For the vast majority of Americans, the name of Dr. Kermit Gosnell does not exist in a state of infamy. In fact, most people have never heard of him at all. This is a shame since Gosnell perpetrated some of the most heinous acts in American history.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell was a man who committed a whole series of illegal and unethical actions. He sold illegal drugs. On at least three occasions, babies who survived abortions were killed off by Gosnell and his poorly trained staff. This is in direct violation of the law in every single state that holds that if a baby survives an abortion, then everything must be done to preserve its life. What Gosnell did was nothing short of heinous and barbaric murders.
During the course of the Gosnell case, there was a media blackout. The national news media literally boycotted covering the trial. At least that is until one of the few journalists covering the trial took a photograph of the empty press section that quickly went viral. This lead to public outrage that such an important case was being covered up due to the total lack of professionalism by the biased news media. This resulted in greater coverage of the trial, although the Big Three networks continued to blacklist covering the trial until after the jury’s verdict was announced. Right after covering the jury verdict, the national news media lapsed right back into pretending that there was no Gosnell case at all. This is a direct contrast to other infamous cases such as that of Casey Anthony where the news media has no problem at all of constantly discussing the case.
The same has proved to be true of the media coverage of the 2018 movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. As of December 2018 when this review was written, the overwhelming majority of daily newspapers and websites that routinely review movies had completely failed to cover this particular movie. Journalists whine and complain about falling circulations and lack of public interest consistently fail to understand that the reason why this is so is that they have completely failed to adequately cover the world around them. When they do, they all too often inject their bias instead of covering events both honestly and objectively. When this happens, they give people a reason for not wanting to get the daily newspaper, the weekly news magazine or watch the evening news or listen to the radio news.
Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer has its roots in TV. Its creators spent most of their career in show business on TV. Both the lead actor Dean Cain and the lead actress Janine Turner have spent their careers mainly on TV. The production budget was at the level of a made for TV movie and the production values were on the level of a made for TV movie. Basically, when you see this movie in a movie theater, it seems like a made for TV movie on the big screen. However, it seems like a made for network TV movie that is generally better than made for cable TV movies. Essentially, this is a B-Movie that is superior to most other B-Movies.
However, this is not to say that this is a bad film. For instance, the direction of Nick Searcy was very good. The acting was much better than what you have in your typical made for TV movie. This was especially true of the performances of both Dean Cain and Alfonzo Rachel as the detectives and Cyrina Fiallo as the blogger covering the trial. Dean Cain and Alfonzo Rachel are so good together that they ought to be cast in a buddy cop movie. Of special note is the performance of Earl Billings in the title role. Not only did he really look just like Dr. Gosnell, but he also did an amazing job of subtly portraying a crazy person who thought he was some kind of hero to women in trouble. Billing’s portrayal of Dr. Kermit Gosnell was an understated study of evil. Basically, if Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer had been a made for TV movie that actually was shown only on TV, it would almost certainly have been considered the best production of its type for all of 2018. However, it just could not compete against the big-budget flicks that you see in movie theaters.
Of special interest is the fact that this is a movie that was made with a high degree of historical accuracy. It's pretty clear that the filmmakers knew that playing fast and loose with the facts like what so many Hollywood types do would be used against them and would only hurt their cause. This movie was based directly on the official court transcripts of the original 2013 trial. This is a movie that is about law enforcement’s ending Dr. Gosnell’s house of horrors, not striking a blow for the pro-life movement. The main author of the screenplay, Andrew Klavan, has long made it clear that he is sick and tired of movies being used as showcases of political propaganda and he was determined that Gosnell not be a political flick.
Of special significance is the way that Gosnell’s abortion clinic was portrayed. The clinic’s atmosphere was depicted as being dark and foreboding that causes a normal person to feel despair. However, the movie did not always stick to the historical facts surrounding the case. Of special significance is the fact that in the real-life case, there was evidence that Gosnell had killed hundreds if not thousands of born babies, but an airtight case could only be done in the three most recent cases, so that’s why he was charged with only three counts of murder when in reality, there was reason to believe that Gosnell’s conduct was far worse than that. The movie, unfortunately, failed to address that matter.
Most importantly, although this movie was made by pro-life filmmakers, it is not a film with a message, there is no preaching here. There is hardly any gore in this flick although the producers would have been justified in having some in this production given the nature of the crime. At 93 minutes in length, this film had little room to drag and this movie proved to be fast-paced. In summation, Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer is a good movie that is well worth your attention.