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Poster for The Central Park Five

The Central Park Five

2012 · 1h 59m · NOT RATED Documentary
Directed by Sarah Burns , Ken Burns

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Overview

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, this is the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
93%
Tomatometer
Fresh

It's a vivid and gripping documentary (although, at two hours, somewhat longer than it needs to be), a grave indictment of a city and a system at the breaking point.

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer
Fresh

Expect your blood pressure to rise during The Central Park Five.

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star
Fresh

The doc is rife with smart or wrenching or shameful moments. The fresh interviews with the accused, now men, are invaluable.

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Fresh

As grim a portrait of the criminal justice system as can be imagined.

Tom Long, Detroit News
Fresh

How could this second crime have occurred? The film asks that question but only partly answers it, and in the process it raises an even more troubling one.

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

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