Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered while on duty on Dec 9, 1981.
Edginton´s documentary is pretty cut-and-dry. He employs lots of interviews with experts and witnesses and also shows numerous clips of Abu-Jamal speaking. It´s easy to take on any crime case and show that there is "reasonable doubt" (again, in the absence of DNA evidence) but Edginton doesn´t provide any truly compelling counter-arguments. The best of the bunch is the fact that Abu-Jamal´s public defender had a minuscule budget compared to the prosecutor´s: how can we claim to have a "blind´ justice system when a defendant has to spend pennies to every dollar the prosecution has?
Video
The film is presented in its original 1.33:1 full-screen aspect ratio. The transfer is adequate for this fairly straight-forward documentary. There´s nothing visually dazzling here, so the lack of a progressive transfer doesn´t matter much.
Audio
The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. No subtitles are provided to support the English audio.
Extras
An extended interview (34 min) with Mumia Abu-Jamal is actually a series of clips.
A theatrical trailer and a Filmmaker Bio are also included.
Film Value
One fact that cannot be challenged is that Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered while on duty on Dec 9, 1981. Even 27 years later, his name is instantly recognizable to virtually anyone in Philadelphia. A stretch of a major highway in the city has been re-named in his honor and his wife Maureen, though she has long since moved, has been greeted like a hero when she has returned to mark some of the anniversaries of her husband´s murder.
Video
The film is presented in its original 1.33:1 full-screen aspect ratio. The transfer is adequate for this fairly straight-forward documentary. There´s nothing visually dazzling here, so the lack of a progressive transfer doesn´t matter much.
Audio
The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. No subtitles are provided to support the English audio.
Extras
An extended interview (34 min) with Mumia Abu-Jamal is actually a series of clips.
A theatrical trailer and a Filmmaker Bio are also included.
Film Value
One fact that cannot be challenged is that Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered while on duty on Dec 9, 1981. Even 27 years later, his name is instantly recognizable to virtually anyone in Philadelphia. A stretch of a major highway in the city has been re-named in his honor and his wife Maureen, though she has long since moved, has been greeted like a hero when she has returned to mark some of the anniversaries of her husband´s murder.
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[release]24318[/release]