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With: Tom Brokaw, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Rodney King, Ted Koppel, Maxine Waters
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Written by: n/a
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Directed by: Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin
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MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violence, bloody images, and language
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Running Time: 114
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Date: 06/17/2020
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Can We All Get Along?
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
While the images in this documentary, made up entirely of archival footage, are still powerful and heartbreaking, a modern-day commentary or historical context would have been an invaluable addition.
In LA 92, which is told entirely through vintage news and home video footage, motorist Rodney King was, in March of 1991, brutally beaten by police. The act was captured on video. The four white officers were arrested and the Black community awaited their trial, and justice. Meanwhile, fifteen year-old Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by a Korean convenience store owner, and this was likewise captured on video.
Then, a white judge let the shooter off with no jail time. In April of 1992, a jury acquitted all four officers in the King case, despite the overwhelming video evidence. A frustrated and enraged Black community immediately took to the streets to protest. Over several days this turned to riots, looting, and fires, becoming one of the most devastating events in American history.
Produced by National Geographic for the 25th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict and the riots, and boldly constructed out of hundreds of hours of footage by Oscar-winning filmmakers Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin, LA 92 certainly adds up to a potent experience. The emotion-filled images largely speak for themselves, perhaps none more powerful than the single tear shed by a Black man as he watches the four police officers going free.
The new music score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans helps underline the intensity of the images, and helps drive the narrative flow. Meanwhile, a prologue and epilogue tying the Watts riots of 1965 to the events of 1992 offers a pessimistic view that not much has changed, and a foreshadowing of events to come, such as the 2020 killing of George Floyd by white police.
But if LA 92 had broadened its viewpoint, offering a modern, sobering perspective like Ezra Edelman's brilliant O.J.: Made in America, perhaps it would have been more apparent how long and how far back the fuse goes that caused this event to spark and explode.
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