Kind of muted, underwater. A disappointment.
My review of Lizzie is now up at Rogerebert.com.
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I have yet to see an interesting movie or TV take on this woman.
When I was a teen I read everything I could on LB, including a book written by the (I think) D.A., Pearson (?). Two things stick in my mind: In the sweltering August humidity of Fall River, her alibi was that she was up in the second floor of the barn making lead sinkers. Nobody would do that. And her father was such a cheapskate that he made the family eat unrefrigerated mutton stew. Of course she killed him. Who wouldn’t?
Oh, and I think much later, she got in trouble shoplifting at Tilden Thurber in Prov.
This is how I spent my youth…
Sorry, no, the D.A. was Knowlton. Pearson was a contemporary true crime writer.
I did actually like the made for TV movie with Elizabeth Montgomery. It aired in the mid 1970s sparking my early teen fascination with the Lizzy Borden story. This movie seems to be drawing heavily from the 1984 book of the same name. It does not tempt me and in fact slightly annoys me.
What I find much more interesting in Sheila’s review is the comparison to other publicly prominent murder aquittals. It is the paradox of our legal system that absolutely must presume innocence until proven guilty even though one knows the guilt instinctively. In a way it proves that we are a civilized society in that we are willing to bend to the rule of law rather than give in to the savage urge to exact blood for blood justice. Part of our attraction to shows of the Wild West like Deadwood is that sense that justice existed on a razor’s edge. It allows us to fantasize about swift, gut-felt justice while OJ Simpson walks free as Lizzie did before him.
Equally interesting is the persistent fascination even by youngsters like Jincy and me. For myself I think it was a desire to reconcile that conviction in my heart with the public aquittal. Maturity brings that understanding of the subtle difference between proven innocence and failure to prove guilt; as well as, acceptance for the sake of the higher principle. And yet here we are …