Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 (2017) User Reviews

return to that era

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 29 April 2017]

This follows 10 years of events leading up the 1992 L.A. riots. It touches on the chokehold, Daryl Gates, the Olympics, the Rodney King beating, store keeper Mrs Du's killing of Latasha Harlins, and finally the not guilty verdict in the Rodney King trial.

It's 25 years later. The recent O.J. shows have reignited interest in the events of that era in L.A. The first half lays out the situation over that 10 years period. The second half recounts those harrowing days concentrating on a few stories including interviews with those convicted of the Reginald Denny beating. Bobby Green's calling from God is probably the most emotional moment. I certainly hope for a ray of light from the higher power in this darkest day. This is not an all-encompassing documentary of the event. It touches on most of the important issues and players in the story although it may not be the final word. It does bring the viewer back to those days of chaos.

Nothing has changed

[Sober-Friend · 9/10 · 29 April 2017]

The LAPD come across like scum in this and that is an accurate portrayal. This documentary takes a unique and in-depth look at the years and events leading up to the city-wide violence that began April 29, 1992, when the verdict was announced in the Rodney King case. However that verdict was just the last straw for the African American Community of Los Angeles.

This film wisely shows us events that help ignite the riots of 1992. For years Daryl Gates was the chief of police & had a KKK mentality. This filtered down all through the LAPD.

In this documentary we learn for years the community was speaking about how they were treated. Not only were they treated bad by the police but also but court system and merchant owners.

The police involved with the beating of Rodney King really showed no remorse in what they did. In fact they acted proud of it. Even though later 3 of the four of the police officers no longer worked for the LAPD they were still working as police officers in other areas. (That is however not covered in this film).

During the riots we learn about the 4 people that were heroes that saved a mans life. That is something that the media really never covered.

I lived in the LA area when this happened and knew about most of the cases they were featured in this. What I didn't know was that the LAPD did kill several black men with a choke hold. Today nationwide cops now just shot you.

WE also learn that the 4 police officers lied in their reports about the Rodney King arrest and yet the racist Simi Valley Jurors did not convict them of that.

Now 25 years later there has been more murders of black men by police officers and most of them never get convicted. So don't be surprised when we have another uprising.

No Justice! No Peace! The Klan is alive & well and its in your local police department

A good documentary

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 9 October 2021]

For the most part, this is really good documentary filmmaking, with a slightly too long runtime and occasionally flawed editing holding it back (unless the abrupt cuts to black were intended to be there for commercial breaks, if this was a TV movie? Even then, it still could have felt smoother).

Funnily enough, the lead up to the protests/riots ends up being far more compelling, despite those events being comparatively less explosive. That may be a consequence of watching this after LA 1992, which I think is a slightly better film, and did a better job at showing - on a visceral level - the events in LA over those days in 1992.

Both are very much worth watching, though, and if you treated them as an exhausting double feature, you'd get a great recap of the history followed by a more cinematic (for lack of a better word) depiction of the aftermath of the Rodney King trial.

Definitely More Relevant Than Ever

[Sylviastel · 10/10 · 17 June 2020]

John Ridley's powerful documentary is mandatory viewing on Los Angeles, California from 1982 to the Rodney King beating in 1991 and the riots in 1992 after the verdict of not guilty against the four policemen acquitted by a largely white jury. You had video footage of the beating.

The two hours was riveting viewing last night three years later on television. It was edited on television. I wished they showed the entire documentary. The director had different perspectives which helped broaden our views.the director had views from African Americans; Korean Americans; police officers and others.

In 2020, this documentary speaks more than ever.

Awesome!

[jonathanndeflep · 10/10 · 25 May 2020]

This was a superb documentary! The doc not only shows the LA riots but the events from the past decades leading up to it. It does a great job of presenting the various perspectives surrounding the era. I really recommend it!

It was bad then, but not any worse than it is today

[bettycjung · 18 November 2017]

11/15/17. This was actually a good documentary about a decade of unrest and chaos. Both sides get to tell their story, the black community that felt put upon by the police, and the police trying to do its job without offending the black community and the politicians. It was a sad time, but no sadder than it is today.

Superb documentary

[NORDIC-2 · 10/10 · 22 December 2019]

Lots of documentaries fall into the realm of the disposable: puff pieces, curios, lurid crime sideshows or lightweight infotainment. John Ridley's 'Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992' (2017) is not one of those. Indeed, 'Let It Fall' is one of the most important American docs in recent years. Ridley's brilliantly edited film delineates the decade-long run-up to the 1992 riots following the Rodney King verdicts that tore Los Angeles apart and shocked the nation. As 'Let It Fall' shows, 1982 to '92 marked a steep rise in street gangs, the further militarization of the police by LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, simmering tensions in the black community with Korean shop-owners and the cops. By the time of the Rodney King incident, South-Central LA was a tinderbox about to explode into flames. When the four cops who were involved in King's vicious, senseless beating - caught on video tape - were inexplicably acquitted by a Simi Valley jury, black LA went nuts and the results were catastrophic. The obvious take-way from 'Let It Fall' is that the city government and the cops were totally and unconscionably unprepared for the five days of rioting that ensued after the acquittals. Then-mayor Bradley comes off as weak but Daryl Gates and some of his subordinates in the LAPD come off as either grossly incompetent, indifferent, or malevolent - or all of the above. The LA riots were called an "uprising" but that doesn't seem quite accurate. The cops stood down and stayed uninvolved while the black ghetto and Koreatown burned (wealthy white sections like Beverly Hills were carefully guarded, of course). In other words, the horrendous damage was mostly inflicted on white working-class people (e.g., truck driver Reginald Denny) and Korean small business owners by African American working-class and poor people who were fed up by a long term diet of poverty and police repression. The '92 riots did not alter the rich, white power structure one iota - though Bradley and Gates soon lost their jobs.

A Documentary about very Important Events, Edited Poorly.

[gravybacon · 6/10 · 22 November 2020]

This documentary is fairly enthralling, and contains a lot of extremely useful information. It makes a good point of pointing out the shady decision making and terrible events that led up to the L.A Riots, and it really puts those events front and center. However, there are very odd editing choices made throughout the documentary that have the capability to throw the viewer out of the experience.

There are drops in audio, moments of complete silence, weird fades to black, interviews without names of who we are seeing talk to us, awkward breaks in the flow of conversation and in the flow of the entire documentary. The events and terrible choices and racially motivated hatred that led to these riots are important to know, and they are probably more important now then ever because we are still living with this systematic racism in our police across the US. However, the editing for this documentary leaves a lot to be desired.

Factious and partial

[marcobucchioni · 4/10 · 21 August 2023]

The title is absolutely misleading. It is not a documentary about the racial tensions in LA between the 80s and the 90s. It is built up to justify the looting and the killings during the 92 Riots as a consequence of white men brutality. The racism of part of the black comunity towards the koreans is totally overlooked. The guys attacking and almost killing Reginald Denny appear as victims of social injustuice. The honest people (black, white, asian), who were the real victims of criminals hiding their actions behind the racial excuse, are almost forgotten. Adressed only to the guilt ridden conscience white upper class intellectuals.