On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia police executed an order to evict the tenants of a townhouse on Osage Avenue. By the end of the day, 11 people (including five children) were dead and more than sixty homes were burnt to the ground. The even-handed but strong documentary Let The Fire Burn, directed by Jason Osder, tells the story of those fateful events and what led up to them.
A radical black separatist organization by the name of MOVE emerged in the early 1970s in Philadelphia. Conflicts soon began between MOVE and the police - with MOVE insisting that they were merely being harassed and abused because they had unpopular beliefs.
In 1978, the Philadelphia police moved to evict MOVE from their home. It led to a shootout, the death of a police officer, the beating of a surrendering MOVE member by police, and 9 members of MOVE in prison. In the biggest weakness of Let The Fire Burn, Osder neglects to go into sufficient detail on the background of why the events of 1978 took place and fails to give us a great deal of background into the antagonism between MOVE and the Philadelphia authorities. It leaves some perplexing questions about how later events were genuinely seeded.
After the 1978 event the group moved into a townhouse on Osage Avenue in Philadelphia. Osder depicts MOVE and its leader as taking on a more aggressive, militaristic approach designed to harass (mostly African-American) neighbors and to provoke the police. Osder's suggestion, as reinforced by some of the neighbors that later testified, is that MOVE was essentially trying to get itself evicted again and to provoke another confrontation. Given some of the footage provided of MOVE's antics, the accusation seems plausible. They boarded up windows, built a bunker on top of their roof, paraded weapons, and built a powerful loudspeaker through which they would constantly bombard the neighborhood with expletive-laced taunts and jeremiads.
Eventually, the police responded, and even greater tragedy resulted.
Osder paints the portrait of the events in question entirely out of archival footage - primarily news reports and testimony taped at the hearings of a commission investigating the matter, as well as an affecting videotaped deposition of a child that was one of two survivors from the house.
Osder tries studiously to avoid interfering too overtly or to be seen as commenting on the events, eschewing narration entirely, and only inserting "just the facts" titles to provide context where necessary. It's a mostly effective approach, lending the film an air of both reflective journalistic authority and fairness. The film has the feeling of neutrality but also feels like something of a trial after-the-fact - inviting reconsideration of the events now that there has been some distance in time. Perhaps the most annoying part of the film is when Osder actually intrudes a bit too much by futzing with the video footage to create some stylistic flourishes, mainly in transitions between archival materials. Although the film could have benefited from providing a little more introductory background, it feels mostly complete and there really isn't much to complain about.
By rejecting a polemical approach, Osder works hard to create a sense of even-handedness about the events. This documentary neither champions MOVE, who come off as needlessly provocative and foolish, nor the Philadelphia police or government officials, who mainly come off as callous, negligent, and, in some cases, downright dumb. The film raises questions about police conduct - such as what they might have done that caused MOVE members to run back into the fire - but it mostly leaves it up to the audience to answer the questions (and to choose which witness to believe).
Of course, the downside of taking this approach is that it divests the film of what might have been a more emotional appeal. That's not a big problem, as the film seems more interested in telling the truth about events that happened nearly thirty years ago. Not every documentary needs to charge in with the same sense of barely concealed outrage as, say, a Waco: The Rules of Engagement. I had heard of the MOVE story at times over the years, but honestly did not know the in-depth story. As a piece of history, Osder's film is highly effective in detailing what happened and giving us what we need to make our own judgments and raise our own questions.
No film can avoid taking a position on things, and Osder's work has its perspective - he seems unimpressed with MOVE's actions but mildly sympathetic to the notion that they were being needlessly harassed prior to the 1978 confrontation. In the post-1978 aftermath, however, Osder depicts MOVE as a group hell-bent on provoking confrontation and doing so recklessly given the children they had in their house.
As for the police, Osder's portrait suggests that they were revenge-minded and seemed to lack a reasonable plan to peacefully oust MOVE. The police force comes off as provocative and its leadership rather dumb (and the then-mayor rather oblivious). It would be difficult to walk away from this documentary without thinking the police at least negligent, if not reckless and malicious in their approach. They're not totally unsympathetic here - in their commission testimony the government officials seem to be genuinely horrified at what happened, even if they are resolute in insisting that they were blameless. At one powerful point, the police commissioner averts his eyes as he seems to be trying to convince himself that he heard automatic gun fire from the house in spite of the fact that no automatic weapons were found in the house.
It really does seem as if two groups recklessly pushed toward a confrontation that neither was really prepared for, and a horrible tragedy resulted. Of course, given the standards for lawfulness that we expect the police to meet, it would be hard not to place a little more blame their way. And given the racial epithets that some police officers placed on the locker of the one police officer that acted heroically (to save a child), it would be tough for anyone to walk away without wondering about deeper problems in the Philadelphia police force - that apparently still afflict them presently.
As to MOVE, were they ultimately a group whose actions were borne out of a kind of post-traumatic stress that developed from the constant harassment and abuse they were facing from a racist police force (and from infamous previous mayor Frank Rizzo)? Or were they a misguided group that never really grasped the opposition they faced? Or were they really the militarist group looking to start a war as portrayed by the police? The questions linger.
Osder doesn't try to provide detailed answers to every question, and yet there is enough here to provide an understanding of what happened and a history lesson many might wish to shy away from - but good luck turning it off once you hit play. It is an effective, worthwhile documentary that never feels unfair and does not waver from its approach. Well worth a watch.
Screened on DVD.
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