Devil's Knot

Director: Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan

Overview

Director Atom Egoyan adapts journalist Mara Leveritt non-fiction book to the screen in this docudrama centered on the investigation into the notorious West Memphis Three case (previously the subject of filmmaker Joe Berlinger's Paradise Lost documentaries). Centered on the investigation conducted by private detective Ron Lax (Colin Firth), The Devil's Knot details the discovery of crucial DNA evidence that helped to win back the freedom of Arkansas teens Damien Echols, James Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who were accused of ritualistically murdering three young boys in 1993. Stephen Moyer and Reese Witherspoon co-star.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/10/2014
UPC:	0014381000566
Original Release:	2013
Rating:	NR
Source:	RLJ ENTERTAINMENT, INC
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:54:00
Sales rank:	15,408

Special Features

The making of Devil's Knot; Getting into character: the cast of Devil's Knot; Deleted Scenes

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Reese Witherspoon	Pam Hobbs
Colin Firth	Ron Lax
Amy Ryan	Margaret Lax
Mireille Enos	Vicki Hutcheson
Stephen Moyer	John Fogelman
Dane DeHaan	Chris Morgan
Alessandro Nivola	Terry Hobbs
James Hamrick	Damien Echols
Seth Meriwether	Jason Baldwin
Kris Higgins	Jessie Misskelley,Actor
Collette Wolfe	Glori Shettles
Rex Linn	Chief Inspector Gitchell
Bruce Greenwood	Judge Burnett
Kristoffer Polaha	Val Price
Matt Letscher	Paul Ford,Actor
Michael Gladis	Dan Stidham
Martin Henderson	Brent Davis
Ted Huckabee	Steve Jones
Elias Koteas	Jerry Driver
Kerry Cahill	Jo Lynn
Jet Jurgensmeyer	Stevie Branch
Paul Boardman Jr.	Michael Moore
Julie Ivey	Melissa Byers
Lori Beth Edgeman	Annie
Stan Houston	Detective Donald Bray
Gary Grubbs	Dale Griffis
Matt Stanton	Detective Durham,Detective Durham
Brian Howe	Detective McDonough
Clay Stapleford	Detective Mike Allen
Stephanie Steward	Domini Teer
Bill Murphey	Marty King
Brooke Jaye Taylor	Officer Regina Meeks
Isabella Zentkovich	Amanda Hobbs
Quincey Bonds	Court Officer
Morgan Pelligrino	Reporter at Court House
Arvell Poe	Bloody Muddy Man
Brandon Carroll	Bobby DeAngelo
Haley Craft	Teenage Employee
Amber Chaney	Older Employee
Scott Poythress	Criminalist
Chase Crandell	Marion High School Boy
Judd Derek Lormand	Desk Officer,WMPD Desk Officer
Corey Wright	HBO Cameraman
Katie Kneeland	Ron's Secretary
Abigail Monet	Girl on Stand #2
Annabel Lawton Boardman	Girl on Stand #1
Carolyn Etheridge	Girl at Weaver
Brandon Wood	Trailer Park Teen #1
Joey Nappo	Trailer Park Teen #2
David Ramsey	Baptist Preacher,Rosie
Lindsey N. Moser	Teacher at Weaver
Stephanie Astalos-Jones	Marion High School Teacher
Brandon Spink	Chris Byers
Ron Clinton Smith	Police Sergeant
Orelon Sidney	Memphis TV Reporter
Jonathan Splencer	Polygraph Examiner
Gary Weeks	TV Reporter at Weaver
Holly Firfer	Tabloid Reporter
Thomas Strickland	Lawyer
Robert Baker	Detective Bryn Ridge
Mychael Danna	Composer
Kevin Durand	Actor
Lori Beth Sikes	Annie
Wilbur Fitzgerald	Tom
Pam Hobbs	Actor

Technical Credits

Paul Harris Boardman

Scott Derrickson

Mara Leveritt

Atom Egoyan	Director
Paul Harris Boardman	Screenwriter,Producer
Scott Derrickson	Screenwriter,Executive Producer
Elizabeth Fowler	Producer
Richard Saperstein	Producer
Clark Peterson	Producer
Christopher Woodrow	Producer
Mara Leveritt	Executive Producer,Screenwriter,Producer
Jacob Pechenik	Executive Producer,Producer
Molly Conners	Executive Producer,Producer
Jessie Misskelley Jr.	Executive Producer
Maria Cestone	Executive Producer,Producer
David Alper	Executive Producer,Producer
Hoyt David Morgan	Executive Producer,Producer
Holly Ballard	Executive Producer,Producer
Jason Baldwin	Executive Producer
Michael Flynn	Executive Producer
Steve Munro	Sound/Sound Designer
Marc Dobiecki	Camera Operator
Jennifer Smith	Casting
Deborah Aquila	Casting
Tricia Wood	Casting
Shirley Libby	Sound Mixer
Bill Johnson	Makeup Special Effects,Executive Producer,Producer
John Loranger	Sound Editor
Anderson Martin	Stunts
David Paul Lord	Stunts
Armen Aghaeian	Producer
Scott Jurgensmeyer	Producer
Shara Kay	Producer,Producer
Jessie Misskelley	Producer
Babs Simmons	Producer
Kyle Boylen	Special Effects
Matthew Chan	Sound Effects
Mark DeSimone	Sound Effects
David Drage	Sound Effects
Jason Baldwin Stewart	Executive Producer,Producer
Amanda Bowers	Producer
Edward Mokhtarian	Producer
Sarah Johnson-Redlich	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Steve Branch, Chris Byers, and James Moore were three eight-year-olds who became murder victims. Their names are not nearly as well-known as Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, the young men -- known as the West Memphis Three -- who served 17 years in prison after being convicted, most likely wrongly, of the crime. The case drew a great deal of attention for how the trio of defendants were railroaded, but the better parts of Atom Egoyan's docudrama Devil's Knot focus on the families of the deceased. Reese Witherspoon plays Steve Branch's mother Pam, who is overcome with grief after the murder of her son. She is lost in a haze after this tragic turn of events, and only starts to come around after Ron Lax (Colin Firth), a private investigator working pro bono for the defense team, begins to unearth a number of discrepancies and deceptions in the state's case. There seems to be more than enough evidence to raise a reasonable doubt and acquit the three defendants, but the powers that be continually prevent these facts from being heard by the jury. Pam soon begins to question her own beliefs about what happened to her son. Why does her husband have Stevie's favorite knife? Who was the mysterious, bloodied black man who showed up and quickly disappeared from a fast-food place near the crime scene on the night of the murder? Why doesn't the jury know that another teen also confessed to the crime? At the same time, Ron works tirelessly to locate the proof that will get the three young men acquitted. Egoyan already made one of the definitive portraits of grief with his film The Sweet Hereafter, in which an entire community is rocked by the tragic deaths of a number of kids in a school-bus accident. The first 20 minutes of Devil's Knot lead you to believe that he's going to take the same approach with this movie, exploring how a horrific crime alters a small town, but instead he stays focused on how one woman deals with such a profound and sudden loss. There are scenes -- like the one in which Pam sees a completed but ungraded homework assignment by her dead son and drives to the school so that his teacher, who at that moment is dealing with a roomful of Stevie's former classmates, can grade it -- that border on manipulative. Yet Witherspoon is admirably restrained throughout, and Egoyan's typically cerebral direction keeps us at a distance from the hurt and pain --- he doesn't add any unnecessary pathos -- even as he shows Pam's suffering clearly. Only at the very end, in a golden-toned final shot of the victims as they make their way to the murder site (while text informs us that the movie is dedicated to Steve, Chris, and James), does Egoyan twist the emotional knife. The West Memphis Three have already been the subject of three peerless documentaries by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, as well as the nonfiction film West of Memphis, made with the cooperation of Damien Echols. Those pictures all provide a much more substantive overview of the case than Devil's Knot does: Egoyan's by-the-numbers movie might be fascinating to viewers unfamiliar with the controversy, but as it evolves into a straightforward courtroom tale, it will be tedious to those who have seen the earlier documentaries.