For me this seemed like two short movies run back to back. The first one was great, the second was hurried and polemic and I'm not sure what the point of it was.
The first half of this doc is the movie described by the title; Steel talks about the shooting of Michael Brown and the surrounding events. He interviews people in the community, reads out the pertinent portions of the trial transcripts, and compares what he found to the contemporaneous media coverage. His conclusions, well supported by the evidence, are: 1) The cop was justified in stopping Brown 2) Brown attacked the cop during the stop 3) The shooting was justified self-defense on the part of the policeman 4) The media coverage was very biased against the police and painted a false picture of the events 5) The iconic "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" chant was based on a lie - Brown was not shot with his hands up and this should have been obvious to anyone willing to look at the facts
If Steel had stopped then, he'd have a pretty solid short documentary on an important subject. Unfortunately, Steel then tacks on another half hour or so on his general disillusionment with affirmative action, the Great Society programs, etc. I'm not surprised that he feels that way - I mean, he wouldn't be a conservative if he didn't! But its way to large a topic for the time taken, I'm not sure film is even the right medium for such an exposition (you'd be better off reading anything by Thomas Sowell IMO).
If you think Michael Brown's death was a racist murder, the movie should convince you otherwise. Once you've got that part I don't much think the rest of the movie is worthwhile.
The first half of this doc is the movie described by the title; Steel talks about the shooting of Michael Brown and the surrounding events. He interviews people in the community, reads out the pertinent portions of the trial transcripts, and compares what he found to the contemporaneous media coverage. His conclusions, well supported by the evidence, are: 1) The cop was justified in stopping Brown 2) Brown attacked the cop during the stop 3) The shooting was justified self-defense on the part of the policeman 4) The media coverage was very biased against the police and painted a false picture of the events 5) The iconic "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" chant was based on a lie - Brown was not shot with his hands up and this should have been obvious to anyone willing to look at the facts
If Steel had stopped then, he'd have a pretty solid short documentary on an important subject. Unfortunately, Steel then tacks on another half hour or so on his general disillusionment with affirmative action, the Great Society programs, etc. I'm not surprised that he feels that way - I mean, he wouldn't be a conservative if he didn't! But its way to large a topic for the time taken, I'm not sure film is even the right medium for such an exposition (you'd be better off reading anything by Thomas Sowell IMO).
If you think Michael Brown's death was a racist murder, the movie should convince you otherwise. Once you've got that part I don't much think the rest of the movie is worthwhile.