<Two Maxims at Odds: Tell a Story, Tell the Truth>
The last interview was over. The set, a room inside a New York hotel, had gone dark. The subject, Robert A. Durst, headed for the bathroom, apparently unaware his microphone was still on. “There it is. You’re caught,” he is heard saying. “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”
It made for a chilling conclusion to an absorbing six or so hours of television. But once HBO’s “The Jinx” released you from its grip, questions emerged. Why had the filmmakers, Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling, withheld this seemingly vital utterance until the very last scene of the very last episode? For that matter, why had they not gone back to Mr. Durst to ask him about this possible confession? When had they alerted the police?
These questions led, inexorably, to other, larger ones: Was this film a form of journalism or entertainment? And, more broadly, what should an audience’s expectations of documentary films be?
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