The Phantom

An interesting true crime story that was short but also kind of scary. The interviews were relevant but sometimes off topic. The video editing was poor and the first five minutes down right disorienting.

It is a heart felt story that implies the justice system got it wrong. But it wasn't an unbiased documentary presenting facts. It was designed to make it seem like race was involved. Rene Rodriguez was in this "documentary" and had nothing to do with the case. Everyone from corpus christi knows that Mr. Rodriguez is known for race baiting and doesn't actually doing anything positive for the city. Does tell a great story of potential flaws in the case but brings too much about race into it. When there is no proof of racism. It has plenty of witness' that heard things but never called it in, but magically have something to say for the documentary.

While the makers only manage to scrape the surface of this deeply unsettling murder case, it is definitely a story that needs to be told. In a state known to hand out a lot of death penalties (Texas i.e.) especially to its citizens of color, the case in question is undoubtedly the most outrageous one. The first half of the documentary marches ahead like it wants to paint a straightforward, somewhat lazy picture of Carlos De Luna as a vicious murderer, and then proceeds to turn that story on its head, ripping apart every detail piece-by-piece.

For what its worth, The Phantom is best enjoyed when you know as little about the case as possible. In fact, don't even read its one-line description. The second half dives into a much darker space, when a second character is linked to the incident. However, the holes are aplenty. Even the makers struggle to piece the whole thing together. It's done haphazardly at best, but the very fact that an innocent person may have been executed without question is extremely disturbing to digest.

This is a poor attempt in telling a serious story. The first 45 minutes is redundancy after redundancy after redundancy. Really, do not waste your time. Read an article about the story. Please, save yourself 1h21m.

This is a case where the justice system failed because they wanted to close the case. 75% of the evidence was never put into the case and used, the actual man that committed the crime had been on the radar of a CCPD for yrs, but just didn't listen to him. Me being a Texan, it hit home as a case of one of the worst injustices we could have done.