Should you watch The Central Park Five?
Who it’s good for, who it isn’t, and what’s in it. No ratings, no scores.

The Central Park Five
Documentary · 2012
In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, this is the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.
The sides of The Central Park Five
- Five Harlem teenagers arrested in 1989
- Confessions taken after hours of questioning
- Years in prison before the real attacker confesses
The Central Park Five is good for you if…
- you want the Central Park case told carefully, with the facts.
- you want to see how police, press and public rushed to judgment.
- you want the five men to tell it in their own words.
The Central Park Five is bad for you if…
- you can't sit with a rape case and teenagers sent to prison.
- you need some hope, and stolen years are hard for you to watch.
About: injustice · racism · the press
Closest to The Central Park Five
More like this
Bus 174 2002Good for you if you want to understand a real hostage crisis that Brazil watched live.
O.J.: Made in America 2016Good for you if you want to understand a trial through the city around it.
The Perfect Neighbor 2025Good for you if you like watching a small dispute build call after call toward something worse.
Making a Murderer 2015Good for you if you want to weigh the evidence in the Steven Avery case yourself.
The Seven Five 2015Good for you if you like hearing how a cop ran a drug business from his patrol car.
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story 2022Good for you if you want to understand a real case that shook Britain.