The main question that arises when watching a documentary like Depp vs Heard this is what can be said of the trial, which was fully televised live and commented on by every news organization, legal expert or fan, throughout its duration, dominating every conversation on every social platform in existence.
Spoilers. Answer: not so much.
Unnecessary deja vu
Depp vs Heard is a series consisting of 3 episodes of approximately 45 minutes in which a libel suit filed by Johnny Depp against ex-wife Amber Heard for the amount $50 million for an article published in Washington Post It is titled “Amber Heard: I spoke about sexual harassment and fought the anger of our culture. We need a change”, which has become commonplace, as well as the world’s first lawsuit followed on TikTok.
From a structural point of view, the series shows the testimony of the parties next to each other, which makes it easier to read what was stated by people participating in a kind of direct question and answer, the purpose of which is to make the inconsistencies that have arisen more obvious. during the debate. Beginning in April 2022, the lawsuit in question almost immediately turned into a clash between Depp supporters and Heard’s opponents, which unfolded on TikTok to the sound of memes, and posts with the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp (justice for JohnnyDepp) received 20 billion views and went viral. videos in which Heard’s voice was remixed in the release of some of her statements, which were instead used to ridicule the actress, a media circus that did not even spare the lawyers of the parties involved, between ridicule and applause in the stadium.
As for the verdict, handed down a few months after the start of the trial, the jury ruled in favor of Depp, awarding Amber Heard to pay $15 million and as to Heard’s counterclaim, the jury agreed with the actress, but only with respect to statements by her ex-husband’s lawyer, who determined her allegations were “fraud”, thus awarding her $2 million in damages against the requested $100.
Depp vs Heard – all in the last episode
If the first two parts Depp vs Heard I deja vu which was not particularly needed, the final part of the last episode is undoubtedly the most interesting of the entire project.
Regardless of who is right in the story and who is wrong, a show like this only makes sense when it gives viewers a chance to really think about the events, not when it simply sums up circumstances that (almost) everyone knows by heart by heart. Now .
About half wayViral verdict” is the title of the third and final episode Depp vs Heard, we begin to talk about how before the trial it is necessary to establish what is admissible and what is not allowed in the courtroom as evidence and as soon as the most necessary must be presented to the jury in order to consider the weight that the decision to recognize the cameras in the courtroom had, on such a broad profile, and whether this could have affected the jury, who were banned from social media and talking about the case anyway. Jurors who still came home every night and interacted with friends and family.
While these questions are legitimate, it’s quite another to claim that the verdict caused the #metoo movement to take many steps back because of Depp’s victory. The very fact that a single trial involving two individuals, however famous they may be, should serve as a standard bearer or be seen as a symbol of the defeat of women over men is, in our opinion, unfair to the parties involved and to the movement itself and demonstrates how It would probably be wise for this process to take place behind closed doors, precisely in order not to attach too much importance to it, especially when only facts must be considered, which is already difficult to achieve in the courtroom, in which procedural truth does not necessarily coincide with absolute truth.
Finally, still in the final part of the documentary, we talk about how more than 6,000 documents were made public two months after the verdict, which can be freely consulted on the Internet in PDF format of more than 200 pages, documents that were classified because they could influence the jury during the trial or were considered inappropriate by the judge in a defamation case.
For example, these pages confirm, through the publication of a text message written by Depp’s assistant, some of the claims made by Amber Heard, which were instead refuted during the trial by a witness in favor of Johnny Depp, however, some analysts have questioned the veracity of these reports, arguing that it was For this reason, they were not presented to the court. The publication of these documents has shaken the convictions of many Depp supporters, and as far as we know, they at least demonstrate how difficult it is to establish the truth in such cases, based mainly on the statements of the parties and, therefore, on the authority they manage to evoke, which in this case seems to be proportional to their fame as actors and therefore public figures.
Depp vs Heard debuts on Netflix on August 16, 2023.