Review:
From the start Amanda states that if she is guilty she's the most fearful as she blends in, but if she's innocent this could happen to you. 

This happened in Italy. The investigators  determine she's a suspect because she didn't act sad enough. It's telling that Amanda addresses the possibility she could be guilty, but I'll get back to that in a bit.

Some use her interrogation as evidence against her, but that's a bit manipulative. Cops will say whatever to break you in an interrogation room. That's just the nature of it. They always tell you your partner is turning on you. They take you to the point of saying anything just to make it stop.

She spent four years in an Italian jail from 2007 to 2011.

Her social media postings were used against her. A reporter states how he got headline after headline by sensationalizing the story. The journalism depicted in this documentary is devoid of actual journalism. It's click bait headline creation.

Amanda did implicate her boss Patrick who was later released after his alibi check out. Amanda was charged with that, but again in an interrogation you'll do anything to stop it.

Rudy Guede had DNA and fingerprints at the scene of the crime and was later convicted.
The detective's narration of events is interesting to say the least. He takes more than a few speculative leaps. One odd detail is that Amanda says she didn't know Rudy, but he makes it a point in an instant message to state she wasn't involved. Why say that if you don't know each other?

This documentary makes it seem pretty clear she's innocent, but many on the internet claim this is biased. I paused the documentary to google Knox, and the internet makes it difficult to untangle this case. I've seen quibbles as to what acquitted and exonerated mean, and whether it was accurately translated in this movie. Many unsupported claims state Italy vacated the sentence but didn't declare her innocent.

Either way she was released and for all intents is innocent. She remains guilty for implicating an innocent individual for the crime. The response to her success, success tied directly to the case depends on your view of her innocence. If she's innocent of the crime, she deserves some kind of recompense.

We get very little from the victim, Meredith's, family, though I could see why they wouldn't want to participate in this.
This seems to be a case where the cops created a scenario and manipulated evidence to fit. The media manipulated headlines to sell papers and this manipulated public perception. At the root of this is Amanda who went to jail twice for this crime. She was an awkward twenty year old in a foreign country that didn't fit in. That was enough for investigators to deem her guilty.

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