The Central Park Five (2012)

93% of critics liked it
(68 reviews)
85% of users liked it
(6,252 ratings)

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged for brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, calling it "the crime of the century." But the truth about what really happened didn't become clear until after the… More In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged for brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, calling it "the crime of the century." But the truth about what really happened didn't become clear until after the five had spent years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. With THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, this story of injustice finally gets the telling it deserves. Based on Sarah Burns' best-selling book and co-directed by her husband David McMahon and father, the beloved doc filmmaker Ken Burns, this incendiary film tells the riveting tale of innocent young men scapegoated for a heinous crime, and serves as a mirror for our times. (c) IFC Films

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Directed By: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Nov 23, 2012 Limited
On DVD: Apr 23, 2013
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer
It's a vivid and gripping documentary (although, at two hours, somewhat longer than it needs to be), a grave indictment of a city and a system at the breaking point.
Linda Barnard, Toronto Star
Expect your blood pressure to rise during The Central Park Five.
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
The doc is rife with smart or wrenching or shameful moments. The fresh interviews with the accused, now men, are invaluable.
Tom Long, Detroit News
As grim a portrait of the criminal justice system as can be imagined.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
How could this second crime have occurred? The film asks that question but only partly answers it, and in the process it raises an even more troubling one.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"The Central Park Five" is a sobering indictment of racism and vigilante justice, yet it is constrained by a PBS-style deference to the very system it critiques.
Chris Chang, Film Comment Magazine
The film, in some ways a primer on the perennial intractability of racial prejudice, clearly intends to be some sort of vindication of its five central figures. It succeeds in the first respect but falls wide of the mark in the second.
Al Alexander, The Patriot Ledger
The filmmakers do a tremendous job of setting the mood and mind-set of New Yorkers in the spring of 1989, when violent crime was rampant and the Big Apple was rotting to the core.
Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com
Burns and Co. once again nail the complexity of history with traditionally eye-opening results, yet The Central Park Five isn't quite as comprehensive as hoped, capping such profound pain with a few nagging question marks.
Sara Smith, Kansas City Star
The Central Park Five takes one of the most sensational crimes of the late 20th century and strips the circus that followed down to its roots. The horrific attack in the woods on that April night 24 years ago was just the beginning.
Brian Tallerico, HollywoodChicago.com
The Central Park Five," the second best documentary of 2013, examines the case, placing in perfect context of what was happening in 1989 in NYC and how it led to evil both in Central Park and in the offices of the people trying to keep us safe.
Robert Denerstein, Movie Habit
When hysteria trumps innocence
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
Like the "Paradise Lost" films, it's a shocking but clear-eyed portrait of injustice.
Shannon M. Houston, Paste Magazine
The Central Park Five is such a moving piece of work, it is difficult to watch at times.
Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope
It shows what happens when police and prosecutors abuse their power.
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
Puts the crime and the times in sharp perspective.
Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Toronto
Burns and company conduct a thorough, riveting investigation that does a far better job of assessing the tragedy than the justice system did two decades before. Of course, hindsight is an advantage we all take for granted.
Lee Marshall, Screen International
It's a gripping story that comes in a well-crafted package.
Kam Williams, AALBC.com
A heartbreaking expose' about a rush to judgment which ruined five, innocent young lives.
Jennifer Merin, New York Press
Exclusive interviews with former heads of Israel's counter terrorism agency reveal insiders' analysis about the country's policies. Fascinating. Frightening.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Greg S

The story of the five teenagers who were picked up in Central Park, charged with rape, and convicted based on suspect confessions, then freed after serving years in jail when DNA evidence identified the real rapist. A frightening reminder that whenever there's a horrible crime,… More
The story of the five teenagers who were picked up in Central Park, charged with rape, and convicted based on suspect confessions, then freed after serving years in jail when DNA evidence identified the real rapist. A frightening reminder that whenever there's a horrible crime, society demands that someone must pay, and you don't want to be the one in the wrong place at the wrong time. NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE DURING AN INVESTIGATION WITHOUT A LAWYER PRESENT.
Walter M

"The Central Park Five" is a heartbreaking and powerful documentary about five teenagers, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise and Yusef Salaam who were falsely convicted in the rape and assault of Trisha Meili in Central Park on April 19, 1989. As… More
"The Central Park Five" is a heartbreaking and powerful documentary about five teenagers, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise and Yusef Salaam who were falsely convicted in the rape and assault of Trisha Meili in Central Park on April 19, 1989. As District Attorney Robert Morgenthau puts it, if only they had known then what they later knew when the youths were exonerated. But here is the rub. The correct evidence was there, if only they had wanted to look for it. Instead, there was a rush to judgment by the police in coercing their confessions and later in the press, which the documentary painstakingly details with a thoroughly credible timeline of events. Later, you can see how their lives were adversely affected, as Richardson's sister points out that they are as much victims as Meili. Whereas it is safe to say that New York City has changed dramatically over the decades, it is not quite as "The Central Park Five" alleges, barely glancing over the changes in the police department, along with perceptions that go beyond just those concerning race. For example, Meili felt comfortable enough to jog in the park after dark, as Central Park has always been less a sacred space as Koch testifies(It's neat that he allows to be interviewed here, considering his past intemperate comments. It would have been nice to have gotten other officials on the record to see how some of them sleep at night.), than a commons for all of the city's people to enjoy, even as the documentary via the tabloids of the day would say otherwise.(Not to be facetious but there are two ways I can tell a neighborhood is safe: joggers and dog walkers.) By the way, the only thing stopping New York State getting the death penalty at the time was Mario Cuomo's courageous annual veto.
John B

In typical Ken Burns fashion, we have a magnificently laid out documentary that is not only the story of five innocent teenagers but the history of a City and its rough and tumble period during the eighties. Excellent.

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The Central Park Five (2012)

Critic Reviews

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Greg S

Walter M

John B

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