Predators was possibly the biggest surprise for me at Sundance this year. David Osit’s doc of course chronicles the Dateline series rise, fall and rebirth in excruciating detail, but it does so while not shying away from the hard questions and implications that those who partake in these forms of entertainment, myself included, would rather ignore. It’s a hard watch that is as confrontational in its subject matter, as it is its approach – and that is what got me is how Osit is able to pose some of these questions in the manner he does.
Predators’ three acts essentially covers three very different pieces of this story. In the first act we cover as expected, the trajectory of Dateline: To Catch a Predator. Its origins as Hansen’s one off investigation on child prostitution in Cambodia, to it becoming the pop cultural juggernaut that it became in its initial run from 2004-2007. The film tells this portion of the story with not only interviews with law enforcement officers, but the decoys and staff who facilitated these city to city, traveling carnival-like sting operations. The stage is carefully then set as we see lost moments of Hansen’s trademark confrontations, where we hear the ensnared child predators ask if along with going to jail, if there’s a possibility of obtaining mental help as well.
This portion concludes with the incident that ended the show’s primetime run, played out simultaneously in real time via live raw feeds from the multiple cameramen on site. After their initial sting operation in Murphy, Texas, it was discovered one of the men who spoke with a child decoy on the phone but didn’t show up to the house, was in fact assistant district attorney Bill Conradt. Hansen and company then decided to bring the show, AND the police to their high ranking target’s residence. When Conradt realized what was happening, he shot himself in the head in front of the police. Because the cameras don’t stop rolling, we see some very chilling reactions to the events as they unfolded for Hansen and company as we the audience begin to wonder if Hansen had gone too far for views.
In the next act, we dig into the countless online predator catcher copycats that have popped up online, since, given it’s cheap and salacious content, that could be masked as well meaning and get clicks. After we are shown some of the more controversial hunters, who make it a point to not only out and apprehend their targets in public, but sometimes rough them up a bit as well, we embed with Chris Hansen wannabe – Skeet Hansen. Here we are forced to witness a sting at a hotel that goes horribly wrong. Where after the initial confrontation, the team discovers it could be over an hour till law enforcement shows up to pick up their predator. This has the hunters now stuck with a now suicidal man, who is very aware his life is now over and asking if there’s a chance to get help now that his life is essentially over.
While there is simply no excuse for this behavior and these people should definitely go to jail for a VERY long time, they do need help. It’s here Osit begins to place the mirror in front of his audience and ask is the entertainment aspect of this worth the lives it costs? Is everyone that falls into this trap completely without redemption? Because once you’re in a video online like this, your life is essentially over. Once that video is uploaded and decimated to the world, you’re then judged by the harshest of courts, the internet. It’s a hard question that I personally still don’t have a good answer for. Do they simply hold the footage until trial, or offer some kind of help and counseling as a way to postpone the release of the footage if they abide by their rehabilitation? These questions all fall into place in our final act.
In our third and final act we now see Hansen in present day, looking to help launch an online network, TruBlu that will of course carry an updated take on Predator – Takedown. It’s here Osit places Hansen in front of the camera, as he looks back on his career and what drives these hunts; and if he’s ever gotten an answer to why they do it. It’s during his new show he catches an 18 year old, who was looking to meet a 15 year old. We see a meeting with Hansen and the owner of the network, where the owner sheds some doubt on airing such a catch given the age, legality in some states and what this could do to the young man’s life. Hansen decides to upload it and we see the fallout via interviews with the young man’s mother, played against Osit’s interview with Hansen.
This is where he isn’t afraid to ask the questions we as an audience are now asking, that even Osit begins to ask of himself for making this film in the first place.
Did I expect this doc to hit that hard? No, not really. I expected more of a salacious behind the scenes piece, filled with some backstage antidotes about what it was like traveling from town to town catching these monsters. Instead we are posed with a real moral dilemma. Osit is very clear – these people are terrible, but especially in the age of the internet, where this is a death sentence. Is this kind of public humiliation justifiable and warranted to simply entertain us for a few minutes until the next video shows up in our feed? Should these people have the ability to get help? Osit is just masterful in how the breadcrumbs of these questions throughout the film, that it’s hard even for someone, even like myself who was a fan of Hansen coming into this, to not begin to ask these bigger questions as well.
It’s definitely affected my opinion of not just Hansen, but this subgenre as a whole after watching this masterfully crafted, thought provoking investigation of this sordid back alley of reality television.
