Film: Time

Not much on these days - not on Meetup (online), not on telly. You might be forgiven for thinking the world had gone to sleep. Well, today was film again, and I still had a backlog of Time, on Amazon Prime, and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive. And so, I finally watched Time.

It's a documentary about the Riches - Rob G and his wife, Fox, are a likeable and charismatic American couple who, in the late 90s, were starting out, buying a house, starting a business and a family. But undisclosed hardships - which, to be be fair, could happen to anyone - led to financial problems, and they ended up robbing a bank. For a measly $5000. Anyway, they were convicted of armed robbery. She took a plea bargain, it seems, and got 3.5 years in prison - in his case, there was some confusion; he seems to have rejected the plea bargain (he was due for more jail time than she was, as she just drove the getaway car), but then his lawyer changed, the second one dropped the case, it ended up in trial.. and he got 61 years! Without right of parole.

Er, what? I mean, he had no previous criminal record. Yes, it was armed robbery - but no-one was injured. And in a country that is, frankly, awash with guns, armed robbery is much more likely than unarmed, it seems to me. Of course, we can't ignore the fact that he is black.. Anyway, the kids went to her mother's - she gave birth to twins in prison as well - and when she got out, well! She ran for public office, and started a tireless campaign to get his sentence reduced - and you'd have to agree, it sounds excessive. The whole is shot in black and white, and up-to-date footage of her campaign is mixed with home movies that she shot consistently through the years, to keep Rob in touch with what was going on. The upshot is, she managed to get him out after 21 years.

During which time, she raised five sons on her own. And to her credit, they seem to be shining successes - well-spoken, good-looking, intelligent - university students and rights campaigners. As one remarks during a speech to college freshmen, children of inmates usually drop out of school..

So, a truly inspirational documentary - and it's interesting to see a documentary about the effects of prison, from people who quite clearly admit their wrongdoing, but want to highlight the injustices of the system. Mind you, how you feel about it will depend on your tolerance for inspirational programming. Me, I found other things to do while it was on in the background. The end, where they are finally reunited, is worth watching though.

Back to work tomorrow, ugh. And next weekend, I guess I'll be moving through my film list again..