Some people don't deserve to live.
Those are the poignant words uttered by the sister of Adam Stotler, who was brutally murdered by Micheal Perry and Jason Burkett in 2001. Her mother, Sandra, was also murdered. What would drive a group of eighteen and nineteen year old boys to kill three people? They wanted to steal a car. While there are easier ways to accomplish an auto theft, they felt compelled to murder. Into The Abyss examines the murders, while focusing on the pending lethal injection of Michael Perry.
Director Werner Herzog is known for producing balanced documentaries. While he clearly states that he is opposed to the death penalty, he doesn't push his views by painting the convicted murderers as choir boys. In fact, he tells Michael Perry that his like or dislike for the boy has nothing to do with his opinion on the death penalty. Instead, Herzog tries to strike a balance by presenting the raw facts of the murders, interviews with the convicted, interviews with the family members and an interview with a former executioner.
I was not overly impressed with this film, mostly because it felt like something I could easily have found on A&E or Discovery channel. The documentary was fairly balanced, although there were some misleading scenes. In particular, Herzog allows his camera to dwell on a state cemetery where inmates are buried when they have no next of kin. In this context, we are examining the death penalty in a state that, by far, conducts the most. However, I would suggest that the majority of the inmates in that cemetery died from causes completely unrelated to the death penalty.
The interviews included pointed questions, which Herzog did an excellent job of delivering. His questions were thought-provoking and caused the interviewee to provide some introspection, trying to convey a fuller portrait of the people connected to the story. Other than the graveyard scene, it did not feel that Herzog attempted to sway viewers too much to his point of view. In fact, when interviewing Stotler's sister, he asked her "Don't you think that life without parole would be an adequate punishment?" Stotler agreed that she would be satisfied with that outcome, but then followed with the statement "some people don't deserve to live." That summarized my own take on this subject.
Here is what I took away from the film. Michael and Jason wanted a Camaro that belonged to Mrs. Stotler. They were going to use the premise of needing a place to stay to steal the car, but Mrs. Stotler's son Adam was not home. They left and formulated a plan to just kill Mrs. Stotler and take the car. After shooting Mrs. Stotler with a shotgun, they wrap her body in bedding and dump it at a local lake. When they return to steal the car, the gates to Mrs. Stotler's community are closed and lock. To get in, you need a code. Rather than climb the fence and walk to the house, the boys lie in wait for Adam to show up. When Adam arrives with a friend, they tell the boys a mutual friend has been hurt in a hunting accident and lure them into the woods. The boys are murdered in the woods. The boys then steal Adams Truck as well as Mrs. Stotler's Camaro, bragging to friends at first that they won the lottery, but admitting to others that they murdered people.
Within 72 hours, the police are on Michael and Jason's trail. They locate the boys at a truck stop and attempt to make an arrest. The boys open fire on the police and run one police officer over, hurting his leg. They flee into a nearby building, guns blazing, before exiting into a nearby apartment complex. During the shoot out, Michael proclaims "balls to the walls." The police shoot both boys and end up taking them into custody.
In spite of engaging in a shootout with police, in spite of DNA evidence implicating both boys, in spite of witness accounts, in spite of Michael's admission to killing Adam and his friend along with a detailed description of where Police can find the bodies, neither boy was remorseful. Both denied committing the murders and Perry claimed his innocence until the end, "forgiving" the witnesses immediately prior to his lethal injection. Both boys are practiced liars, but the inconsistencies in their stories are glaring. Herzog sometimes calls them out, although never fully explores their lack of remorse, inconsistencies and refusal to accept responsibility for their actions. Yes Mrs. Stotler, you are correct, some people do not deserve to live.
This film did not really move me. I went in with an open mind and came out feeling unrewarded. While Herzog attempted to put a face on his subject matter, he could have picked a more compelling case. I felt no sympathy for his subjects and found the entire exercise a series of tepid interviews. While Herzog asked good questions, he left a lot of ground uncovered, allowed the murderers to get away with proclaiming their innocence and never tied his message together cohesively. The graveyard scene appeared to be an attempt to put an exclamation point on his subject matter, but it was misleading, which only furthered my lack of patience with this film. What could have been an interesting exploration of a controversial topic came across as weak. I was interested, but not gripped. 6.5/10.
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