Captivated: The
Trials of Pamela Smart is a 2014 American
documentary film directed by Jeremiah
Zagar. The film premiered in
competition in the category of the U.S.
Documentary Competition program at the 2014
Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 2014.
The film premiered on August 18, 2014, on HBO.
Plot
The film tells the story of the 1990 murder of Gregg Smart and the subsequent New Hampshire trial and conviction,
with gavel to gavel media coverage, of murderer Pamela Smart.
Reception
The film received a mostly positive response from critics. On
review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes it
has a 63% rating based on 8 reviews, on an average rating of 7.2/10. Dennis
Harvey, in his review for Variety,
said that "This is all intriguing,
and will especially fascinate those who weren’t around and overexposed to the
case 20-odd years ago. But Zagar’s thesis — that overpowering media
exploitation determined its legal outcome early on — is introduced in the very
first shot, then hammered home harder the longer the pic goes on."
Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a
positive review, calling it a "[s]mart
indictment of the media’s sensationalistic influence on the murder trial of Pamela Smart." Beth Hanna from Indiewire in her review
said that "Everything, from the
nightly newscasts that feverishly covered Smart’s case to Zagar’s own film, is
an edited story."
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