Juice on the Loose
So I’m OJ’d out. I have finally finished both, ‘The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story’ and ‘OJ: Made in America’. Both are amazing, I can’t say which I liked best. I will say that ‘Made in America’ took me from thinking the race card is being overplayed to believing this event was a defining moment in America’s racial struggle.
I learned so many incredible new things; OJ financed his defense with items signed while in locked-up, they took in football panels and then used them to make footballs for sale. The directors wait until the third part (like hour 7) to show crime scene photos; the photos and D.A.’s reconstructed ‘play-by-play’ are horrific, “with the fence and gate on either side, Ronald Goldman was trapped in a kill pen.”
Finally, I think Cuba Gooding Jr. (in The People vs. OJ) did the best he could, but I firmly believe OJ is one of the fascinating characters in America history. When you juxtapose his rage, abuse, ego, view of fatherhood against the stories and video showing his charisma and charm he is a modern day Jekyll and Hyde. It’s nearly impossible to recreate this complex charismatic monster.