EVIDENCE OF BLOOD

US, 1998, 109 minutes, Colour.
David Strathairn, Mary Mc Donnell, Sean Mc Cann, Jackie Burroughs.
Directed by Andrew Mondshein.

This is a very impressive film. While it was made for television, it is as strong or stronger than many films for cinema release.

The film has great strength in David Strathairn as a Pulitzer prize journalist returning to his home town for a funeral, encountering Mary Mc Donnell as the daughter of a man executed for a murder forty years earlier. His friend who died, in a relationship with the woman, had been investigating the old murder and uncovered a number of clues before he died.

The journalist decides to remain in the town, not convinced of the guilt of the accused. He interviews a wide range of people in the town, collects evidence, examines the evidence in the way that he did for his Pulitzer prizewinning books about criminals and the criminal mind.

With the leads, the film seems very natural – not a Hollywood-style star vehicle. To that extent, the situations and the characters seem quite credible. Audiences will identify them even if the experience is not close to their own.

The film builds to a conclusion, relying on some friendships, on some speculations about the murder, with readings of the transcripts from the trial and the visualising of these. It also employs flashbacks in the repressed memories of the journalist – which bring the film to an unexpected conclusion, because he witnessed the killing.

This is a very good film about journalistic investigations as well as a satisfying murder mystery and an exploration of the American south in the 1960s.

1. A thoughtful film, investigation, murder mystery, picture of society, crime and justice, morality?

2. The title, as referred to Dora, to Kinley? The irony for Kinley?

3. The Georgia settings, the small town, the attention to detail, the shops, the diners, the barbers? The people in this context?

4. The Georgia countryside, the woods, the huts, the mountains? The locations for the deaths?

5. The introduction with the picturing of the execution of the criminal? Kinley as a witness, his watching, the effect on him, the killer looking directly at him? Audience response to the visualising of an execution? The journalist’s interviewing Kinley afterwards?

6. Kinley watching the tapes, the killer explaining himself? Explanations or lack of explanation? Dora looking at the tape, her asking Kinley about it and how he worked in estimating the motivations of the killer?

7. The information about Ray and his death, Kinley’s visit, the six years since his previous visit and his grandmother’s death? The memories of his grandmother and her care? His asthma, his running and falling in the woods?

8. The case, his interest, his powers of investigation, the funeral of Ray? Dora’s presence, looking through Ray’s files? The Overton file missing? The various letters, Ray and his leaving of messages and notes? The enigmatic twigs?

9. The relationship between Ray and Dora, Ray’s interest in opening up the case again, his stopping? Dora and her feelings for Ray? Letting Kinley know about the funeral, aware of the strong friendship between Ray and Kinley, Kinley reminiscing about the friendship? Dora and her need to know the truth?

10. Kinley and his investigations, looking through files, the range of interviews, his point of view on the crime? The friendship with Dora, at the bar, at the house, the discussions? Their relationship? The mutual needs? Her reactions to the relationship, her slapping Kinley, his being taken aback?

11. The reconstruction of the crime, gradually revealed to the audience, the girl and the accused, the range of testimonies and transcripts, the transcripts being visualised, the court sequences? Prosecutor, defender? Lloyd Overton being quiet? The girl’s mother and the questioning? Luther Snow? Lloyd and his work, the truck, the girl on the mountain, the reason for her being there, waiting? The discovery of her pregnancy, the doctor and his refusing the abortion, her going to Kinley’s mother, the process, her death? The men present? Kinley’s grandmother? The bloodstained dress, the grandmother hanging it in the woods? The body in the car, Edna Mae driving it interstate, Edna Mae’s decision to crash the car, the unidentified bodies? The role of Kinley’s mother, the sequence in court with the prosecutor, the nature of her medicine, people coming to her for help, the touch of magic, potions? The grandmother? The men and their league, the cover-up? Kinley’s realisation that he saw what had happened? The doctor and the talking about repressed memories?

12. The sheriff and his father, the Warfield family, talking with Kinley, giving information, the addresses, reminiscing? Wanting to preserve his father’s reputation? The almost crash and his threats?

13. The defence lawyer, at the bar, watching Dora? The information for Kinley, ousting him politely? The second visit, the truth, the information, his wanting to save Lloyd, Lloyd’s wife being pregnant, his knowing about Lloyd’s impotence, the war wounds? The pregnant mother? His wanting the mother to have Lloyd as support for the daughter? His own wife and her illness? Watching his daughter, his grief that he could never reveal himself to her?

14. The barber and her chat, the information about the meeting with the girl? The town archives, Mrs Hunter and her helping? The information, getting the file about his mother?

15. The girl’s mother, in black, wandering the town, mentally disturbed, the testimony in court about her daughter’s dress, the white collar and Kinley realising that it was not there, the woman telling her it had been cut off? Her reading the transcripts, the preserved page?

16. Luther Snow, his testimony in court, his lies?

17. Wade, as a young man, the poor investigation, the cover-up? Forty years later and his giving Kinley information?

18. Kinley reading Lloyd’s letters, discovering the humanity in the man, his wounds, his impotence? His bewilderment about his wife and her pregnancy? Looking at the newspaper clippings, tracking down the journalist? His role in giving information for the case, it not being heeded? His keeping the evidence?

19. The cleaner, the dress, her showing it to Kinley?

20. The doctor and his help, not knowing about the pregnancy? His story about Kinley’s asthma?

21. The effect of the investigation on Kinley, going to the hut, realising that he had witnessed everything, his mother and her role, the grandmother, the dress? The men? His difficulty in breathing – and the story that the doctor had told him, his grandmother driving him in the car, his driving the car in the present, trying to breathe? Almost crashing with Warfield?

22. The impact of the truth, for his career, his writings? For his own life?

23. The final scene, his promising to tell Dora everything?

24. The overall impact of getting to know these people, uncovering the past – and considering guilt, innocence, crime, cover-ups, execution?