Brandon Coale Notes

Tomorrow is Brian Banks birthday, and I can highly recommend the movie that was made about the first 27 years of his life. It is a must see for anyone interested in the workings of the American court system and bad lawyers, and how someone’s freedom can be taken away by someone not telling the truth.

The people in the California Innocence Project who helped Brian are real life heroes. The script and all of the actors in this movie were outstanding. It was great to see the talented director Tom Shadyac’s name back on a movie after a 10 year absence. This movie is one that Tom, the script writer Doug Atchison, the actors and producers should always look back on and be proud of.

This would be a good movie for all teenagers to watch to learn what could happen to them if they are not careful, and the devastating effects on someone else’s life that could happen if they don’t tell the truth. Fortunately nowadays most people have a video and audio recorder in their pocket via smart phones, and video cameras are likely less expensive than they were back in 2002 when Brian’s incident happened, so I’m guessing that there are now a lot more video cameras in high schools than there were back in 2002, and smart phones didn’t even exist back in 2002.

Had Brian’s public school had video cameras in the hallways, maybe there would have been some video footage of him and Wanetta, and I’ve got to believe most teenagers would also be deterred from risky behavior if they knew there was a chance that they were being taped.