3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets

3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets

On November 23, 2012, a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida was a scene of gunfire. After the smoke disappeared, Jordan Davis, a seventeen-year old boy died from gun shots wounds while his friends’ vehicle was left with bullet holes. “3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets” is an account of what happened and the legal and racial implications that resulted from it. It is written in a meditative voice by Marc Silver.

The shooter Michael Dunn was aged forty five and white. Leland Brunson, Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson were black teenagers accompanying Davis. The dispute began after Dunn and his girlfriend Rhonda Rouer stopped at a gas station. They parked next to the youngsters who were playing loud rap music on their car speakers.

Already inside the store shopping for gum and cigarettes was Tommie Stornes. She went into the gas station’s convenience store for chips and white wine before going inside she heard Dunn say something about the teenagers’ “thug music” Dunn claims he didn’t say that but called it “rap crap.”

Dunn then asked them to turn down their radio that had been playing loudly all along since they were following him to this place with their rap song but still they ignored him; Thompson however abided but Davis told him to put back on the music volume which he did again as requested by davis this time around.

According to police looking through the vehicle there wasn’t any kind of weapon whatsoever though as he opened fire on them Dunn alleges that Davis threatened him wantingly got out of his car pointing what seemed like shot gun then killed him believing this action would save his life too but according one day later Rouer says dunn spoke nothing concerning a gun although he insists having described it countless times.

The judgment against dunn’s first degree murder trial in fall 2014; previously during 2014 another hearing found dunn guilty of second degree murder when he shot those other boys within the car but did not reach a unanimous decision on the first-degree murder charge in relation to davis’ death. Dunn’s legal team invoked Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law which holds that individuals can kill one another if even under the threat of death. In response to this, Davis’ parents have called for a repeal of this law along with stricter gun control measures.

This is as explosive a documentary subject as you’ll find anywhere. The violence at the root of it all though comes from multilayered resentment racial, cultural and generational with “Stand Your Ground,” gun control and machismo stirred into the mix.

Thankfully, Marc Silver and his colleagues do not seem to be trying to make people angry. They haven’t created a documentary that exploits people’s suffering; instead they use detached images that are deeply contemplative yet often stunningly beautiful in their melancholy. Images of tall trees, twisted highway interchanges, and Southern urban landscapes overwhelmed by blue-gray banks of clouds contribute to an atmosphere of spiritual agony.

The film shows partiality to Davis’ side of the story as a result of giving access to their lives and stories by Jordan’s parents while Dunn, his girlfriend and family apparently didn’t. (Their place in the movie is mainly through shots in a court room where they are seen testifying and listening to other people’s testimonies.)

However the movie seems mostly on Davis’ parent side because Dunn’s tale has many contradictions and lacks some important information. He comes off seeming like very bad news even though Silver omits or glosses over details that might have made him even more unsympathetic, such as the fact that he and Rouer left the gas station where Dunn had shot a stranger to death without reporting the incident to the police, then went back to their motel and ordered a pizza.

It is often said that when you’re presented with conflicting accounts of an event, the one that seems most plausible is probably correct. The movie seems to align itself with that sentiment. There is nothing in the pasts of either Davis or his friends that suggests they might have had a shotgun in their car so Dunn’s assertion that there was one appears racially paranoid an excuse for enacting homicidal fantasies he may have harbored for years before pulling into that parking spot. The film provides some background about how “thug” has replaced “nigger,’” according to one of Davis’ friends; it also solidifies Dunn’s reputation as an angry man rather than someone who is kind at heart.

However, Rouer testimony stands out above all others; she could have easily taken sides with her boyfriend telling authorities she saw Jordan open her boyfriends car door and pull a gun on him (actions none else at the gas station witnessed) but instead she says she never saw anything like this happen nor does she support his claim about not using thug as a term for describing black teenager music groups. In another account however, after the shooting, Dunn told investigators that he called a friend in law enforcement to arrange to meet with them but in contrast Rouer said that it was her boyfriend who made the call and that they didn’t discuss anything concerning the shooting.

There are no heroes in this story, but Rouer nearly qualifies. She sided with strangers over her own boyfriend because she believed it was right, and when she breaks down on the witness stand, you can see how much the decision cost her.

The whole thing builds up to a picture of one who realizes that he has done something unforgivably terrible and cannot bear consequences. Dunn’s detachment from the murder is revealed through police interrogation room footage and recorded conversations which show he cared more about his own life than any other thing.

He speaks disconcertingly reasonable and calm at times, for instance, when discussing the issue with an investigator afterwards even lets out different possible scenarios as though it’s just a minor accident. In the audio, there are bits where Dunn sounds as cruel and self centered as his critics have claimed, including one where he compares himself to “the rape girl that was attacked for wearing skimpy clothes.”

At times, Silver’s documentary fails in terms of consistency and clarity. There are moments when the narrative derails due to this dreamy mood, making it appear like sadness over these events is gradually swallowing up the film entirely. Although it is commendable that we can find our way around its story; onscreen titles could have defined our whereabouts or whom or what we were seeing with much ease.

You do not hear any names of supporting characters (including lawyers) until they are mentioned by someone else (“3 1/2 Minutes Ten Bullets”). If you did not pay much attention while watching TV news stories aired by Silver containing them, you may hardly know whether you are within a month or year let alone inside which court trial.

However, there are some instances in which you may wish that great editing had made things more specific perhaps raising questions that are unasked throughout the movie but seemingly intended by it too. Would thorough mental-health screening process before gun licenses make Dunn unable to carry a handgun? Why didn’t anybody ask him why he didn’t turn himself over immediately after murdering a stranger?

Or did Davis’ reaction against Dunn’s demand for keeping off music culturally “generic” such as teenage black man/middle aged white man/rap thing or were there incidents from Jordan’s past behind it? (One of Davis’ friends said that Jordan had mentioned that he was tired of being told what to do but the movie does not explain this).

Notwithstanding, these are not show stopper shortcomings. This is not a movie that moves or looks like most documentaries you will have ever seen. It’s meditative character makes the heart ache for everyone involved in this tragedy including even Dunn who seems so much a prisoner of fear and anger. Rather than inciting outrage, it leaves you shaking your head the way many other documentaries would do. The numb feeling comes from having knowledge about what one sees on screen racism and generational enmity, gun violence as normal, check list of reasons why nothing can be done are just highlights from another American day.

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