‘Who is Luigi Mangione’ Review: A Cynical Documentary That Effectively Erases the Victim
The Luigi Mangione case has been such a troublesome development. The public reaction has been difficult to watch. I hate the American healthcare system. It’s rigged against us and puts profit above human life. Business practices like that are criminal and need to change. Insurance companies must learn that people are not a commodity. However, fighting greed and cynicism with lethal violence doesn’t solve anything. Moreover, creating a folk hero out of the troubled soul who murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson is bound to inspire more misguided acts of violence. The Investigation Discovery true crime documentary Who Is Luigi Mangione? (on Max) takes a look at Mangione’s case and tries to make sense of the aftermath. But is it essential viewing? Not necessarily.
This doc breaks some new ground, but not much.
This Investigation Discovery original documentary contains a few details I wasn’t aware of. However, a lot of the reporting is repetitive. The 20/20 special Manhunt: Luigi Mangione and the CEO Murder (Hulu) already covered most of the ground explored in this documentary. With a case like this, it’s important that coverage brings something new to the table and exists as more than a cynical rehash of the known facts. I say that because when the media spends hours on end covering cases like this, it gives deeply disturbed people one more reason to choose violence. When lonely, isolated individuals predisposed to acts of aggression see Mangione go from nobody to world-famous overnight, that might encourage another vigilante to try to make a name for themselves.
Who Is Luigi Mangione? provides cynical coverage of a case we’re all familiar with.
The reporting comes across as cynical for a number of reasons. Case in point: It seems like the filmmakers were desperate to get anyone with even a tangential connection to the accused on camera so they could rush the footage into postproduction and get it on air. We only hear from a couple of people who knew Mangione on any level. Among them are his yoga instructor and a neighbor. I think the reporting would be more meaningful if we heard from people with a deeper connection to the accused. At the very least, the reporting would read as less jaded.
The filmmakers behind the documentary further demonstrate their cynicism by losing sight of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the reporting. He serves as little more than a footnote in this psychological profile of his killer.
Regardless of Thompson’s utterly reprehensible actions as a CEO and his well-documented shortcomings on a humanitarian level, he’s still a key component in this case. Effectively writing him out of his own story comes across as callous and cynical. At the end of the program, correspondent Dan Abrams laments how Brian Thompson has been forgotten in all of this. However, the team behind this doc largely fed into that very trend and seemingly failed to see the irony.
All things considered, you can take a pass on this ID original documentary. If you’re looking for coverage that will deepen your understanding of the case and do justice to the victim, look elsewhere.
Summary
‘Who Is Luigi Mangione?’ prioritizes sensational coverage over paying tribute to the victim.
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