Lost for Life

The documentary was pretty standard. If you have common sense and watch the killers in each story, it's fairly obvious who was the "brains" or psychopath, and who actually has remorse. I know remorse doesn't matter to all, but it does to me. I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but it's there, and it's blatant. In one story (if you bother to look) one of the killers committed suicide in prison, while the other (the one who actually caused the deaths and is in the documentary) blatantly said he felt no remorse. Honestly, t can't feel much sympathy for many people who decide to take another life, regardless of age. There are a couple in this film, though, that I believe deserve a second chance...they also happen to be the ones not pandering for it.

I watched this documentary right after I saw another about the murder that two 16 years old perpetrated. In this documentary they are interviewed only 6 years into their life sentences without parole. When I saw the first documentary I just wanted the kids to suffer really bad. But when I saw this one, I clearly saw that 1 of them wasn't the same person who committed the murder. He had completely changed into a mature man. And it made me wonder about the point in making him stay in prison for 60 years longer until he dies, because he's not the monster that committed the crime anymore. In a sense it seemed that one person was serving someone else's sentence. As much as I want the kid to rot in hell, that kid doesn't exist anymore.

Then you hear the shock of victims families when they learn that whoever killed their loved ones is gonna get out of prison and how unfair it seems to them when their lives have been broken beyond repair.

The brave thing about this documentary is that we all prefer to have an easy choice and think of good versus monsters. Unfortunately, or thankfully, I don't know, it seems that things usually aren't completely black or white. And this documentary is brave enough to show this uncomfortable truth.

I have watched many jail shows and documentaries and I am walking away from this thinking this might actually be the best.

It shows various viewpoints of people who when they were young committed a murder. Some seem to feel a lot of guilt, some don't seem to. It shows the way they think about it, what they tried to do, how they tried to get away with it.

It raises questions about whether or not young people really understand consequences to their actions and if life without parole is actually right for them.

It also might just make people upset and mad. It depends what you take away from this. But to me it is an interesting psychological study.