what was the point?


I was trying to understand the point of this documentary. I feel like nothing new was revealed and the interviews I was looking forward to just never came. No interviews from cops, the murderers themselves, jurors... I also felt like the film was trying to hand down some anti-death penalty agenda at times but even that wasn't consistent.
I think this family's story deserved something better and while I did find the in-depth look at the troubled childhoods of the perpetrators interesting, I thought it would have been better if backed up by interviews by the two on Death Row.
I even thought they would try to get an interview with some of the bank people who where working the day Mrs. Petit came in for the last time...
Hopefully someone else will get this one right.

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You can't interview someone that doesn't want to be interviewed. The documentary explicitly states that the cops declined to be interviewed. I'm sure the murderers wanted nothing to do with this and the jurors probably just wanted to move on with their lives. Bank employees likely would be instructed by their employers not to discuss what happened.

That you think the film had an inconsistently anti-death penalty agenda is due to the fact that the film actually presented an evenhanded, unbiased position on the issue.

BE YOUR OWN FANBOY

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I loosely followed the case (don't live too far from CT) but I learned a great deal
Never once heard on the news how poor a job the police did
It was fascinating to hear from the brothers of the one killer + daughter of the other.
Did it occur to you that they tried but COULDN'T manage to get an interview with the jurors or killers?

They clearly state in the film that police refused interview requests





"Bltch, what you DON'T know about me -- I can just about squeeze into the Grand xxxxing Canyon!"

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This was the exact reason I came here - to voice this exact same criticism. Usually there is some message a documentary is trying to convey and I couldn't discern it within the first 15 minutes and then stopped watching.

“There are no ordinary moments. There is always something going on.” – Peaceful Warrior

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I don't believe the point of the movie was to answer all of your questions, but to make you ask questions, to make you think, to help you see things from many different perspectives, to maybe help you understand that there really is no clear-cut answer. I thought it was very intelligent and thought-provoking and it will stay in my mind for a while - along with all the questions it stirred up for me. (Just to clarify, when I say 'you', I'm referring to the original poster, but to the viewer, in general.)

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In my opinion, the point of the documentery was to educate people on the complexity of the situation.

How could something like this happen?
What drives somebody to do something like this?
Why didn't the police respond?
How do the families/friends of the killers feel?
Is the death penalty justified, warranted, helpful?
Why were these two men released from prison?

It's easy to just think of the two killers as monsters that we cannot relate to in any way. We probably think of them as ugly, dirty, uneducated, tattoed from head to toe, unkept, undocumented aliens, minority race... there are all kind of images that go through your head when you read about the crime. Both of these guys were Christian, white, American, middle class men. The worst of the two was young, white, clean cut, handsome, active in his church, had a girlfriend, well spoken, etc.

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i think the point was to show numerous aspects of a sensationalized case, but it was left up to the viewer to make up his mind if the attention was drawn to the appropriate factors. this doc basically is a reminder for everyone to take a breath and then try and focus on things that matter and can make a positive difference for our future.

the fact that no one was outraged about one of the killers not getting any medical attention (to an extent that constitutes child abuse) was a major "detail" that was overlooked. the bs back-and-forth over a death sentence that was unlikely to ever be carried out in the end was so unfortunate esp because there may have been some productive changes in laws or protocol to help identify such cases. why not focus on that? is this not a repeating issue with numerous infamous cases?

our society is steered towards a violence-for-violence mentality. the family, of course, have every right to grieve in any way they feel fit but for the whole process to be so misguided and idiotic as to focus on something that does not matter?! unforgivable.

why not go after the cops who obviously messed up big time? if not for punishment, then to at least train them! what idiotic protocols were they following while a whole family was getting murdered right inside a house they were surrounding for 30mins??? and i guess nothing was done even regarding getting better training because all that mattered was that these two low-lives POSSIBLY get DEATH and NOT life in prison. sure, spend 7mil on that bs!

why was an unstable sociopath allowed to slip through the cracks and back out into society? these were the most important issues in this case. no one seemed to give a f#ck unless they were talking about frying 'em or making a misguided attempt to make us feel pity for these monsters. they are worthless so shouldn't we focus on us and making our society better for us instead of how to punish them?

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