A review of the epic, five-part doc O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA, which begins airing tomorrow!!!

Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here, with a review from our sometimes correspondent Matt Hoffman, who helped out with coverage at Sundance this year. And it was at Sundance where the nearly eight-hour documentary O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA premiered to critical acclaim. Divided up into five parts, the film begins airing Saturday evening on ABC, then shifts to ESPN on Tuesday night, with a new chapter running on periodic evenings through next Saturday, June 18. Here’s Matt Hoffman’s review…

More than 21 years since his infamous not guilty verdict, O.J. Simpson is back in the spotlight. The reason remains somewhat unclear. Perhaps the notion that Simpson is eligible for parole in 2017 has the general population frazzled, or perhaps the recent resurgence in true crime fare—“Serial,” “The Jinx,” “Making a Murderer”—is to blame. Just months after FX’s surprisingly successful Ryan Murphy-helmed “American Crime Story” installation “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” the next Simpson event series is set to air.

Produced by ESPN, Ezra Edelman’s O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA is an audacious feat. In five parts and across seven-and-a-half hours, Edelman’s documentary seeks to provide the ultimate Simpson chronicle. The result is absolutely spellbinding. The five parts will be presented over a few nights this summer, but lucky theatergoers in New York and Los Angeles will be given the opportunity to see the film in its intended format: in one day. I had to fortune to be part of a sold-out audience in a small theatre at this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto to watch the film in one sitting. With two intermissions, the experience clocked in at a total of nine hours. I’ve seen my share of long films in the cinema—I once spent six hours watching the award-winning miniseries CARLOS in an empty Toronto theatre—but nothing compares to O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA. In the footage, viewers are presented with an American tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.

Edelman’s technique is unprecedented. He seeks to place the audience in the mindset of the American people before, during, and after the infamous 1995 murder trial. To do so, Edelman enlists the essential players of Simpson’s life for some revealing interviews. It initially seemed puzzling that it took the film three hours to introduce the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, but in hindsight Edelman’s game plan is absolutely necessary.

Edelman spends Part One introducing audiences to the pre-murder Simpson. He presents Simpson in his prime as a college football player and later as a star player for the Buffalo Bills. The O.J. Simpson of Part One is a hero. Edelman shows the nationwide adoration for Simpson, and in the process, convinces the audience to adore him as well. We see his jaw-dropping plays, hilarious work in the Hertz commercials, and are presented with the jingle that gave him his nickname of “The Juice.” Throughout the chapter, Edelman introduces the main theme of the film: racism. It is only in the closing moments of Part One that the married O.J. Simpson meet Nicole.

Before Edelman presents Simpson as an abusive husband, and long before the murder of Brown Simpson and Goldman is discussed, the film seeks to allow viewers to understand the relationship between black America and the Los Angeles Police Department. Edelman shows footage and explores the 1991 beating of Rodney King by white LAPD officers before exploring other instances in which the courts failed to protect black Americans. At this point, Edelman has both set up Simpson as an American hero and enraged audiences with the malpractices of the LAPD.

Then Simpson’s abuse of his wife begins, and she is found dead. The impact is astounding. As the film finally enters the trial in Part Three, Edelman has placed audiences on the same conflicted plane as citizens across America in 1995. This is exactly what “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” misses. Edelman’s route now seems the only proper way to tell this story. The O.J. Simpson trial is not just a story of an accused murderer, but rather a story of the American people forced to reexamine a hero and face the failures of the court system and the police.

It is OJ: MADE IN AMERICA’s opening chapters that aide in detailing the civil rights hero Simpson would eventually become during the trial. Edelman explains the pre-trial Simpson as a man who defied race, a man whom bigoted white folk considered one of their own. This is the man who famously said, “I’m not black; I’m O.J.”, yet, with racial tensions high and Simpson facing a murder conviction, all cards—the race card included—are laid on the metaphorical table.

The film’s breadth of interview subjects is truly extraordinary. Audiences are presented with new interviews with key players in the trial such as Marcia Clarke, F. Lee Bailey, and Barry Scheck. Also featured are players from Simpson’s college football team and family friends. Some of the more outlandish interviews include THE NAKED GUN director David Zucker and the pilot of the helicopter that first followed Simpson during the famous Bronco chase.

What is so essential about these interviews is that they give those involved the opportunity to reflect on their actions and experiences from decades earlier. In one of the most interesting interviews, key player Mark Fuhrman is given the chance to reflect on his racist remarks that aided in Simpson’s acquittal. Fuhrman fails to redeem himself, but his words are effective nonetheless.

Perhaps the only place where the documentary falters is in the interviews Edelman has failed to get. Of course, there is nothing to be done about the deaths of dream team lawyer Johnnie Cochrane, but the absence of Judge Lance Ito and Prosecutor Chris Darden is strongly felt. The two denied taking part in the film, and while there really is not much Ito could say to justify his ludicrous rulings, Darden really needed the chance to defend himself. While it is not Edelman’s intention, Darden comes off looking like the one most responsible for losing the case. We see DA Gil Garcetti and fellow prosecutor Marcia Clark saying that they urged Darden not to have Simpson try on the famous glove in front of the jury. This footage is, of course, followed by the trial footage of Darden asking Simpson to try on the said gloves, which of course did not fit. This is coupled with other footage that makes Darden look like a complete failure, making the missing interview increasingly obligatory.

OJ: MADE IN AMERICA is not simply a recap that puts everything in the proper perspective. There are quite a few revealing tidbits throughout. For instance, viewers will finally learn the definitive reason why the gloves found at the murder scene did not fit Simpson in court.

By the time the epilogue-like final chapter comes alone, the perspective of Simpson has completely changed. He is no longer the punchline that he has been turned into in recent years, but a completely broken man. After being sentenced to pay the Goldman family $33 million in a civil trial, Simpson roams L.A. and Miami searching for inclusion. The man that was lusted over by everyone in sight is now a pariah, civil rights figure or not. Thus, the conclusion of the Simpson tragedy is finally completed when he is sentenced to a minimum nine years for a ridiculously executed armed robbery.

With Simpson up for parole in less than a year’s time, OJ: MADE IN AMERICA will allow audiences across North America to live through the trial once again. The understanding of O.J. Simpson will vary based on individual experience, but the story is finally set in this brilliant and spellbinding documentary.

-- Matt Hoffman
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