Devil’s Knot: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
May 5, 1993. West Memphis, Arkansas. Three young boys playing in the nearby woods never come home for dinner. In the rush to find and convict the killers, police focus on a trio of teenagers suspected of devil worship. As the mother of one of the murdered boys (Reese Witherspoon) tries to come to grips with this unspeakable tragedy, she is desperate to believe that the killers have been found and will be brought to justice. It is only when an investigator (Firth) reveals that the evidence doesn’t all add up, that the community is forced to face the reality that the true killer might still be out there.
Usually I tend to stay away from “Based on a True Story” films because of the way the truth is stretched but this story grabbed me immediately so I knew that I had to see it. I’m not familiar too much with the story that takes place in a detailed manner but I do remember hearing about it at one point. I will say that if you’re a parent then it’s going to hit you pretty hard because of the subject matter. Within the first 10 to 15 minutes of the film I almost wanted to break in to tears. Even after so many years the story of what happened is still just so heartbreaking and horrible. Witherspoon gave a performance that was full of emotion and strife and that brought the film together. Without an actress that you couldn’t buy as a grieving mother then the film wouldn’t have worked at all. Director Atom Egoyan’s take on this event is more of the emotional toll is takes on the mother and the community and less about the actual resolution of the crime itself. That was something that I didn’t entirely get at first and I was a bit upset that they didn’t show any resolution but as I sat and took the film in (because honestly this is a film that you need to take a moment to emotional cleanse yourself from it.) I started to get what Egoyan was trying to put across. It doesn’t feel completely right saying that this was a great film but it was effective in generating an emotional response so it did its job. If you don’t mind something like that then this a must watch film.
Special Features:
The Making of Devil’s Knot – A few members of the cast talk about their experiences on the film and how they feel about bringing this story to the screen.
Getting into Character: The Cast of Devil’s Knot –The cast talks about becoming the roles that based on the actual event. Some actually interviewed their counterparts but some (obviously) weren’t able to.
Deleted Scenes – Only 2 extra scenes here that are understandably cut from the film.
