Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a huge fan of Ken Burns documentaries like Baseball, The Civil War, Mark Twain and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. Now you can add The Central Park Five to his list of Must-See films. When the name of Ken Burns comes up in conversation, the immediate reaction is "oh, that guy that uses old photos to tell his stories". Well yeah. But he is a fantastic film maker and really knows how to tell a story and across to the viewer in a very compelling way. He uses whatever content that he has at his disposal to do so.

As for The Central Park Five, this is a recounting of the notorious Central Park **** case where five black kids where coerced to give false statements, implicating themselves in a crime they had nothing to do with. I vaguely remember the case and trial, but I didn't follow it all that much since I was still a kid.

Everyone has seen a doc at one time or another, so there really isn't any ground breaking new way to tell a story. But this is where Ken Burns truly shines. It's the way the film is constructed and put together and how we slowly get the information while getting a sense of time and place and what the climate was like when the crime happened. The doc isn't just a retelling of a story, but it's without question an indictment against a system that has always been seriously flawed. There are too many outside variables that come into play that will taint those in a position of power, be it Police Officers, Detectives, Prosecutors, Judges and Juries. I thought it was very telling that the one Jury admitted that he voted 'Guilty' simply because he was being coerced by fellow jurors because they wanted the trial over and done with so they could head home.....just like the five kids.

This is a fascinating film and I highly recommend this as a Rent. For me, I would definitely Buy this to add to my Ken Burns DVD Library. This concludes my review....now go check out the movie. 5 Stars out of 5.