“Made in America” Edelman Examines Simpson, Trump, Celebrity, Country

The insights documentarian Ezra Edelman reveals in these two articles are so thought provoking, nothing I say can do them justice. Fascinating reading.

OJ: Made In America’s Ezra Edelman interview: ‘It’s a deeper portrait of a country’

‘The director of the Oscar-winning documentary talks about the the scourge of celebrity and the similarities between the rise of O.J. Simpson and Donald Trump” 

 

Oscar-winning director of OJ: Made in America says Donald Trump is a lot like OJ Simpson

 

 

 

 

Will Simpson Tell All?

New York Daily News headline: Oscar-winning filmmaker says O.J. Simpson story still not complete, because, OJ: Made in America director Ezra Edelman says, “the final chapter in the Simpson saga is O.J.’s to write.”

But will he?

Nicole Brown, Ron Goldman at the Oscars

Here’s an early — and nice — story about documentarian Ezra Edelman accepting and dedicating the Oscar he won for his ESPN documentary O.J.: Made in America at tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony to murder victims Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman.

Simpson Documentarian Honors Two Most Deserving

In accepting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for O.J.: Made in America at tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony, documentary maker Ezra Edelman saluted the two people he said deserved most to be honored, Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown. Although they were the victims of the brutal murders that launched arguably the most notorious criminal trial in the country’s history, their names got and have continued to get lost in the hoopla and the fame and success so many have realized as a result.

I found that moving and long overdue.

Touching and laudatory as Edelman’s recognition of those two people whose lives were cut so short, I must say, I was surprised, though. The documentary featured the man so notoriously accused of murdering them and spent little time on Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown.

I’ve been pretty cynical and critical of the many books, films, TV shows and other attempts exploit and capitalize from the terrible tragedy, I feel great gratitude for Ezra Edelman and his acceptance of his award on behalf of Ron and Nicole, and hope their families were pleased.

 

“Anatomy of a Trial” Reveals More than Documentary About Trial

“Whatever you thought you knew about the O.J. Simpson story, this film will make you think again, and more deeply, about the trial of the century and all …”

That’s the teaser for a story, headlined  a story headlined The Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker Behind ‘O.J.: Made in America’ on His Oscar Night Plans and Why O.J. Still Matters about Sunday night’s Oscar presentations that includes nominations for the ESPN O.J.: Made In America documentary.

I assert that whatever you thought you knew about the 1995 Simpson murder trial, my book, Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson, will make you think again.

The book is available in digital and hard copy formats from Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826218229?m=A1UT13HVUXZL25&ref_=v_sp_widget_detail_page. It is also available — signed — from me at www.anatomyofatrial.com/contact.

Lange Exemplifies Cops’ Incompetence?

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of ESPN’s multi-part documentary is that Simpson fatigue hasn’t shut me down. Or maybe it has, partially. I am watching the production, albeit slowly. Parts 4 and 5 to go. I’ve recorded them, but haven’t gotten around to viewing them yet.

I’ve found what I have seen well done and revealing, so far as some L.A. police officers’ relationship with Simpson and their fan-club-esque groupie-ism is concerned.

Nowhere is that more unwittingly exemplified than Detective Tom Lange’s narrative at the opening of Part 3 in which he describes the crime scene when police first arrived and their course of action.

In describing Nicole Brown whose body was lying just outside the front door of her Bundy Drive home in Brentwood, Lange referred to her as O.J. Simpson’s “estranged wife” and said police had to notify her next of kin, “who was O.J. Simpson.”

Lange was wrong on both counts. Nicole Brown was not Simpson’s estranged wife. She and Simpson had been divorced for two years. As a result, he was not her next of kin. Her parents were.

But if the cops had their facts straight, they would have had no excuse to contact Simpson. They would have notified her actual next of kin and would have had no reason to go to Simpson’s house on Rockingham Drive and tell him his former wife had been murdered–unless they wanted to check him out as a possible suspect, which they obviously didn’t.

If that is any indication, then Simpson’s defense attorneys’ claims of police incompetence appear to have some substance.

Beyond Larry King’s Freudian Slip

The anecdote in the opening paragraph of The Atlantic’s June 16, 2016, O.J.: Made in America Is Vital Storytelling review…

Buried in the fourth part of O.J.: Made in America, ESPN Films’s masterful eight-hour documentary about the O.J. Simpson murder case, is a telling little Freudian slip from the then-CNN host Larry King, whose network had turned news coverage of the trial into an unprecedented 24/7 marathon. He had just met with Lance Ito, the presiding judge in the trial, and King was asked by a news crew if he wanted Ito to appear on Larry King Live. “Sure, we’d love to have him after the show is over. After the trial is over,” he said, catching himself. “It is like a show.”

…might have happened.  I don’t know. But I do know it doesn’t tell the whole story. Whoever the news crew was apparently didn’t know that King had asked for Ito to be on his show before King met him during the trial. The saga of how that meeting came about is documented on pages 65-67 of my book Anatomy of a Trial, for which I’m pretty much to blame.

Learning that King planned to be in L.A. and wanted to attend the trial, I suggested to Ito that he might meet with him to thank him. King’s was the only news broadcast or talk show that granted Ito’s request to delay by one day interviewing Faye Resnick about her rush-to-print tell-all “diary”. King also read the entire statement from Ito on a show he had asked the judge to appear on with members of the media who were unhappy about his courtroom rules and restrictions.

The rest of The Atlantic review about the ESPN documentary seemed OK to me, but then I’ve only gotten through Part 3, so far. So this blog post is based on second-hand information, since I haven’t watched Part 4, which contains the scene described in The Atlantic review’s opening ‘graph.

Few Surprises in ESPN Simpson Documentary

I’m more interested in watching the ESPN-produced documentary, “O.J.: Made in America”, which debuted last night, than I was the FX melodrama series aired earlier this year, primarily because it is a documentary.

Granted, documentaries can be skewed to favor a point of view or even “prove” something that isn’t, but at least documentaries are composed of actual footage and interviews with real people.

While the first part, carried on ABC last night, contained few surprises for me, I was surprised at what Dave Nemetz, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, in “‘O.J.: Made in America’: 8 Things We Learned From Part 1“, said he learned that he didn’t know.

The one thing I didn’t know about was Simpson’s father’s sexual orientation. In fact, I don’t ever recall any mention of his father.

But the rest? That Simpson was a living legend in L.A., that he didn’t want to get political and could talk himself out of trouble, was almost a bust in the NFL, his breakthrough role in TV ads, his mediocre acting ability–at least, in his roles as an actor–and his early encounters Nicole Brown was pretty much common knowledge to those who (1) are old enough to remember, (2) lived in L.A. and (3) paid attention to sports. Maybe Nemetz benefited from none of that.

One thing I did learn that Nemitz didn’t mention was how far back former LAPD officer Ron Shipp and Simpson’s relationship goes. Back to Shipp’s school years. I had thought it was much more recent–dating from when Simpson lived in his house in Brentwood.

While my knowledge of last night’s Part I was based on being old enough and exposed to sports enough and living in L.A., it will be interesting to see what I learn from Part II, which airs Tuesday night, as it focuses on my direct, first-hand knowledge of Simpson’s 1994-95 murder trial and many of the issues that swirled around that.

Stay tuned.

 

 

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