Edelman's film, which ran for 7 1/2 hours (not counting commercials) on ESPN, was interesting for what it left out as well as what it left in. I was working at Fairchild during the period of the trial and I was not at all surprised by the reactions of the African-Americans who worked there: many of them felt that the verdict was payback for all the Rodney Kings of the world. Even the jurors who were interviewed by Edelman admitted that. But he was only able, for whatever reasons, to interview two jurors, whose reactions to the trial were more emotional than intellectual. Other jurors may have thought what Alexander Cockburn said in The Nation at the time, that the prosecution presented a relatively weak case and made many mistakes along the way.
The questions Edelman did not address included our corrupt college football system, where a few stars make it to the NFL while many others are used and tossed away, without even an education. Edelman did not address Simpson's class time at USC or talk to any of his professors. It seems that Simpson never graduated and likely attended few classes; he was probably was not even able to read. But none of that mattered, because he was a star football player. Nor does Edelman address the misogyny of sports stars: Simpson carried on numerous affairs of his own but would beat up his wife if she even looked at anyone else.
Simpson was treated with favoritism wherever he went and whatever he did. Director Peter Hyams did not want him in his film Capricorn One (1977) because there were so many other African-American actors who had worked hard and deserved the opportunity; the studio claimed it would be good publicity. Simpson got the job advertising Hertz because, as he always claimed, "I'm not black, I'm O.J." (though it was never clear why Simpson had to run for his car if Hertz was so fast; did it mean service was not so good for those who could not run that fast?). Nicole Simpson received very little support from the police or even her own family when Simpson beat her.
If Edelman's film has a hero it is Fred Goldman, who was convinced that Simpson was the murderer of his son, and sued him in civil court, winning a thirty-three million dollar settlement, of which he collected very little. We did not, however, learn as much as we should have from the Simpson case: policeman should not shoot people because of their color, sports heroes should not be deified and we should not tolerate their abuse of women, colleges should not give athletic scholarships without at least a token attempt to also see that the recipients get a good education, the media should eschew sensationalism. I am not optimistic about any of these changes.
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