"Either I'm a psychopath, in sheep's clothing, or I am you." -Amanda Knox
A recent documentary, Amanda Knox, was released in September, 2016. The documentary dove into the case that had the entire world checking for news updates every day and had journalists flocking from every country to snag a picture of 20 year-old Amanda Knox. Seeing as I was only eight years old when this case first hit the media, I can't say I remember anything about the news story and the many trials, appeals, and verdicts that followed it. This past Friday, I was scrolling through Twitter and I saw something about a Netflix documentary on Amanda Knox. I knew the name, I had heard it many times in classes and on social media, but not much more than that. I decided to watch the 92 minute documentary.
It opens with footage of the home of Knox and her 22 year-old roommate, Meredith Kercher, after Kercher's body had been found and police had been called. The body had been covered in blankets, something prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said was something female murderers often did. They showed video clips of the room and damage that was present when the police arrived the morning of November 1, 2007. Immediately, I was intrigued. In the short time I had been watching the film, I already had tons of questions racing through my mind: "Who was Meredith Kercher and what was she like?" "Why had the door to her room been locked?" and "Why did Mignini believe the break in seen at the crime scene was staged?" just to name a few.
As the documentary progressed, the viewers were clued into what investigative forces were discovering. One example was the kitchen knife with both Knox's and Kercher's DNA on it, found in Knox's' at-the-time boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito's apartment. Another was both Sollecito and secondary suspect Rudy Guede changing their stories to fit Amanda into the scene of the crime. I was watching intently as clue after clue made Amanda seem like she had some kind of role int he murder. From the beginning, I had believed Amanda to be innocent and as the minutes went by, I found myself forming a distaste for Mignini and his reasons for believing her guilt. Years passed from the date of the murder and clues became inconclusive and different trial verdicts were appealed. Over the course of the documentary, they did a very good job of keeping the viewers interested while they showed everything that was discovered between 2007 and 2015.
At the end of the documentary, I was impressed to say the least. I loved the incorporation of journalism and how headlines were geared towards the "psychopathic sex-game gone wrong" tale that everyone wanted to hear about. The following of the trials through the eight years of verdicts and appeals was done in a way that gave every important detail of both sides of the case, as well as making sure it didn't drag on too much. I think the producers did an amazing job of making this documentary and I truly enjoyed watching it.
