Kingofpop4ever3000;4304027 said:
Very true. In all fairness, in the articles I’ve seen, the media dedicated a large paragraph and a half to rehashing the allegations past and present. Then they move on to Michael’s death investigation. But in my opinion, they seem to go overboard as usual talking about the accusations when the detectives mentioned their personal feelings over just a few seconds to just a few minutes about seeing those things. I think the police photographs served as the centerpiece for the articles.
You know, I thought about the film for the last half hour or so, and now I’m not even upset that it gets such a sensationalist press over there. Because if those articles get more people to watch it, that’s actually a good thing.
Michael is shown in a very positive light in the documentary, they chose decent footage of him, they don’t show anything graphic, even the fans aren’t portrayed as crazy like they usually do. It’s a really good documentary that explains the sleeping problems that Michael had, presents all the actual facts of the case, and so on. No one who sees it would suddenly suspect any of the allegations to be true
because of the film.
The thing is, when they put the footage for the documentary together, the crime scene simply included the baby pictures and the doll. So they had the choice of either not showing any crime scene footage at all – which would obviously not be the best option, considering it’s a true crime format – or use the footage and say something about the scene. With the allegation history, it simply wouldn’t have been possible to use the footage and not comment on this.
At the beginning of the film, they also explain that Michael was acquitted of all charges in 2005, and there’s nothing in the film that suggests he was guilty anyway. I think they found a good middle ground that doesn’t sway the viewer either way. It’s also just a very brief scene, and the detectives emphasize that it had nothing to do with the case at hand.
The rest of the film comes across as very respectful towards Michael, given the difficult situation. I’d actually highly recommend it to anyone who can handle revisiting those tragic events.
My impressions are based on the version that was shown on German TV earlier this year. Of course, a different version may be shown in the USA. Or they may frame it differently by the way they announce it. We all know how these things can work out.