Movie Review Hoodwinked

Hoodwinked is a movie produced by Weinstein Company in 2005. The film puts a new spin on the children’s tale of Little Red Riding Hood as each of the characters is shown with a spin of their own. The story started with the familiar event, in which little red riding hood went to Granny’s house with a basket of goodies. As she arrived at the house, she saw the wolf in the bed of her grandmother and disguised as Granny.

As the wolf jumped to attack Red, her Granny who is tied up jumped out of the closet and the lumberjack came to save red and granny. However, when the police arrive at the place of the incident, the line of questioning moves to information which is related to a mysterious string of goodie and recipe thefts which have been happening all over the woods.

As Red’s Granny still has her recipes, the police decided that Granny, the wolf, Red and the woodcutter must be guilty or the police are determined to find evidence to prove that one of them is the prime suspect.   Police Chief Grizzly just wanted to book everybody and call the case as closed, however, Mr Flipper, the dapper detective sees more to the incident. The detective also arrived at the crime scene and decided to have an investigation by interrogating the four.

In the movie, it can be seen that there are two overlapping crimes that happened in the woods. First crime is the attempted murder, if we can consider what the wolf wanted to do with Red that way, as well as trespassing in the house of granny and the abuse he made with the Granny and the recipe theft that is happening all over the woods.

The police have been in the crime scene to investigate what had happened in the house of Granny and to know what the real truth behind the said is attacked of the wolf to Red and his Grandma. However, as the investigation proceeds, the four had learned that there is another crime that is happening in the woods which is the theft of the recipes of the goodies. And instead of solving the first issue, the detective have made focus on the recipe theft issue and interrogated the four, whom at first considered as victim, but now considered as the suspect for the other crime.

In this story, one of the articles that can be linked or associated with it is the article entitled Deception and its Detection by Detective Wesley Clark under the testimonial evidence. The article is about obtaining statement that should be useful in investigating a crime. There are two different types of statement that can be established in crime investigation. This includes the specific statement and the alibi statement. Specific statement includes the information provided by the subject of the crime while the second one pertains to statement made to cover-up specific time-frame.

In the story, detective flipper would want to know the truth about the thief of the recipes; hence, he interrogated that four. Since, the four (wolf, granny, red and woodcutter) are busy with what happened to them about the attempted crime of wolf to red, we can possibly say that they do not have any idea about the recipe theft. However, since granny has her own recipe, the four have become the suspect.

To know the truth, the police have interrogated the four and asked them questions to determine whether they will be considered guilty or innocent of the crime.  With this, to cover up, each of the four had their own alibi statements to make sure that they will not be accused of being the recipe theft.

According to the article of Detective Clark (1998), the police officer who is interrogating a suspect, should provide the subject with the limitations within which alleged suspects must be asked to tell everything that had happened during a specific time-frame. For example, since the recipe theft has happened in the woods, the police who is interrogating the suspects should let the suspect write everything which happened from the time they wake up until the time that they ended their day, in this case, the time after the crime of the wolf has been ended in granny’s house.

Another article that can be linked in this story is the article still under testimonial evidence which is entitled Conducting Successful Interrogations by David Vessel. As can be noted in the story, the police officers have interrogated the four, knowing that they will be able to know who among them is the real suspect of the recipe threat but did not give attention to the crime that happened in the house of granny. In the article, it is said that the main purpose of having an interrogation is to identify the suspect or involved criminal suspects which makes confession by admitting his participation in a crime.

More often, interrogators are having difficulties in collecting statements that will prove how guilty the suspect is or not. If the interrogator have investigate the wrong suspects, there is a tendency of having more conflict since the investigation would only waste the time of the police officers as well as the time of the alleged suspect. There would be a tendency that the real suspect is still living freely without the investigator knowing it. In the case of the movie, it can be said that the interrogators have investigated the wrong person, since in the end, granny’s recipe has also been stolen, making the officer believed that none of the four is guilty for the recipe theft.

In the article, it also discussed about the acquisition of adequate background information about the subjects to be able to have a successful investigation. It is said that the feeling, personal values and attitudes of the subject have a direct impact on the success of the interrogations.

In the part of the movie (Hoodwinked), though the police officers knew the background information about the suspects (red, granny, wolf and woodcutter), they still stick on they thought that one of the four is the prime suspect of the recipe theft.  The interrogation made by the police in a succession has revealed different experiences of the four which complexly intertwine themselves perfectly into a whole.

In interrogating a suspect, the police officer should also consider the human rights of the individuals, even if he is accused of committing a crime. Hence, the officer should treat the alleged suspect in an ethical manner. However, in the movie, it can be said that the police officer who interrogated the four has not been ethical on the way they interrogate the wolf, granny, red and woodcutter.

The police shouts on the alleged suspects and behaves in a threatening was towards the fours suspects. Such behaviour is said to violate one of the rules investigating and interrogating. Instead of treating the suspect badly, the interrogator should build a good relationship with these people to be able to gather essential details that would lead to the solution of the crime or that would lead to the real suspect.

In the story, each of the characters has their own personality that is not usual for investigating a crime. The investigations made by the police bear and the detective frog, can be said to be incompetent unlike the investigations made by the wolf and his sidekick, though it still lack of enough evidence to conclude who really is the suspect of the recipe theft.

References

Clark, W. (1998). Deception and its Detection. Connecticut Trooper Magazine, Fall. Online Available http://www.crimeandclues.com/deception.htm. Accessed October 8, 2007.

Vessel, D. (1998). Conducting Successful Interrogations, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Online available http://www.fbi.gov/library/leb/leb.htm. Accessed October 8, 2007.