The Batman Shootings - BBC Documentary

By Charhys Baldwin

Following the events of July 20^th 2012, Amal Fashanu went to the United States to find out more about what happened at the Colorado cinema screening and how this has affected people’s views on gun laws. Aired on BBC 3 at 9m Sunday 19^th August, the documentary he created whilst out there shows the timeline of what happened, and talks to people that were there on the night. Amal is a journalist and presenter who attended the UK premier of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.

Timing

Accused: James Holmes

Although this has been shown in Britain nearly a month after it happened, Amal conducted the interviews just ten days after the shootings. In my eyes this seems far too soon to be approaching the loved ones of those that died and those that were there, but this does make it a more emotive documentary by capturing the emotions that these people were going through, so soon after they have lived through this trauma. The timing is also important: while this story is still fresh in the minds of the British public, and while James Holmes trial is currently taking place. As a country that doesn’t have the right to bear arms, the British public would be interested in this event, similar to that of the Columbine incident that happened in 1999. It’s because of the morbid curiosity that drives people to find out more about what happened that makes us interested in programmes like this, but also more about James Holmes, the killer that described himself as ‘the joker’. 

Footage

The way this documentary is laid out to begin with is interesting and it successfully draws you from the story of ‘The Batman Shootings’ into what is actually a debate into gun laws in America, with this event as evidence that the law should change. The use of footage taken from that day and the individual interviews help to build up to the event keeping you interested in the different points of view, despite already knowing most of the information from the news. The videos of Jessica Redfield’s work experience also added to the emotion, highlighting that this young girl had just started her career and had all of that taken away when she was shot and killed in the cinema. The use of her tweets from that day was a good way to make viewers associate with her and also with the idea that her day started like any other normal day and it could happen to anyone in America. This pushes the viewer into the mindset that with the current gun laws everyone is at risk from this happening.

Gun Control – “the right to bear arms”

I believe the title of this documentary is misleading, although it does focus on the incident in Colorado it is a documentary on gun laws and whether they should change. Throughout the programme Amal visits gun stores, clubs and gun shows trying to establish whether their views have changed since the recent massacre. Having visited these places she comes to the conclusion that because the constitution states that everyone has ‘the right to bear arms’, change has to start with the politicians. This then pushes the documentary to target politicians with no avail. This part felt very out of place, with what started as informing the viewer about the Batman killer James Holmes turns into Amal trying to get Obama to crack down on gun crime. 

Summary

Although it was an interesting documentary, generally I believe that the programme was dragged into being an anti gun campaign. I didn’t understand the relevance Amal had to the incident, even when she said she had a ticket to the premier of the film in London. To be honest I didn’t know who she was, it was only after looking her up I found out she was a presenter and reporter, which made me question why the BBC asked her to go out to America to cover this programme. A different reporter that had more relevance to Batman or American gun crime would have worked better, or even someone that could have shown more emotion throughout the journey around America.  At an hour long it felt dragged out and I think it could have been kept to a more concise half hour which would have kept me interested in the programme longer, rather than wanting to change the channel. Once she had moved on from the interviews and the time line of events, it became very unstructured and forced together, making it feel like they were trying to make the programme fill the hour slot. This may be a very topical programme but I don’t believe it informed or educated me.

3/10