“the witness” movie review

Anyone who lived in New York in the ’60s was haunted by the story of Kitty Genovese.

In March 1964, the 28 year old was coming home from her job at a local bar in Kew Gardens, Queens at 3 a.m. when a man came out of nowhere and stabbed her. As she screamed for help, he ran away and she made it into the hallway of her building. He came back, found her and stabbed her again.

Despite her screams and the fact that 38 neighbors witnessed the attack, no one came to her rescue and she died.

That fact was turned into a front page New York Times story about apathy and anonymity, revealing the uncaring people who lived in the city.

“It was one of the most shameful events in New York City history,” said one reporter.

As a little girl growing up in Queens, it was terrifying to me.

Now, fifty years later, The Witness follows Kitty’s brother, Bill, as he tries to make sense of what happened that night. Still devastated by the murder of his sister, he talks to witnesses as well as lawyers, the son of the killer and, in some of the most shocking scenes of the film, journalists including legendary New York Times editor, A.M. Rosenthal, who wrote a now-classic book about the tragedy.

Infuriatingly, it turns out that not everything reported in the story was true. In fact, much of what has been studied in hundreds of sociology and anthropology classes was grossly exaggerated. The story was, as one reporter admits, partly a media creation. “Why?” asks Bill. Because the facts “would have ruined the story.”

I don’t want to give away any of Bill’s findings but let me tell you that Michael and I put the movie on pause for a few minutes to discuss them. Any illusions you may have had about a golden period of journalism will be shattered.

This is a must-see true-crime story that will keep you thinking. It is riveting.

To Bill, it is also deeply personal. Despite his siblings encouraging him to move on, he desperately needs closure. His wife explains that he’s looking for peace, and that all the choices he’s made in his life have been influenced by the fact that no one helped his sister. In fact, he enlisted to serve in the Vietnam War so he wouldn’t be one of the apathetic. And he lost his legs.

“My sister was so much more than the last 30 minutes of her life,” he says, and the movie celebrates a Kitty we never knew. She was “the class cut up,” popular and funny. She was once married. She was gay. We watch footage of her with her friends, full of life, and we learn more about the photo, above, that’s all most of us have ever seen of her before. She becomes a real human being rather than the representation of bystander apathy. The story now becomes personal to us, too.

I have so many more questions after watching this documentary, and Michael has an amazing theory that I don’t want to share until you’ve seen the movie.

The movie ends with a chilling reenactment of Kitty’s screams, which is heartbreaking.

Because of the events of that night, the 911 system was created, which has saved countless lives. I hope that gives Bill and his family some solace and I hope this eye-opening documentary serves as a healing response to his own cry for help.