Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven
On DVD from documentary film maker Al Reinert and First Run Features comes a look at AN UNREAL DREAM: The Michael Morton Story.
This film tells the story of Michael Morton, a man who is pretty happy with the love of his life wife Chris and the life they have made with their family. The day after his birthday Michael left for work and within hours he would discover his wife had been brutally murdered.
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With evidence collected and statements taken it didn’t take long before prosecutor Ken Anderson would file charges of murder for beating his wife to death that morning in 1986. Believing there was enough evidence to convict, he stopped looking for the real killer.
After the trial Mortal was given a life sentence. It would not be until 2005 when Civil Attorney John Raley and Nina Morrison of Innocence Project filed for Morton to get a DNA test would there be hope for his freedom. Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley continually tried to fight against any possibility for DNA testing, a fight that would keep Morton behind bars for six more years.
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But the truth could not be stopped forever!!
FINAL WORD and TUBS OF POPCORN: I give AN UNREAL DREAM: The Michael Morton Story three and a half tubs of popcorn out of five. This truly is a shock to watching. We are raised to believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty but what does someone do when those in charge hold the keys to freedom?
I was totally shocked by the behavior of John Bradley. I felt like it was total ego on his part with an uncaring ability to see his mistake and fix it. Morton truly is a man that is more forgiving than I think I would be. Twenty-five years of a life is something mourned by some but Morton has an outlook that is brilliant.
This documentary is not just a story about being wrongly accused, but of a man who lost a family, didn’t have time to mourn yet still believed that it would all turn itself around. Having Raley and Morrison on his side is something else I find just extraordinary. There were moments watching this documentary where I was saying out loud to them ‘Thank you! Thank you for not giving up!”
The film is very well done and director Reinert ended it with hope that those who are in care of the law faced their own sentences for throwing around their own idea of justice. Thanks to those who never give up, law-criminals such as these should never get to comfortable!
Take a moment to see this amazing documentary that will make you cry, angry, sad and eventually jubilant that one man finally sees the justice we all believe in. This film was an Audience Award Winner at the 2013 SXSW festival and much deserved.
The DVD contains bonus features such as the SXSW Premiere Highlights, Highlights from former DA Ken Anderson’s Court of Inquiry and plea deal hearing, Q&A with Oscar Nominee Al Reinert, Michael Morton and Attorney John Raley and finally the music video “Whispering Hope”
In the end – wrongly convicted was only the beginning of the madness!
