The Staircase
by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Michael PetersonDirector: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Brand: New Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 384 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: NEW VIDEO GROUP
DVD Reviews of The Staircase
DVD Review: Suspenseful and Dramatic
Summary: 5 Stars
Since I don't care much for Court TV types of television, my expectations for this film were quite low. In fact, I couldn't tell--at first--if this film was truly a documentary or one played by actors. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the superlative true-to-life drama and mounting suspense coupled with an extended treatment of the family and the lawyer-client relationship. The only downside from a viewing perspective was the inclusion of extensive forensic evidence which I found to be too technical and hard to follow. Hence, I'm glad I wasn't on that jury. Nonetheless, one could easily argue --and rightfully so--that it was essential to the case. In a nutshell--this is a must see for those who appreciate quality films. Leaves you with much food for thought.DVD Review: I think it comes down to perspective...
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished watching "The Staircase" last night. It is a very impressive, highly addictive document that will instantly have its hooks in you from episode 1. There are a couple of key things I feel are worth mentioning that I picked up from some of the negative reviews. The main compliant is "The Staircase" is presented in a way that makes it look like Michael Peterson is actually innocent and NC wrongly locked him up. I went into this film knowing that Michael Peterson was already found guilty and based on what I have read, do believe he committed the murder. However, watching this film, I can easily see why people can walk away feeling he was wrongly convicted. There were even a couple of times I had a reasonable doubt!
The main thing to keep in mind is 80% of the film is shot from the defense's perspective. Most of the footage is taken from the Peterson house, interviews with the kids, his brothers, ex-wife. You candidly are exposed to the defense team and how they set up their strategy to defend Peterson, even after all the bizarre instances are exposed over the course of the investigation and trial. A majority of what you are watching over 6 hours is a family that really wants to believe their father did not murder their mother, and a defense team that is trying their hardness to get a murderer off even though all fingers seem to point right at him.
In the bonus features, the director points out that after a couple months, the prosecution did not want the film crew to have 'all-access' pass to their case and refused to let them film, unlike the Peterson family/ defense which was an open book. The initial intent was to have a balanced story, but it didn't turn out that way. So in the end "The Staircase" is not really pure documentary of the murder and trial of Kathleen Peterson. It is more a documentary on Michael Peterson and his family after the murder of their wife/ mother, and how a high-end murder defense team defends their client. Absolutely fascinating. But not a balanced criminal/ judicial documentary.
DVD Review: If Michael Peterson isn't guilty, then I'm not a Bay Area Boy!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this DVD about 7 months ago and I must have watched all eight episodes at least ten times.
By the time I had watched it the second time, I was convinced Michael Peterson was guilty; even before I found a great Website on the internet called [...] hosted by a fella named Vance Holmes. Vance has spent a great deal of time researching the entire trial, the victims, and Mr. Peterson himself and clearly points out all the discrepancies in this DVD.
If you visit his Website first, you will be all the more drawn to purchasing this 8-chapter set. Just to KNOW this Peterson guy is GUILTY beyound a resonable doubt, then to watch him snake his way through the trial with his mock tears, and his innapropriate humour at times makes you realize this guy is the most self-centered, narcissistic sociopath that ever walked the streets of Durham, North Carolina.
Not only did he murder his second wife, Kathleen, but it seems pretty obvious he may have murdered his first wife's best friend in Germany when she too was found bloody, and at the bottom of a long staircase. Top this all off with the fact that Michael is Bi-Sexual and had been carrying on multiple affairs with both women and MEN during BOTH his marraiges, and you will walk away thoroughly convinced he belongs in that Prison they interview him in on the last disc's "Special Features" addition vinnette.
Still playing the pitiful role as the persecuted victim, this incredibly insensitve egotist is lucky he didn't meet "Old Sparky" instead of getting off with a life sentence with no parole.
This documentary is a must see for true crime buffs, and a fascinating study in how Peterson's own family and friends can be so blindly decieved by a master Sociopath who cares nothing about anyone but himself. Jean Xavier de Lestrade, "The Staircase" Director should throw his Oscar for "Murder on a Sunday Afternoon" into the Seine River for presenting Peterson as the "innocent victim of a prejudiced court and community" and go back to making commercials in Paris for French Laundries and skinny brown Turkish cigarettes.
Although Lestrade simply closes his featurette interviews on this DVD with comments like "we just don't know what happened," the REST of us are pretty convinced Peterson should have got the "Chair" for murdering not one, but TWO women for who knows what reason but his own. Sociopaths don't always need a reason to kill someone......just a convenient dimly lit Staircase and a trusting soul as his next victim standing before him on those steps.
DVD Review: Great documentary.
Summary: 5 Stars
Great insite into a trial and what goes on behind the scenes. A wonderful human drama.DVD Review: Superbly made, but terribly flawed
Summary: 2 Stars
Like many others who have written their reviews, I found this a compelling and addictive documentary. However, I would urge everyone to please dig deeper and look into the mountain of evidence that was used to convict Peterson - most of which was left on the cutting room floor and was deliberately left out of this documentary.
You have to ask yourself why the film maker, Lestrade, would deliberately try to manipulate the audience into believing that the American justice system put an innocent man in jail for a murder he didn't commit. Instead, the American justice system got it right and poor Kathleen Peterson can rest in peace while her sociopathic husband serves a life sentence for her murder. This documentary failed to show the real reasons why the jury convicted Peterson and that makes this a documentary that is more fiction than fact.
Description of The Staircase
Directed by Academy Award?-winning filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Murder on a Sunday Morning), THE STAIRCASE is like the most suspenseful of page-turners, adding "layers of complexity until one is entirely hooked by its ambiguities and twists and turns." (Chicago Tribune) One of the most highly acclaimed documentaries in recent years, this shocking, real-life thriller follows the high-profile murder trial of North Carolina author Michael Peterson, who was arraigned in 2001 for the murder of his wife after her body is discovered lying in a pool of blood on the stairway of the couple's upscale Durham home. Did Kathleen Peterson fall down the stairs, or was it cold-blooded murder? As the mystery unravels, de Lestrade's cameras are granted unusual access to Peterson's lawyers, home, and immediate family, resulting in a gripping, inside look at a case so shocking, it is sure to leave you gasping for breath.It's Law & Order come to life as the Sundance Channel's consistently absorbing, often riveting The Staircase chronicles a sensational North Carolina murder case from the crime to the verdict. When Kathleen Peterson was found dead in her Durham, NC mansion in December '01, her husband, novelist Michael Peterson, claimed she had fallen down a narrow staircase. The authorities disagreed, and Peterson was charged with first degree murder. Thereafter, director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and his crew were given almost unrestricted access to the defendant (who remained free on bail) and his legal team, as well as to the district attorney and the prosecution crew, albeit to a lesser extent. There are countless meetings to map out defense strategy, dozens of interviews (including many with Peterson himself; he's not an especially sympathetic character), scenes of pre-trial home life, excerpts from Court TV coverage, and so on. The filmmakers follow the prosecution investigators to Texas, where we see a body exhumed; there's even a trip to Germany to look into a previous death in which Peterson may or may not have been involved.
The result is both exhaustive and exhausting; indeed, it's not until the end of the fourth of the series' eight episodes (each is about 45 minutes long) that the actual trial begins. By then, various revelations about Peterson, ranging from surprising to unsavory to downright sordid, have proved once again that truth really is stranger than fiction. In fact, while the four-month trial is interesting, it doesn't reveal much that we don't already know. Unlike most so-called "reality" programming, The Staircase is the genuine article. That means that it lacks the constant throb of big, dramatic scenes provided by your average TV cop-courtroom show, especially as the series is well over six hours long. Still, although one might easily skip to Episode 8 to learn the outcome, there's more than enough suspense to justify watching every minute of it, and regardless of one's expectations, the announcement of the verdict is a jolting moment. Only two key elements remain unexplained: What went on in the jury room during deliberations? And did Peterson do it, or not? Only he knows, and he ain't talkin'. --Sam Graham
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Il PostinoDisney; Release date: 2000-03-14; DVD
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)Sony; Release date: 2006-11-14; DVD
Best price: $8.54
Price in other shops:
8 1/ 2 - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2001-12-04; DVD
Best price: $18.90
Price in other shops:
The Diving Bell and the ButterflyBUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2008-04-29; DVD
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops:
Paris, Je T'Aime (Paris, I Love You)Paris; Release date: 2007-11-13; DVD
Best price: $4.44
Price in other shops:
HamletWarner Brothers; Release date: 2004-02-24; DVD
Best price: $5.79
Price in other shops:
La Vie en Rose (Extended Version)HBO HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2007-11-13; DVD
Best price: $8.23
Price in other shops:
Babette's FeastAVEL,GABRIEL; Release date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $3.72
Price in other shops:
The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)Release date: 2004-07-13; DVD
Best price: $4.86
Price in other shops:
AmelieDisney; Release date: 2002-07-16; DVD
Best price: $11.27
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Awful Truth - The Complete DVD Set (Seasons 1 & 2)New Video; Release date: 2003-04-29; DVD
Best price: $19.39
Price in other shops:
Aging OutNEW VIDEO GROUP; Release date: 2006-06-27; DVD
Best price: $16.65
Price in other shops:
Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmaker's ApocalypsePARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2007-11-20; DVD
Best price: $14.59
Price in other shops:
Capturing the FriedmansJARECKI,ANDREW; Release date: 2004-01-27; DVD
Best price: $2.84
Price in other shops:
The Thin Blue LineTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2005-07-26; DVD
Best price: $19.94
Price in other shops:
Written in Bloodby Diane Fanning
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 2005-02-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.60
Price in other shops:
Paradise Lost - The Child Murders at Robin Hood HillsNew Video; Release date: 2005-10-25; DVD
Best price: $14.43
Price in other shops:
Brother's KeeperNew Video; Release date: 2003-07-29; DVD
Best price: $14.55
Price in other shops:
Paradise Lost (Collector's Edition) (Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills / Paradise Lost 2: Revelations)NEW VIDEO GROUP; Release date: 2008-10-28; DVD
Best price: $18.63
Price in other shops:
Murder on a Sunday MorningDocurama; Release date: 2003-04-29; DVD
Best price: $11.72
Price in other shops: