MovieChat Forums > An American Crime (2007) Discussion > What The Hell is Wrong with these Kids??...

What The Hell is Wrong with these Kids????


It's one thing for the deranged mother to lock a girl in the basement and torture her, but for not only her own children but neighborhood children to join in!! What's in the drinking water in Indiana?

This was wrong on so many levels. The children showed off their mother's torture victim. Then encouraged the others to join in. And Then without much hesitation they burned her with cigarettes and much more.

Any sane person would have alerted the police to what was going on in the basement instead of joining in.

And then there's her own sister (and i get the fear factor) but you know she lived with this unbearable guilt until she died ( it's probably why she stopped the movie in the 80's). To know you are an accomplice in the death of your sister has to eat away at you. And sadly by being a silent bystander she was an accomplice.

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It's worth noting, and repeating: at least two of the neighbor children did tell adults about what was happening in the basement. And the adults dropped the ball.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

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And then there's her own sister (and i get the fear factor) but you know she lived with this unbearable guilt until she died


I would say shame rather than guilt.
Anyway 39 years is a long time to eat away at one's with guilt, wouldn't you say ?
I agree with you, though, she was a coward and an accomplice in her sister's torture and death.
What's wrong with overcoming your fear and running to the police and cry your head off until they take notice, in order to save your sister ?
Shame was what she felt, especially after the whole story was told in court.

What's in the drinking water in Indiana?

I see what you mean !

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...Aaaaaand again with the gross slander of Jenny because, being a real person-- young, not particularly clever, disabled, and extremely vulnerable-- in a real situation, she, er, lacked the fantasy bravery of a keyboard warrior.

Okay, here's another "just for the record" for you: Jenny most definitely did try to tell some of the adults in her life what was happening. And just as with the two neighbor kids who were witnesses and minor participants, once again, the adults dropped the ball.

You're asking the wrong question. It should be "what the hell was wrong with so many of those adults?"

Just for starters: What the hell was wrong with the social worker? The minister? Jenny and Sylvia's older sister? Why did no truant officer visit when Sylvia started missing school? What was wrong with Mrs. Vermilion?

"I don't deduce, I observe."

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What the hell was wrong with the social worker? The minister? Jenny and Sylvia's older sister? Why did no truant officer visit when Sylvia started missing school? What was wrong with Mrs. Vermilion?


You're right, there. I agree.




Troll harder ? Me ? Ha ha !

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And nothing seems to change with many adults these days. A little 8 year old girl was murdered and shown on our news this morning. The little girls step-grandparents, and social workers turned a blind eye.
The monster parents continued to collect welfare for the child all the while abusing this child. They even took her out of school so they wouldn't be caught. 1 year out of school and every single *beep* that knew what was happening turned away. The mother got 7 years jail, the step father got 3. Every single adult involved should have been charged for her murder.

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The film is entitled "An AMERICAN " crime, because it does indeed show the denial in American towns during that era, esp. re child abuse ("major crimes could NEVER happen in SUNNYDALE USA").

America and its innocence....is something that hopefully is now relegated to the past, Open your eyes. Learn from history.



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I just saw the movie last week, its really distrurbing!

and I really hate those kids!!! make me sick!


they were only held in prision/reformatory for a couple years?!huge injustice! they all deserve to die! in a slow painful death! and burn in hell!

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Ever heard of the Millgram Experiment?

In this case, the authority figure (Gertrude) told them to torture the subject (Sylvia) and they complied without question. Oh, and deep down, some seemingly normal people have the capacity to do really despicable acts if they're given the chance. Incidentally, these monsters--sorry--kids were given that chance.

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Was the millgram experiment the one that featured 'electrocution' or was it the one involving prisoners where they had to stop it after 2 days?
You make a good point, though: people behave strangely even when they are aware that they are taking part in an experiment, let alone teenagers in a 'hot-house' environment. I'm not excusing their behaviour in any way but 'for evil to prevail, it takes good men to do nothing'.

The Stanford Experiment was the one involving 'guards and prisoners' I knew it would come back to me!

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Germany 1933 - 1945 carried out thousands of spiteful acts on fellow citizens. Or look at the Japanese and their treament of British POWs. But those kids in An American Crime, jeesh... Makes me wonder how many twisted kids are torturing others right now and just haven't been caught yet. We've had several cases in the UK of teenagers mugging, then murdering a victim at random, while filming the acts of depravity on their mobile phones. Or look at the Bulger case. This type of psycho behaviour isn't learned, in my view. It's gotta be genetically inspired.

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Well said!

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[deleted]

I’m not defending the kids but first remember many of them were young. When you are abused you will survive any way possible and that includes obeying the abuser and abusing others.

I was abused as a child and your brain is focused on your basic needs and feeling safe. You shut off everything else and that includes feelings.

I don’t know if you have read A Child Named It but it’s about a child’s horrific abuse. He too lived in a basement. His mom abused him and treated his siblings normal or kinda normal. His brother wrote a book and he remembers his brother in the floor like a dog starving to death. He knew if he fed his brother he’d be abused something awful too. He also took part in some of the abuse because he didn’t want to be abused himself. He had to survive. Sadly when his brother was removed from the home he then got the abuse himself.
He feels horrible for how he treated his brother but his brother understood. You survive and so things out of fear.

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"A Child Called 'It'" was autobiographical; it wasn't written by the brother but by the boy himself.

Another thing to add, though, is that "mob mentality" plays a huge role in this. It's very likely that not one of those kids (within the home or the neighborhood ones) would've treated Sylvia that way on their own as individuals. But unfortunately when you put people together, in small numbers or large, they're more likely to go with the crowd, so to speak, and that seems to be what happened here, as horrifying as it is.

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If you read what I wrote I’m simply saying his brother himself wrote a book telling his side of the story. You buy it on Amazon and it’s called A Brothers Journey” by Richard B. Pelzer

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Ah, the way it was written sounded like you were talking about the one book, not two different ones.

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