It feels very good as soon as it comes up, although it is a documentary, a dark and mysterious atmosphere of film noir is the protagonist. Lead the audience into the "story" with a dark cityscape and interviews with Adam and David, as if you were sitting in a bar and listening to someone telling a story.
The documentary has always held on to the suspense , and the focus is constantly changing around the murder scene , from the description of the scene, to the description of Adam as a person, to the subsequent appearance of the witness, the evaluation of the witness, and the passing of the judgment after the verdict. Witnesses and David's "reassessment" back to the case. All images and language affect the audience's imagination of the truth.
What's not perfect is that the context of the film is not clear, and the true face of the case has never been confirmed by the "official" (the author of the film), but is constantly changing in the audience's imagination.
Another point is that the organization of the focus of the film is incoherent. If you compare the pseudo-documentary "Xili Biography", you will find that the focus of the latter is very coherent (because it is fabricated, it is easy to make coherence). For example, in the current video, the police officer is telling the scene of the case, which involves another female police officer, but this key person has never appeared in the interview, and her point of view is very important to reveal the truth, but you can't force it Go face the camera alone. Its incoherent performance is also in the occasional " off the rails ". The most typical is the evaluation of witnesses, namely the Millers. The evaluation of witnesses is related to the validity of their testimony, which is very important for the truth of the event to be revealed. But it took too much time, and on the other hand, it quickly showed the part that was particularly important to the audience - the Supreme Court overturning the judgment of the Dallas court, and later the Dallas Police Department avoided a retrial by changing the death penalty to life. It's an important part of "Sin" unfolding , and the darkest parts are finally revealed, but the film doesn't spend much time .
I think the reason for this is that although the director obviously knows the truth, he deliberately does not hint at the conclusion before, but throws the audience into the labyrinth of lies and lets the audience judge for themselves. This objective approach is to make extensive use of interviews, to present the case from the discourses of multiple characters, and not to use the traditionally objective and impartial narrator or any narrator who gives the impression of impartiality. But I think this kind of objectivity is necessary, whether it is a God narrator, a piece of text, or an authoritative observation, etc., the audience needs the necessary road signs, and at least gives instructions at critical times. And this film is completely missing in this aspect, and the impression is obvious, that is, there is no relatively clear and overall understanding of the whole case, and it is busy identifying and judging the lies of the interviewer. (This reflects another minor problem, which is the lack of good use of transition shots to give the viewer time to organize their thoughts )
In addition, the images of this film have the feeling of Hollywood in the 1970s. It can be said that in the reappearing part of the "positioning", the images are all shot in the way of Hollywood feature films. There are a lot of well-designed shots, elaborate set lighting, images that don't have a narrative meaning but convey a special feeling (close-ups of swirling police, etc.). I am reminded of the "conclusion" of the film, the interview with David in the last part. Since there was no video, the director aimed the camera at a playing tape recorder. This is a great choice, but I don't think it should be close to the scene and the angle too often. I think the effect of the truth "flowing out" in a quiet way is even better, there is a sense of indifference and desolation in reality.
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