Brings so much perspective into today's ongoing issues & how as a society American will sadly never change Phenomenal footage Depicting the raw senseless and horrific actions and outcomes of Rodney King beating & the apocalyptic aftermath that followed. Don't mistKe this for a movie , this is feet on the ground first person perspective footage that captures the destruction of communities by the communities. Hard to comprehend what I just watched, yet educated me immensely on why the current situation is as it is. A must watch for anyone remotely questioning why we are where we are today
44 Reviews
2 wrongs don't make a right
rzaxlash27 April 2018
I will choose a different angle for my review. First off, this documentary was brilliant. The footage is astounding and the editing is flawless. Major props to the subtle but powerful score. My one major issue is this.
The Rodney King beaters were disgusting. Not only for their crimes but their smugness during the trial. The footage was awful and exposed a larger cultural departmental problem. Racial tensions were already bubbling and that verdict blew the lid open. We see the Black Caucus, black leaders, LA's mayor, numerous politicians all denounce the police's actions and their displeasure with the verdict..and then come the riots...
I have yet to see one piece of work condemn the looters, murderers and criminals that took to the streets of LA. This was not Maxine Waters or truly oppressed folks. These were savages. And we only hear a half hearted speech from the LA mayor about how nobody wants violence. Where was the outrage from these public figures and condemnation for these heinous acts? What the Korean store owners went through was nothing short of hate crimes. You could tell that the older folks in LA wanted no part of these riots. One of The most heartbreaking parts of this doc was the older store owner pleading to the streets about how he grew up in the ghetto too and wondering why they looted and destroyed his store.
Now, this documentary made a point to let the footage speak for itself but I can't help but get the feeling that it implies the same point that every other LA riots doc does. That the riots were somehow justified. And that is a grossly irresponsible point of view in my opinion.
With that said, this is an amazing work. Highly reccomended.
The Rodney King beaters were disgusting. Not only for their crimes but their smugness during the trial. The footage was awful and exposed a larger cultural departmental problem. Racial tensions were already bubbling and that verdict blew the lid open. We see the Black Caucus, black leaders, LA's mayor, numerous politicians all denounce the police's actions and their displeasure with the verdict..and then come the riots...
I have yet to see one piece of work condemn the looters, murderers and criminals that took to the streets of LA. This was not Maxine Waters or truly oppressed folks. These were savages. And we only hear a half hearted speech from the LA mayor about how nobody wants violence. Where was the outrage from these public figures and condemnation for these heinous acts? What the Korean store owners went through was nothing short of hate crimes. You could tell that the older folks in LA wanted no part of these riots. One of The most heartbreaking parts of this doc was the older store owner pleading to the streets about how he grew up in the ghetto too and wondering why they looted and destroyed his store.
Now, this documentary made a point to let the footage speak for itself but I can't help but get the feeling that it implies the same point that every other LA riots doc does. That the riots were somehow justified. And that is a grossly irresponsible point of view in my opinion.
With that said, this is an amazing work. Highly reccomended.
A reminder of history and how we seem doomed to repeat it
Mcduff360116 March 2018
After watching this it was hard to believe that this ACTUALLY happened. This was in the United States! With today's current political and racial climate it seems like all the old problems are as big as ever. Sooner or later something has to give.
National Geographic never seems to dissapoint in their movies. I enjoyed watching this, it was quickly paced and very informative. As someone who grew up and watched this happening on TV it didn't bother me how it was all shot and seemed to be view on a VCR.
Would totally recommend this movie for anyone who loves National Geographic or wants to learn more about the LA riots.
National Geographic never seems to dissapoint in their movies. I enjoyed watching this, it was quickly paced and very informative. As someone who grew up and watched this happening on TV it didn't bother me how it was all shot and seemed to be view on a VCR.
Would totally recommend this movie for anyone who loves National Geographic or wants to learn more about the LA riots.
It's extraordinary. Just... Just watch it.
skbharman24 July 2017
A friend of mine asked me if I've seen this. "You must see it", he said, "I was on the edge of my seat the whole documentary". Figuratively, I of course assumed. But it wasn't figuratively.
It was literally.
Half-way through it I realized that my muscles were tense and my breath shallow, there could have been a riot going on outside without me noticing, because I was in the middle of the 1992 LA riots. This documentary is intense, it's frightening, it's scary, and all just by showing archive footage with some added music.
It gives a perspective on what led to the riots, and it draws – sometimes eerie – comparisons to the Watts riots. I would argue that this is an important documentary. It's brutal, it's frightening, it's sad, it might make you nauseous, and it will probably make you think.
It's extraordinary. Just... Just watch it.
It was literally.
Half-way through it I realized that my muscles were tense and my breath shallow, there could have been a riot going on outside without me noticing, because I was in the middle of the 1992 LA riots. This documentary is intense, it's frightening, it's scary, and all just by showing archive footage with some added music.
It gives a perspective on what led to the riots, and it draws – sometimes eerie – comparisons to the Watts riots. I would argue that this is an important documentary. It's brutal, it's frightening, it's sad, it might make you nauseous, and it will probably make you think.
It's extraordinary. Just... Just watch it.
Brilliant
jellopuke6 March 2018
Simply using existing footage and avoiding any talking heads, this weaves a tale of how an incident incited violence in a community, what happened, and how nothing was really changed. I can't praise this enough for just letting images tell the story, never getting heavy handed with "experts." SEE THIS.
Raw, Gritty, and Honest!
dennishuffington-958982 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
There's a saying: There's no time like the present. Except there is a time like the present, and National Geographic is premiering LA 92, a documentary that dug up every nook and cranny of 1992 in the City of Los Angeles, a time just like the present. LA 92's edge comes from the use of only archival footage tell its story. There are no interviews or experts, just raw footage of each and every catalyst, narrated by everyday people and news media alike. Even though I knew the outcome, I still sat in suspense because every second is authentic.
About 35 minutes in, my stomach began to burn and I felt the same disappointment and resentment as the real people in the documentary. America hasn't recovered from Ferguson, Baltimore, and police brutality continues to deepen America's political and racial divide, just like the divide in LA 92, the divide that has always been in America. LA 92's tagline, The Past Is Prologue, couldn't be more fitting. Just as the LA riots preceded Ferguson, riots in Watts preceded LA's 92 riots.
From the opening of LA 92, it is crystal clear, that racism and police brutality have long been intertwined. We see a police department that not only criminalizes a group of people but also fails to protect that same group of people. The LAPD has long been tarnished by accusations of racism, and there is enough footage in LA 92 to uphold those accusations. In their own words, LAPD officers admitted they performed actions that were "violent" and that "police work can be brutal." The smoking gun was the admission that, "In Los Angeles, the chokehold is associated with death for blacks."
One officer's testimony in the Rodney King Trial sounds like the blueprint for George Zimmerman's testimony during his trial for the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Both Zimmerman and the officer defended themselves by saying they were so scared of being killed by their victims that they acted violently and brutally in self defense. This mindset that African- Americans are inherently violent is the dangerous societal side effect of the systematic criminalization of African-Americans that has led to the murders of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, and countless other African-Americans.
At one point of LA 92, someone shouts out "Black lives matter!" long before the hashtag. That is the importance of LA 92. This documentary is a case study that examines a system and not just a city or a year. LA 92 could easily be BALTIMORE 2015 or FERGUSON 2014. The buildup, explosion, and aftermath were all the same, yet we still have the same problems. The hysteria we see in LA is the same hysteria I witnessed firsthand living in St. Louis during 2014. I remember the boarded up storefronts and closed off highways. I also remember the burning buildings in Ferguson and military tanks parked in random locations, ready to pushback against any resistance.
Did we learn anything from any of those events? The answer is yes, but there is still much more to learn and that is what makes LA 92 a must-see.
LA 92 premieres at Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, followed by a screening tour including St. Louis on April 29, before premiering on National Geographic on April 30
About 35 minutes in, my stomach began to burn and I felt the same disappointment and resentment as the real people in the documentary. America hasn't recovered from Ferguson, Baltimore, and police brutality continues to deepen America's political and racial divide, just like the divide in LA 92, the divide that has always been in America. LA 92's tagline, The Past Is Prologue, couldn't be more fitting. Just as the LA riots preceded Ferguson, riots in Watts preceded LA's 92 riots.
From the opening of LA 92, it is crystal clear, that racism and police brutality have long been intertwined. We see a police department that not only criminalizes a group of people but also fails to protect that same group of people. The LAPD has long been tarnished by accusations of racism, and there is enough footage in LA 92 to uphold those accusations. In their own words, LAPD officers admitted they performed actions that were "violent" and that "police work can be brutal." The smoking gun was the admission that, "In Los Angeles, the chokehold is associated with death for blacks."
One officer's testimony in the Rodney King Trial sounds like the blueprint for George Zimmerman's testimony during his trial for the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Both Zimmerman and the officer defended themselves by saying they were so scared of being killed by their victims that they acted violently and brutally in self defense. This mindset that African- Americans are inherently violent is the dangerous societal side effect of the systematic criminalization of African-Americans that has led to the murders of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, and countless other African-Americans.
At one point of LA 92, someone shouts out "Black lives matter!" long before the hashtag. That is the importance of LA 92. This documentary is a case study that examines a system and not just a city or a year. LA 92 could easily be BALTIMORE 2015 or FERGUSON 2014. The buildup, explosion, and aftermath were all the same, yet we still have the same problems. The hysteria we see in LA is the same hysteria I witnessed firsthand living in St. Louis during 2014. I remember the boarded up storefronts and closed off highways. I also remember the burning buildings in Ferguson and military tanks parked in random locations, ready to pushback against any resistance.
Did we learn anything from any of those events? The answer is yes, but there is still much more to learn and that is what makes LA 92 a must-see.
LA 92 premieres at Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, followed by a screening tour including St. Louis on April 29, before premiering on National Geographic on April 30
Masterpiece
par_sb24 June 2019
Not only is a film about a relevant issue, is a statement of an era that seems to have never passed. Is a film that'll make you angry, frustrated and emotional for all the right reasons. Violence and chaos in a masterfully constructed work from archive and found footage. The thoughtful and compassionate filmmaking is remarkable, unforgettable and utterly compelling. Must watch for every single person to remind us of our past, of every successful and failed step we've taken to become what we've become. Justice is only a myth...
Perspective
basil198412 May 2017
I was 13, living in an affluent New England town, and totally oblivious to Los Angeles in 1992 (beyond my life-long cinema obsession). Looking back, the LA Riots influenced America (the music, the election, film, our language, our style, and our acceptance or rejection of diversity) more than any other event in the 1990's. Even having lived in LA for a few years (only about a decade later), I never really understood the impact of the riots on that city until I saw this. The style of this doc is 'manipulation' but, if you can get pasts some of its tasteless pandering, seeing this footage (chronologically shown in the film), was absolutely eye-opening. I never really experienced racism until I moved to Los Angeles in my 20's and there really was a feeling that I could only liken to the friction that causes earthquakes (coincidentally) within the culture of that city; it's a bloody mess of ambition, failure, inequality, and segregation (racial & financial). The film sets up the social climate with the Watts riots (which, oddly, I feel more informed about) and all but suggests that we're due for another social catastrophe and, by all accounts, I can't say that I disagree.
Looking Back To April 29, 1992
virek21310 June 2020
Racism is one of the ugliest aspects (if not indeed the ugliest aspect) of life in, and the history of, the United States. This is especially true among the African-American community with respect to dealing with law enforcement officers who are almost invariably White. Los Angeles is one city that has had an especially ugly history, especially with respect to the 1965 Watts riots. But on April 29, 1992, when four LAPD officers were acquitted in the early 1991 beating of motorist Rodney King, which was videotaped by a resident in Lakeview Terrace, the City of Angels exploded with even more ultra-violent results. The 1992 riots, which were widespread over the entire city, lasted for five days, resulting in sixty-three deaths, nearly 2400 injuries, 11,000 arrests, and property damage of over a billion dollars. In April 2017, the 25th anniversary of the riots, National Geographic TV documented the horrific events in the made-for-TV documentary "LA 92".
In all too vivid and graphic detail, filmmakers Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin detail the build-up to the 1992 riots, which actually had their roots in what happened in 1965. A pull-over of two black men by two white CHP cops at the intersection of 116th Street and Avalon Boulevard in Watts that resulted in those men getting beaten up sparked that particular uprising. But relations between the African-American community and the largely White corps of the Los Angeles Police Department would never fully be mended after 1965; and in many ways, both subtle and decidedly unsubtle, in part thanks to the thinly veiled bigotry of LAPD chiefs William Parker and Darryl Gates, the situation only proceeded to get worse. The March 1991 videotaped beating of King was followed two weeks later by the videotaped shooting of a black teen by the name of Latasha Harlins by a Korean-American storeowner who thought Harlins was shoplifting. The powder keg was there, and it had been lit. And at 3:15 PM on April 29, 1992, officers Lawrence Powell, Stacet Koons, Theodore Brisceno, and Timothy Wind were acquitted by a largely White jury in a courthouse in Simi Valley, in Ventura County, where the trial was moved due to possible jury bias in Los Angeles. The jury hung on one other charge. The reaction was swift, angry, merciless, and extreme.
Using a great deal of raw footage, some of it shown without sound, that the vast majority of the public had rarely if ever seen prior to this, "LA 92" then moves to the building violence that began outside the Simi Valley courthouse; took shape outside of LAPD headquarters at Parker Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and then exploded when hyper-violent African Americans took matters into their own hands and began beating and assaulting motorists at various intersections in south central L.A., notably truck driver Reginald Denny, who was almost killed with a brick to the head at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. Then we get to the Korean-American merchants who become the targets of the vandals and the looters because of the Latasha Harlins incident, and thus have to become their own militia to protect themselves and their businesses. The scenes of horror, madness, violence, and rage are all too vividly brought together in such a way as to be not only a not-all-too-distant memory but also a reminder that race relations in the 21st century, even after having had an African-American in the White House from 2009 to 2017, are still nowhere close to where they should be, and could still explode into extreme violence once again as they had done in 1992 and 1965.
Although done matter-of-factly, without any commentary or narration, "LA 92" is nevertheless an extremely upsetting examination of the second biggest city in America in constant turmoil over a period of decades, as part of the larger microcosm of America as it stood in the waning seven and a half years of the 20th century, going into the 21st century. As the film shows, well before the 1992 insurrection, there were already smaller but nevertheless visible spasms of violence and anger occurring: an L.A. City Council confrontations with Gates; extreme anger in community meetings with police brutality; televised excerpts from Simi Valley; and overt reactions outside the courthouse just before the verdicts. The fact that "LA 92" aired on the National Geographic Channel on April 21, 2017, just prior to the 25th anniversary of the riots, and just three months after the United States saw the swearing-in of its most overtly bigoted commander-in-chief in the form of Donald Trump, made revisiting this dark chapter in recent American history all the more necessary. America is still emphatically not the land of the free for all; and until it lives up to that creed, we can easily have a repeat of what we saw in 1992 at any point in the 21st century.
In all too vivid and graphic detail, filmmakers Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin detail the build-up to the 1992 riots, which actually had their roots in what happened in 1965. A pull-over of two black men by two white CHP cops at the intersection of 116th Street and Avalon Boulevard in Watts that resulted in those men getting beaten up sparked that particular uprising. But relations between the African-American community and the largely White corps of the Los Angeles Police Department would never fully be mended after 1965; and in many ways, both subtle and decidedly unsubtle, in part thanks to the thinly veiled bigotry of LAPD chiefs William Parker and Darryl Gates, the situation only proceeded to get worse. The March 1991 videotaped beating of King was followed two weeks later by the videotaped shooting of a black teen by the name of Latasha Harlins by a Korean-American storeowner who thought Harlins was shoplifting. The powder keg was there, and it had been lit. And at 3:15 PM on April 29, 1992, officers Lawrence Powell, Stacet Koons, Theodore Brisceno, and Timothy Wind were acquitted by a largely White jury in a courthouse in Simi Valley, in Ventura County, where the trial was moved due to possible jury bias in Los Angeles. The jury hung on one other charge. The reaction was swift, angry, merciless, and extreme.
Using a great deal of raw footage, some of it shown without sound, that the vast majority of the public had rarely if ever seen prior to this, "LA 92" then moves to the building violence that began outside the Simi Valley courthouse; took shape outside of LAPD headquarters at Parker Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and then exploded when hyper-violent African Americans took matters into their own hands and began beating and assaulting motorists at various intersections in south central L.A., notably truck driver Reginald Denny, who was almost killed with a brick to the head at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. Then we get to the Korean-American merchants who become the targets of the vandals and the looters because of the Latasha Harlins incident, and thus have to become their own militia to protect themselves and their businesses. The scenes of horror, madness, violence, and rage are all too vividly brought together in such a way as to be not only a not-all-too-distant memory but also a reminder that race relations in the 21st century, even after having had an African-American in the White House from 2009 to 2017, are still nowhere close to where they should be, and could still explode into extreme violence once again as they had done in 1992 and 1965.
Although done matter-of-factly, without any commentary or narration, "LA 92" is nevertheless an extremely upsetting examination of the second biggest city in America in constant turmoil over a period of decades, as part of the larger microcosm of America as it stood in the waning seven and a half years of the 20th century, going into the 21st century. As the film shows, well before the 1992 insurrection, there were already smaller but nevertheless visible spasms of violence and anger occurring: an L.A. City Council confrontations with Gates; extreme anger in community meetings with police brutality; televised excerpts from Simi Valley; and overt reactions outside the courthouse just before the verdicts. The fact that "LA 92" aired on the National Geographic Channel on April 21, 2017, just prior to the 25th anniversary of the riots, and just three months after the United States saw the swearing-in of its most overtly bigoted commander-in-chief in the form of Donald Trump, made revisiting this dark chapter in recent American history all the more necessary. America is still emphatically not the land of the free for all; and until it lives up to that creed, we can easily have a repeat of what we saw in 1992 at any point in the 21st century.
National Geographic does 1992 LA riot
SnoopyStyle1 May 2017
This gives some quick background starting with the '65 Watts riots. There is political background. Once we get to Rodney King and Mrs Du's killing of Latasha Harlins, the riot starts to build. It is a lot of the old footage stitched together. It does mean the quality is lower with plenty of shaky camera work. However, it does give a relatively full accounting of the events and delivers the immediacy of the moment. The emotional climax is Rodney King's pleading news conference. This is a solid documentary of that time and the riot.
Rage unleashed
kosmasp15 April 2019
The documentary boasts that it has material in it that was not released or seen by the public before. Since I did not know all the details anyway, but just had a sense of what had happened, I can't verify that. But whatever the case, that should not matter. What we do see is horrific. Be it the beating (and let me stress that out, very excecssive and very unnecessary at that) or the fallout of a very strange verdict, that really was not justice.
The movie itself does not comment on many things directly, it lets the people who were affected speak and lets the viewer decide what he or she makes of it. It is not easy viewing and there are certain things that I didn't know happened, things that in the overall scheme of things might not have been noticed by many. Like another case of injustice around that time. Like what the riots meant and who they affected - especially concerning the American Korean community.
If you can stomache this, it is exhilareting but also a history lesson of some sorts ... if you are into something like that
The movie itself does not comment on many things directly, it lets the people who were affected speak and lets the viewer decide what he or she makes of it. It is not easy viewing and there are certain things that I didn't know happened, things that in the overall scheme of things might not have been noticed by many. Like another case of injustice around that time. Like what the riots meant and who they affected - especially concerning the American Korean community.
If you can stomache this, it is exhilareting but also a history lesson of some sorts ... if you are into something like that
Riots & Fires in the Streets of LA
mikipryor-15 January 2018
I thought the film was overly ambitious. They started w @ 2000 hrs of raw footage and edited in 9 months. There's no explanation or understanding of govt or police strategy (or lack thereof). It would work better as a series. The old vhs footage is hard to watch on the big screen. Compared w Ken Burns series on Vietnam, it's a poor second- although not a fair comparison (Burns worked for years and added contemporary interviews and @ 10+ hours). We are informed at one point that there were over 900 fires during the riots but are never shown where and when (a map with all the fires would have been good here). There is no information about grassroots or cooperative efforts by the community leaders. We don't see any community leaders interacting with police or government officials, although there must have been some meetings & conferences. We do see Maxine Waters calm a crowd but nothing about how the crowd was gathered - same with a group of peaceful Korean protesters. There had to be organizations that coordinated these demonstrations but there is no information regarding that.
Overall, a muddled, well-intentioned effort to discuss an ugly incident.
Biased....
pensacolacomputer23 July 2020
Why show ALL of the clips of police wrongdoing that they could find in LA??...then not show any of the police helping people of color which happens EVERYDAY??...Why only show one side? They try to explain away all of the destruction that they caused afterwards...They try to make you think that the police act horribly everyday...and that they are just out to beat people...which is obviously just not true...
So was it a bad decision from the court? Absolutely....But there have been MANY cases where the other side did not win when they should have....but they fail to show those of course....The media only focuses on police brutality when its someone of color....why dont they show the other way around? Cops are more likely to die everyday than the other way around...but of course they do not tell you about those...Because that does not fit their narrative...They want people of color to hate the police...I can not blame them for hating the police though...since all they see on tv is just that...But blame is to be had for how they handle the situation afterwards....Two wrongs dont make a right....
Point is, people need to start defunding the media instead...and the only way to do that is to change the channel...Peace
So was it a bad decision from the court? Absolutely....But there have been MANY cases where the other side did not win when they should have....but they fail to show those of course....The media only focuses on police brutality when its someone of color....why dont they show the other way around? Cops are more likely to die everyday than the other way around...but of course they do not tell you about those...Because that does not fit their narrative...They want people of color to hate the police...I can not blame them for hating the police though...since all they see on tv is just that...But blame is to be had for how they handle the situation afterwards....Two wrongs dont make a right....
Point is, people need to start defunding the media instead...and the only way to do that is to change the channel...Peace
Extraordinary and compelling.
diogoalves-857244 March 2018
This documentary does an extraordinary job at depicting the events that unfolded in south Los Angeles in 1992 through the use of compelling 'raw' footage from the event itself. It also accurately shows the connection to past similar events that led to the L.A riots in 1992, and its use of symbolic historical footage creates a powerful and striking analysis that is hard to forget.
A raw, brutal, emotional and destruction filled emotion rollercoaster.
happytoms7 July 2019
Great insight for someone who has heard about it but never knew all the détails about it. This documentary gave me a whole new perspective about the events which happened which I had only heard about.
Watching this felt like it was a movie but it wasn't. It kept me engaged and I couldn't stop watching and wanted to find out more.
This shows why it happened. How it escalated and how people were fighting for their rights till some people started to abuse the situation and took it to new heights. It's also filled with stories of innocent people who didn't do nothing or wanted to be a part of it dragged into to this and it made them suffer. In short I feel like everything in this documentary was done right to make you feel like you were there. I could feel the emotions through the screen of my TV. And I want to reccomend it to everyone.
Watching this felt like it was a movie but it wasn't. It kept me engaged and I couldn't stop watching and wanted to find out more.
This shows why it happened. How it escalated and how people were fighting for their rights till some people started to abuse the situation and took it to new heights. It's also filled with stories of innocent people who didn't do nothing or wanted to be a part of it dragged into to this and it made them suffer. In short I feel like everything in this documentary was done right to make you feel like you were there. I could feel the emotions through the screen of my TV. And I want to reccomend it to everyone.
Documentary Film at its best
arojasjr7 July 2020
Documentary done right
adkalkan22 November 2020
You might be like me, where you like documentaries but find the commentator's narration very showcasting and sometimes leading. Just give me the facts and I will be the one responsible for drawing my own conclusions.
This movie does just that. It's a collection of publicly available footage meticulously put together and juxtaposed to events in the past letting you participate actively by thinking where we are heading. Amazing!
This movie does just that. It's a collection of publicly available footage meticulously put together and juxtaposed to events in the past letting you participate actively by thinking where we are heading. Amazing!
Riveting
ericanaess3 October 2020
This documentary is like when you can't look away from a car crash. It's sort of horrible, but fascinating. I love the approach of just using archival news footage.
Completely disagree with the person complaining about it being too biased. The news footage included does not make the violent looters look good at all. You see their insensible violence, the deaths, and also the despair of shop owners. They are made to look just as bad as the police officers.
But the film does a good job of explaining how this powder keg exploded. It makes it quite clear that while it started with King, this isn't something he wanted to happen, and it quickly digressed to having nothing to do with that.
What's nice about only using the news footage and seeing what people said and did is that you can read between the lines and draw your own conclusions. This is just as much about poverty as it is racism.
And the worst part is that the US has barely moved on from the situation of 1992, so it's happening again and again in 2014 and 2020. And probably beyond.
Completely disagree with the person complaining about it being too biased. The news footage included does not make the violent looters look good at all. You see their insensible violence, the deaths, and also the despair of shop owners. They are made to look just as bad as the police officers.
But the film does a good job of explaining how this powder keg exploded. It makes it quite clear that while it started with King, this isn't something he wanted to happen, and it quickly digressed to having nothing to do with that.
What's nice about only using the news footage and seeing what people said and did is that you can read between the lines and draw your own conclusions. This is just as much about poverty as it is racism.
And the worst part is that the US has barely moved on from the situation of 1992, so it's happening again and again in 2014 and 2020. And probably beyond.
A Moving Account
nadiatownshend11 April 2018
The documentary is flawless in its retelling and the editing of the archival footage really places you in the midst of the moments captured - you almost feel like you are there.
Parts were incredibly hard to watch - specifically the footage of Reginald Denny, the truck driver being pulled from his truck...
But it is important to show the brutality and raw anger and frustrations that those few days entailed in order to educate people about the reasons behind the eruption of the riots in LA in '92.
From what I learnt from the documentary - the reasons behind the riots were far more intricate and complex than what was displayed on the news. It inspired me to read more about it and find out more about the people who were involved.
All in all probably one of the most fascinating, if not scarily real documentaries I have seen, which lays it all out factually using all original footage and doesn't hold back.
It's so sad that such a great city as LA, with all its diversity, exploded in that symphony of chaos and the archival footage shows that it really was a wake up call to the city to draw together. Furthermore the way the city came together in the wake of the violence in order to rebuild was really wonderful and when we think of the riots we don't necessarily think of those good deeds that happened in the aftermath, but the documentary importantly reminds us that in the end there is hope for society yet.
I can't Breathe
lesfreresduson8 June 2020
From an era when the videocamera started recording police brutality for the very first time...
imseeg14 May 2023
For those too young to have lived through that period this documentary is a shocking account of police brutality during the nineties.
The 1992 LA riots, (that were a reaction to the acquittal of rogue LA cops, by an entirely white jury), ultimately caused 58 deaths and 1 billion dollars in damage.
I had already seen several documentaries about Rodney King and this documentary doesnt add any new footage, but what it does show is exemplary of how race riots start and how devestating they are.
This documentary shows the buildup to the riots and the riots themselves. Almost 90 minutes of nonstop violence. Beware: it contains several extremely revolting violent scenes.
The 1992 LA riots, (that were a reaction to the acquittal of rogue LA cops, by an entirely white jury), ultimately caused 58 deaths and 1 billion dollars in damage.
I had already seen several documentaries about Rodney King and this documentary doesnt add any new footage, but what it does show is exemplary of how race riots start and how devestating they are.
This documentary shows the buildup to the riots and the riots themselves. Almost 90 minutes of nonstop violence. Beware: it contains several extremely revolting violent scenes.
A Must See
stephaniejabri9 July 2020
The documentary is solely comprised of archival footage, and tells the story of the beating of Rodney King and the events that transpired afterwards. For someone who was born after the Rodney King riots, it really gave me a better understanding of the context surrounding the events. Though no film is impartial, I feel like this film gave a pretty fair representation to the difficulties faced by the black community, the Korean community, and law enforcement. There is no narration and I feel like I was able to walk away with my own conclusions (as opposed to having conclusions editorialized for me by the filmmakers). Overall, this is a work of fantastic editing and archival producing. Highly recommend.
Interesting
colonel-1307026 October 2019
Regardless if the cops were right or wrong, which this covers pretty well, what it doesn't cover is the complete destruction of a community by people who live in the same community. That is an action I can never understand. What would someone blow up their own lives and neighborhood to prove a point that, because of their actions, leaves then with less that they had before this incident. The true victims are community members who are innocent and just trying to live and now have nothing due to their own destroying everything.
The activists and so called community leaders incise these people then sends them out to destroy everything, ultimately get arrested, while leaders don't face anything at all. You still see people being used as pawns today. Sad.
The activists and so called community leaders incise these people then sends them out to destroy everything, ultimately get arrested, while leaders don't face anything at all. You still see people being used as pawns today. Sad.
An intense experience
rafolejniczak-6511118 June 2020
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