This HBO documentary is not about Roman Polanski's entire life. In fact, it is to the greatest extent centered in the court case from which he fled in 1978, where he was sentenced for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, in fact a 13-year-old girl. A lot of archive footage is used and is very well-edited to paint a picture of a great director who has battled a lot of turmoils in life (most notably the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate). A lot of judicial figures are interviewed in depth regarding the court case, the very peculiar (and probably criminal) judge Rittenband, along with journalists from the time and friends of Polanski. The music - mostly period jazz - is used very nicely, often alongside period snippets from TV news. The main character is not interviewed for this documentary, and while I feel the documentary skirts away too much from Polanski's pedophile act, his victim has since forgiven him and there are a couple of interesting facts about her mother's role in the case. All in all this is a good documentary about the chilling events surrounding a human being who happens to be a world-renowned film-director. By the way, David Wells has admitted to lying in the documentary, and it's interesting to see if anything will really happen to Polanski now that he - 31 years after fleeing the USA - is arrested in Switzerland because of his outstanding punishment.

In 1977, Roman Polanski was arrested after having sex with and providing drugs to a 13 year old Samantha Geimer in Los Angeles. She had gone with her mother to do a photo shoot with the famed director for a magazine. The mother leaves Samantha alone with Polanski and they have sex. The lawyers come to a plea without jail time. Judge Rittenband using questionable methods orders a 90 days psychiatric evaluation in prison. After serving 42 days, he is released. With favorable reports, he expected probation but the judge is under pressure to impose a heavier sentence. In 1978, he left for Europe and has not yet returned to America.

The overriding question for me is, "Did he have sex with a 13 year old girl?". At the end of the day, he did the crime and he spent 42 days in protected custody. It's not the biggest injustice ever. In fact, I don't see it as that harsh. The most revealing element is the incompetent judge. He is worst than judge Ito but I doubt he's the worst. The movie dives into Polanski's troubled life but it doesn't have him explaining himself. He is an enigma in this movie.

Examines the public scandal and private tragedy which led to legendary filmmaker Roman Polanski's sudden flight from the United States.

I was rather impressed with this documentary. I thought it would offer a broad overview of Polanski's life, and it did not. It had just enough to give you a feel for the man and then focused on the different aspects of the criminal trial against him.

Polanski fled this country before I was born, so I certainly did not hear about his crimes from the newspaper or television at the time they happened. I was under the impression he was charged and then immediately ran away. The film shows that is not entirely accurate, that he actually spent a little time in prison and even after leaving once, he came back. This cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had.

Having read a biography on him and having seen all his movies (yes, even the weaker ones -- though not his short films),I was pleased that something new could still be learned.