Maidgethma
Wonderfully offbeat film!
Brenda
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Joxerlives
Utterly horrifying in every way, the mistakes of the past seem so obvious now with the benefit of hindsight and experience. Perhaps the saddest fact is that the cops, social workers and prosecutors in this case weren't actually bad people but genuinely believed that what they were doing was right, that the had uncovered monstrous child abuse, that children couldn't lie about such subjects and that they had to be subjected to coercive interviews in order to bring the truth to the surface. When they eventually began to study the evidence in detail they begin to develop that nagging doubt that they may have been mistaken but by then its almost impossible for them to admit their error in the face of public and media hysteria. I think the most revealing scene is when Mercedes Rheul's character talks about them trying to find one photograph, one drunken confession, one piece of corroborative evidence to back up the kid's increasingly fantastical and unreliable testimony. When they find nothing of the sort she desperately resorts to citing the lead suspect's reading of Playboy, interest in Pyramid power and unsatisfactory sexual encounter with an adult woman as proof of his guilt? When it emerges that the original accuser was mentally ill she still cannot give up the case, its gone so far there's no turning back now. That is perhaps the real tragedy, that of human nature. James Woods really rules this film, he's playing the same sleazy lawyer we've seen him play so many times before, accustomed to defending guilty as sin drug dealers but this time finds himself unexpectedly on the side of the angels with genuinely innocent clients. It really is a tremendous tour do force from him.
SnoopyStyle
It's 1983. Police receives a complaint from Judy Johnson of her son's molestation at the McMartin family-run pre-school daycare center in Manhattan Beach, California. Eventually over 60 children make accusations of outrageous abuse at the school run by 76 year old Virginia McMartin (Sada Thompson) prodded by child-psychiatrist Kee McFarlane (Lolita Davidovich) and her questionable techniques. Virginia's grandson Ray Buckey (Henry Thomas) is at the center of the accusations. Callous defense lawyer Danny Davis (James Woods) is eager to take the case stoked into a media circus by Wayne Satz. Lael Rubin (Mercedes Ruehl) is self-righteous prosecutor. They arrest Ray, Virginia, his sister Peggy Ann (Alison Elliott), mother Peggy (Shirley Knight), and teachers Betty Raidor and Babette Spinler. Prosecutor Glenn Stevens pulls the case together discovering it to be built upon conflicting testimonies from the children.This is a compelling true story. It's told from the defense's side although I'm not sure what the prosecution's side would be. It's a harrowing case. James Woods brings his energetic persona to full force. The case is riveting and utterly memorable. It is a great award-winning TV movie from HBO.
HalRagland
"Indictment: The McMartin Trial" is a quite biased dramatization of the McMartin Preschool Case, as it should be. The case was a fraud from beginning to end and probably the most outrageous example of the allowance of mass produced coached witness testimony in the history of the justice system in the U.S. The shameful conduct of the prosecution and the judge in the case also included the introduction of perjured adult testimony as well. This case might very well be the most shameful prosecution in U.S. history.I really liked James Woods as Danny Davis, Ray Buckey's attorney, and Henry Thomas as Buckey.My favorite scene in the movie is the one with the child witness with the story of digging up all the graves in a grave yard. On cross examination Davis put before the boy several face pictures and asks him to identify who helped them dig up the graves. One of the people whose face picture he circled was of actor Chuck Norris. That scene of the defense demolition of the prosecution's coached child "testimony" more than any other left me wondering why the judge in the case was allowing this farce to continue his court room.We all supposedly learned in grade school history class that children can be coached by adults into saying anything, including the most sensational accusations of debauchery against them on the part of adults, as happened at Salem in 1692. It's amazing how easily this lesson of history can be discarded by all of the adults who were hell bent on persecuting the Buckey-McMartin family. This is why it's a shame that this movie didn't get a major theatrical release. It deserved it.After enduring a torrent of abuse at the hands of the prosecution, their "witnesses", and the media, the Buckey-McMartin family finally gets to tell their side of the story in "Indictment: The McMartin Trial".
kafkas_pandora
PLEASE do some outside research on this case. Do not judge this case based on this biased film. And to correct many of these reviews, the tunnels in fact have been found. The media failed to report this, which happened after all the news stories about the 'witch hunt' and wrong accusations. Unfortunately, satanic ritual abuse and horrible sexual abuse of this nature actually do occur. To many people, it sounds so outrageous that they think it cannot be true. But it is. There is some very sound evidence that the abuse at Mcmartin preschool actually did occur. Do the research yourself. And on a related note, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation is a fishy, fishy organization filled with pedophiles and 'psychologists' who have been kicked out of the APA. This movie is a shame and I cannot believe Oliver Stone is affiliated with it.
