Murder at Harvard
- Episode aired Jul 14, 2003
- 50m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
33
YOUR RATING
Photos
Timothy Sawyer
- John White Webster
- (as Tim Sawyer)
Robert D. Murphy
- Marshall Francis Tukey
- (as Robert Murphy)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
Not bad but not up to the usual standards of "The American Experience".
The show is a sensationalizing of a murder and subsequent trial back around 1850. It seems that a rich landlord was killed and a Harvard professor was put on trial for the VERY grisly crime--that included the dismemberment of the victim! Yuck.
I usually have a hard time reviewing documentaries from the PBS series "The American Experience". That's because I try to find fault with them but in just about every case, the shows are nearly perfect. How can you critique something that is always that exceptional? I get tired of giving the shows scores of 8, 9 or 10. So, at least "Murder at Harvard" gives me a change to find fault with one of their shows! The problem with "Murder at Harvard" doesn't seem as serious to me as the other review currently posted on IMDb. That reviewer was seriously enraged by the show--much of it due to the documentary being filled with fiction. While I would agree that this isn't a great thing, this sort of playing with the facts has, unfortunately, become more and more the norm and the term 'documentary' doesn't mean the same thing now as it did in the past (for example, the films of Michael Moore). As a retired history teacher, this is bothersome but does not make the show unwatchable. However, this creative approach does make the film a lot less enjoyable and enlightening than usual.
I usually have a hard time reviewing documentaries from the PBS series "The American Experience". That's because I try to find fault with them but in just about every case, the shows are nearly perfect. How can you critique something that is always that exceptional? I get tired of giving the shows scores of 8, 9 or 10. So, at least "Murder at Harvard" gives me a change to find fault with one of their shows! The problem with "Murder at Harvard" doesn't seem as serious to me as the other review currently posted on IMDb. That reviewer was seriously enraged by the show--much of it due to the documentary being filled with fiction. While I would agree that this isn't a great thing, this sort of playing with the facts has, unfortunately, become more and more the norm and the term 'documentary' doesn't mean the same thing now as it did in the past (for example, the films of Michael Moore). As a retired history teacher, this is bothersome but does not make the show unwatchable. However, this creative approach does make the film a lot less enjoyable and enlightening than usual.
helpful•00
- planktonrules
- Nov 16, 2011
Details
- Runtime50 minutes
- Color
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content