My 9/10 review of AN UNREAL DREAM: THE MICHAEL MORTON STORY for Smells Like Screen Spirit, in which I highly recommend you read Pamela Colloffs brilliant writing on the Michael Morton case for Texas Monthly for the full story before going on at relatively great length about the case myself before recommending that you also watch Incendiary / the Willingham case, just so you can lose any remaining faith you might still have left in our legal system. Let me add that I was lucky enough to catch the Austin Film Societys screening at The Marchesa Hall & Theatre with director Al Reinert, Morton himself and attorney John Raley in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. I was going to start off this review by talking about what a powerful cautionary tale An Unreal Dream is, about how it might make you stop and think about how easily your life could be destroyed at the drop of a hat by a false accusation, how you could receive every supposed protection in our legal system and still wind up spending your life in prison for a crime you didn’t commit (or worse here in the great state of Texas, wind up being executed for a crime you didn’t commit), but then I had second thoughts. Not that An Unreal Dream is not that, but it is also so much more. It is the excruciatingly painful story of one man’s horrific loss at the hands of a violent criminal followed by the unthinkable loss of his freedom, his son and 25 years of his life at the hands of a corrupt and broken legal system. And amazingly it’s the story of how his unwavering faith that the truth would come out was rewarded by the good will and persistence of a small handful of people who refused to let Michael Morton be forever lost within the abyss of an uncaring system. An Unreal Dream allows Morton to tell his own story in his own voice via voice-overs and interviews while also allowing important players such as attorneys Bill Anderson and John Raley to powerfully narrate their own experiences with Morton and his case. The film also shines a painful light on Morton’s time in prison, including lengthy interviews with multiple of his prison-mates who became convinced of his innocence and were touched by his noble and generous spirit during his incarceration. And most touchingly, the film details the sad case of Morton’s son Eric, who was adopted by Christine’s sister’s family and grew up mistakenly convinced that his own father had murdered his mother. The film also admirably captures the failings of our legal system and society, illustrating the perils of rampant ineptitude, indifference and to put it bluntly, stupidity (an interview with a juror explaining how the defense didn’t prove Morton’s innocence is particularly painful to watch). Combine all of that with authority figures full of assured self-righteousness and with little to no oversight (hello, Ken Anderson and John Bradley), and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. smellslikescreenspirit/2013/10/an-unreal-dream-the-michael-morton-story-review/
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 20:28:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015