I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Strong and Moving!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's 1983. Police receives a complaint from Judy Johnson of her son's molestation at the McMartin family-run pre-school daycare center in Manhattan Beach, California. Eventually over 60 children make accusations of outrageous abuse at the school run by 76 year old Virginia McMartin (Sada Thompson) prodded by child-psychiatrist Kee McFarlane (Lolita Davidovich) and her questionable techniques. Virginia's grandson Ray Buckey (Henry Thomas) is at the center of the accusations. Callous defense lawyer Danny Davis (James Woods) is eager to take the case stoked into a media circus by Wayne Satz. Lael Rubin (Mercedes Ruehl) is self-righteous prosecutor. They arrest Ray, Virginia, his sister Peggy Ann (Alison Elliott), mother Peggy (Shirley Knight), and teachers Betty Raidor and Babette Spinler. Prosecutor Glenn Stevens pulls the case together discovering it to be built upon conflicting testimonies from the children.This is a compelling true story. It's told from the defense's side although I'm not sure what the prosecution's side would be. It's a harrowing case. James Woods brings his energetic persona to full force. The case is riveting and utterly memorable. It is a great award-winning TV movie from HBO.

Caught this on TV about 15 years ago and managed to watch it again recently and it still hits me as hard as it did the first time.The trials and tribulations we see the accused family go through are so painful and the stigma and paranoia surrounding them after the accusations arise.The movie itself did an incredible job piecing together a tragic story that somehow provided light at the end of the tunnel.James Woods is fantastic in his role as the defender for the accused. His character's initial motivation and the evolution it takes as the story progresses was very warm to see considering how the family seemed to only have each other in what was a witch hunt fed by paranoia.It's a film that is relevant today in an age where adults have to think twice before smiling at a child in public. This film does justice to depicting some deep issues rounded out by solid performances from Henry Thomas, Shirley Knight and Sada Thompson (and of course James Woods).

"Indictment: The McMartin Trial" is a quite biased dramatization of the McMartin Preschool Case, as it should be. The case was a fraud from beginning to end and probably the most outrageous example of the allowance of mass produced coached witness testimony in the history of the justice system in the U.S. The shameful conduct of the prosecution and the judge in the case also included the introduction of perjured adult testimony as well. This case might very well be the most shameful prosecution in U.S. history.I really liked James Woods as Danny Davis, Ray Buckey's attorney, and Henry Thomas as Buckey.My favorite scene in the movie is the one with the child witness with the story of digging up all the graves in a grave yard. On cross examination Davis put before the boy several face pictures and asks him to identify who helped them dig up the graves. One of the people whose face picture he circled was of actor Chuck Norris. That scene of the defense demolition of the prosecution's coached child "testimony" more than any other left me wondering why the judge in the case was allowing this farce to continue his court room.We all supposedly learned in grade school history class that children can be coached by adults into saying anything, including the most sensational accusations of debauchery against them on the part of adults, as happened at Salem in 1692. It's amazing how easily this lesson of history can be discarded by all of the adults who were hell bent on persecuting the Buckey-McMartin family. This is why it's a shame that this movie didn't get a major theatrical release. It deserved it.After enduring a torrent of abuse at the hands of the prosecution, their "witnesses", and the media, the Buckey-McMartin family finally gets to tell their side of the story in "Indictment: The McMartin Trial".

Since this movie was produced by Oliver Stone it is predictably well made and acted. My quarrel is not with the standards of the movie as a well made vehicle for the story but with the bias and one sidedness. The McMartin family comes off as beleaguered and wronged while the victims and their families were portrayed as stupid, illiterate and unstable. Abuse such as existed in the McMartin preschool does not only happen to the perfect children and parents but nonetheless it happens. I wonder at the slant of the movie. Why use it as a vehicle to defend the perpetrators, why not do an even handed story? Portraying a fair and accurate account would have served the truth instead of the accused. I always believed that the McMartins were caught being involved in a very lucrative business. I thought that it was all about the money, but the child abuse was such a focus that the lucrative business was not addressed. the movie was disturbing.