Over the decades, the cinema has become an integral part of our lives. Films are not only a source of entertainment but also an effective tool to draw attention to pressing problems. The film by Ken and Sarah Burns and David McMahon “The Central Park Five” tells us about a brutal rape that shocked New York City thirty years ago. The film did not help justify innocent people, it was shot after they were sentenced to prison, and their verdict was revoked only after new circumstances in the case had been discovered. The film gave the mutilated victims of justice something they have not received from the press, so eager in the early nineties to savor their crime, namely the acknowledgment of what society has done to them.
In 1989, five young people from Harlem, four African-American and one Hispanic were arrested and sentenced to confinement for the rape of a white woman in Central Park in New York (Davidson 2). Each of them has spent from 6 to 13 years in jail until the recidivist rapist gave himself up to the police and confessed to the crime (Burns 161). The scene is laid in the city at a low ebb, in an atmosphere of violence and racism. The film depicts this heinous crime and the fate of five people whose lives have been broken because of injustice (Weiser 11). The filmmakers tried to raise such questions that would target a general audience rather than some specific groups, as the issues still remain relevant today. They wanted to address younger generations through the main characters, in order to change their understanding of reality.
The filmmakers posed a number of serious issues that hit the consciousness of the thinking man as hard as the stones that brutal rapists threw at the defenseless victim in Central Park during that match point night. They seek reasons why teenagers were charged, based on a total absence of physical evidence. Moreover, the arrests were heralded in the press with much more pomp than the cancellation of the charges following the eventual confession of the rapist. The DNA analysis and other indisputable evidence proved his guilt, but the teens turned out to be innocent (Sanders 61).
The filmmakers raise another reasonable issue, that justice was only accomplished with the help of the serial rapist instead of the police, prosecutors, and judges. Apart from that, racial inequality remains topical. The story of Trisha Meili, the prosperous white worker from Wall Street, discomposed people and provoked them to speak out; meanwhile many deaths in disadvantaged areas fail to evoke the slightest reaction (Dargis 8). The filmmakers explain that journalists, lawyers, social activists and people not involved in the case drew so much attention to this case that a public “lynching” was inevitable (Laughland 4). However, they leave room for the viewer’s conclusions, while helping people navigate this complicated case.
“The Central Park Five” is the story of a New York that has just survived the economic crisis, and has given way to the new problem of racism. The film is not only about a specific case, but also about that suffocating atmosphere, in which the news is overturned rather than reported, and innocent people are deprived of their basic freedom. Nowadays, in many places across America, the disease of racism has not been eliminated at all, and the repetition of such stories is still possible. The tears and suffering of the five defendants in the Central Park case help everyone realize the consequences of inequality, misjudgment, and discrimination that are faced by African Americans frequently.
Works Cited
Burns, Sarah. The Central Park Five, New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011. Print.
Dargis, Manohla. “Filmmakers Still Seek Lessons From a Case That Rocked a City.” The New York Times. 2012. Web.
Davidson, Amy. “Donald Trump and the Central Park Five.” The New Yorker 2014. Web.
Laughland, Oliver. “Donald Trump and the Central Park Five: The Racially Charged Rise of a Demagogue.” The Guardian. 2016. Web.
Sanders, Joshunda. How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media: Why the Future of Journalism Depends on Women and People of Color, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2015. Print.
Weiser, Benjamin. “5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Agree to Settle Suit for $40 Million.” The New York Times 2014. Web.