In the past three years, we’ve seen more and more stories about unarmed black people getting shot and killed, either by cops or by white civilians. Whether you think there has been an increase in these violent instances or that movements like Black Lives Matter have brought these killings into the spotlight, one thing feels clear: America has a problem with black people living their lives in the same way that white people do.
Tamir Rice and John Crawford were both killed in separate instances for holding toy guns. Renisha McBride was killed for daring to ask for help after a car accident. None of these people were doing anything illegal, or even ill-advised. They were simply existing in America.
Tonight, 3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets premieres on HBO. It’s hard to praise a film that was inspired by such a horrible event, but 3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets should be required viewing. Made up of interviews with Davis’ family and friends, along with footage from the trial and police interviews with Dunn, 3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets is a powerful look at the violent consequences of racial inequality in America. The documentary, written and directed by Marc Silver, follows the trial of Michael Dunn, the Florida man who was charged in the killing of Jordan Davis, a black teenager. Davis’ transgression? Playing rap music too loudly in a gas station parking lot.
Although my description sounds dramatic, the emotions in 3 ½ Minutes are incredibly restrained. Davis’ parents look stoic in all courtroom shots, rarely blinking back tears. At the premiere of the film last week at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, Davis’ parents, Ron Davis and Lucy McBath, said that their stoicism was not because they don’t feel upset about their son’s death, but because they were worried about causing a mistrial by letting their emotions show in court.
Similarly, Davis’ three friends who were in the car with him the night he was murdered are also impressively unflappable. As the friends take the stand and are cross-examined by an incredibly insensitive defense lawyer, they recount the events of that night with hardly any emotion. But when the friends speak on camera outside the courtroom, it’s clear that they know that instead of Davis, it could have been any one of them that was killed that night.
Taking place in Florida, the case bears disturbing similarities to the murder of Trayvon Martin and the ensuing trial. In the film, Davis’ father even says, “Martin’s father texted me, ‘I just want to welcome you to a club that none of us want to be in.’”
The lack of family photos and home video used in the movie is surprising. Instead of relying on footage of Davis as a child to gain sympathy with the audience, Silver used only one short clip of a home video during the movie. The family snapshots didn’t show up until the final credits. But 3 ½ Minutes doesn’t need to rely on cute pictures of Davis to make its point. From interviews and trial footage, one thing stands out: Davis was a typical middle class teenager. His parents talk about splitting custody after their divorce, and his friends reminisce about playing basketball and how they “used to go to the court every day and he never got better.”
Even with all the evidence to the contrary, Jordan Davis was portrayed as a disrespectful “thug” during the trial by the defense team. His killer, Michael Dunn, alleged that Davis threatened to kill him and he was responding in self-defense. Throughout the film, Dunn reacts to the events in the exact opposite way as Davis’ parents. On the stand, Dunn begins crying when talking about his pet dog, which elicited bitter laughter from the audience.
Dunn’s fiancée, Rhonda Rouer, is similarly dramatic, sobbing and shaking through her entire testimony. Although Rouer is credited with being the reason that Dunn was finally convicted, Davis’ parents made it clear that she was no hero. She had been there the night that Davis was murdered, and instead of advising her fiance to call the police, she told him to take her home. Betraying her fiancé and putting him behind bars for life was only in order to save her own ass.
The courtroom scenes can become a bit tedious, but they serve an important purpose of moving the film along and giving us an insider view into how trials like this are conducted. Even though it can be a little procedural at times, seeing the images of the bullet-ridden SUV that the boys had been sitting in and the life-sized dummy depicting where each bullet went into Davis’ body was disturbing to say the least.
Although the film ends on what could be considered a happy note, with the conviction of Dunn for Davis’ murder, it’s depressing to think about all the other young men and women who weren’t able to get this kind of justice. Hopefully 3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets will make it clear that these shootings aren’t about disrespectful behavior or threatening actions, they’re only about the color of one’s skin.
