My top 10 documentaries #5 - Made in America- The OJ Story.

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Being an Englishman I don’t know the full story and life of O.J Simpson so wanted to find out, this 8 hour parted out documentary rather brilliant at that task. I knew he played American football and a record breaking player in his position winning the Heisman Trophy but little else. He was obviously a very famous player over there and loved by black and white people alike as he moved into movies and all sorts, an A-list star. He’s actually quite good in that movie where they pretend to land on Mars, Capricorn One, I think it is. But, of course, he’s famous everywhere else in the world for losing his temper and killing his ex wife and even more famously for getting away with it as America racial fault lines creaked and screamed during his trial, the memorable Bronco police pursuit French Connection famous. But did he do it was never debated here. Even the black Brit’s said yes. But in America it became polarized and split on racial lines on whether he killed her or not. Most black American sports stars marry white women these days but back then it wasn’t as common and another trophy on OJ’s mantelpiece. People often wonder why black male stars marry white but its part of the need to be accepted in the white world, where OJ increasingly spent his time as the ghetto became a distant memory, as well as hi black friends outside the sport. But when the murder happened white America turned on him and black America were back in his corner, not because he was innocent but because he was an oppressed black man once again in their minds. They wanted him to get away with it and he did, that astonishing moment in the court that even dumbfounded his lawyers, not guilty. Did you know the head lawyer who had that facial expression of shock was Kim Kardashain’s father? The documentary is just enthralling, that race conflict spitting and snarling throughout. The lawyers in America get to handpick jurors, not surprisingly the defense team wanting more blacks than whites for the OJ trial, the prosecution wanting more women than men. Dershowitz for OJ’s legal team saw black women as black first, then women, where as the public prosecutor saw it the other way around. She was wrong, he was right. The jury was predominantly black or of color to the predominantly white Santa Monica the jurors were pulled from. It was a fascinating documentary to watch and get to know the main protagonists. How does a defense team go about defending someone they know probably killed someone, and a rich white Jewish woman too? How do black jurors go about justifying releasing a killer on the basis he is black and she was white so that’s all that matters? It’s just an incredible story to learn about and even worth watching the TV drama about the trial. The People versus OJ Simpson, which is also brilliant. If you are bored of Netflix stuff then this is well worth a look guys. It will not disappoint.