'Valentine Road' is paved with tragedy
- USA TODAY review of %27Valentine Road%27%3A ***1/2 out of four
- Documentary examines case of 15-year-old gay student shot by schoolmate who was angry about being his crush
- Film airs Monday on HBO at 9 ET/PT
Valentine Road is a powerfully compelling, heartbreaking and somber account of homophobia taken to murderous lengths.
When the documentary has been shown at screenings and film festivals, viewers have been so deeply affected that they have heckled the screen. It's not hard to see why.
In February 2008, 15-year-old openly gay eighth-grader Larry King flirtatiously approached classmate Brandon McInerney and asked him to be his valentine. A few days later Larry was dead, shot twice in the back of the head by Brandon.
The film, which airs tonight at 9 ET/PT . on HBO, chronicles the Oxnard, Calif., murder, which has been described as the most prominent gay bias crime since the murder of Matthew Shepard a decade earlier. The case brought widespread media attention to issues of teen gender expression and sexual identity, as well as gun violence at schools.
In her multilayered and unflinching film, director Marta Cunningham delves deeply into the lives of both victim and shooter and interviews their classmates, friends and families. School officials and teachers weigh in — several who are shockingly unsympathetic about Larry's death — as do prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors,
The circumstances surrounding the slaying are undisputed. Brandon walked into a classroom at E. O. Green Junior High on Feb. 12, 2008, and fatally shot Larry at point-blank range. (Brandon had access to his grandfather's guns and ammunition.) Larry died a day later.
Earlier that year, Larry, who was bi-racial, had started wearing high-heeled boots and make-up at school. Brandon was depicted by prosecutors as a white supremacist who was furious that Larry had a crush on him.
Both boys had troubled childhoods and abusive parents.Through interviews with Brandon's brother, a portrait emerges of a boy with a violent father and meth-addicted mother, each with criminal records. After bruises were found on him, Larry was removed from his adoptive parents and placed in a group home.
The murder trial was delayed for three years and the venue changed. It ended in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a verdict. In November 2011, Brandon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and use of a gun. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
The suggestion that Larry brought the tragedy on himself surfaces repeatedly. A meeting of several jurors after the trial is deeply unsettling. Over wine and snacks, they share their sympathies for the murderer. They considered Larry's cross-dressing and flirtatious comments harassment enough to explain — and excuse — Brandon's violent deed. "He was solving a problem," a woman juror says, eliciting nodding assents from the others.
Wisely, Cunningham offers no judgmental commentary. She simply lets those interviewed speak their minds, interspersed with well-chosen school surveillance photos, courtroom illustrations and news footage. Viewers are left to connect the distressing dots.
This captivating film presents the sorrowful tale of a diminutive boy, bullied since third grade for being effeminate. and regarded by some as responsible for the deadly brutality inflicted on him. "They made a murder victim the cause of his own murder," says Detective Dan Swanson, a hate-crime expert who testified at the trial.
Haunting, heartfelt and even-handed, Valentine Road should be required viewing in teaching tolerance on middle-school and high-school campuses.