What a heavily charged and emotional documentary. Into The Abyss is a documentary about two Texan murderers, Jason and Michael, and how their actions impacted the lives of many, but also about the people in their lives who impacted them. The interviewer’s questions I felt were sometimes awkward and leading, but the documentary did a good job at showing both sides of the tale.
In the end, you get a sense that everyone’s a victim, and not just actual the victims of the murders, but also their loved ones, the murderers who were misguided angry and clearly uneducated boys at the time of the act. They had no direction, purpose or clear understanding of life. They didn’t take it seriously is what I mean, not just their lives, but the lives of others too, which is where the problem lies. To take a life, let alone three, for such a trivial thing as a car indicates that one does not see how priceless and valuable life can be.
I was very touched by Jason’s father’s account. He is also in jail, and so is his other son. He took the blame for the whole situation, for his son’s actions, and somehow that blame was transferred onto him “successfully” in court because his testimony helped his son avoid the Death penalty. Jason still got life, but Michael got death.
I found it very interesting that Michael had a supportive family, and you can tell throughout the documentary that he is more of a “wild card,” pure “evil” I would say, not in a sadistic way but rather in his being itself. He does not seem evaluate good and bad like the average person does. Just the look in his eyes… black and cold, unaffected, resolved. It’s as if he successfully lied to himself throughout his whole life, believing he had done none of it. Impressive. He even goes as far as to “forgive” the victims’ loved ones on his Death bed for wanting to see him die. That takes a lot of… something. He is a good example of Nature being stronger than Nurture; he was just a “bad seed.” Not a judgment, just a statement.
On the other side of the story is Jason, who had health issues since birth, an absent father, grew up in a troublesome environment with a mostly-single disabled mother. When he talks on screen, one can see reflection and some level of emotional and cognitive awareness I deem was lacking, or of a different nature, in Michael’s gaze. In Jason’s case, Nurture got the best of him.
I appreciated the documentary’s interview of the retired Death House Prison sheriff or lead guard. Since he had been part of over a hundred executions, his perspective and opinion on capital punishment in my opinion held more weight than that of a person in congress for example. His opinion should count for something since he witnessed capital punishment in effect for years, day in and day out, which eventually broke him. Who are we as human beings to take a life? Also, what is the benefit of a life sentence, where all that “good citizen” tax money goes to preserving a “useless (to society)” human being? This is another issue altogether though.
Into The Abyss is successful at both making the viewer relate and understand each person’s “side” of the story, while at the same time delivering a broader third-person perspective on the situation. Presenting the town they lived in and interviewing some of its residents gives perspective. The town really does seem, according to this documentary, like an abyss, another hole in America where the people and the town is rotting. I am not judging to be clear, I am simply describing what the documentary, in my opinion, depicted. It could be a misrepresentation of the town in order to get the audience to feel for all of the people involved, casualties and murderers. Either way, it is still a perspective and has legitimacy since someone sees things this way.
It is a very well-made documentary. If you’re sensitive like I am, make sure to have tissues nearby.
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