History Film / OJMadeInAmerica

* GodwinsLaw: Did Johnnie Cochran compare the LAPD to Adolf Hitler? Yes, yes he did. An enraged Fred Goldman is shown in stock footage calling this out immediately afterwards.
* GoryDiscretionShot: ''Thoroughly averted'' with the crime scene photos, showing the horrifying scene where Brown and Goldman were found outside her front door. [[note]]All versions sans the broadcast version even show uncensored the horrific neck would that nearly decapitated Nicole Brown. The version that runs on ESPN has a black bar censoring the wound.[[/note]]

* DontShootTheMessage: Invoked by Christopher Darden when, in a hearing without the jury present, tries to make the plea to never have the N-word be uttered during the trial. The reason for this is simple: he knows the defense for O.J. will try to present the theory that Mark Furhman (a white cop who faced allegations of racism) planted the glove. If it could be proven during the trial that Fuhrman said the word, that could lend credence to that theory. However, Chris makes a huge misstep in saying that hearing the word "will blind people" to the point they can't be rational, and will force the jury to have to pick sides: "the man" vs "the brothas" (almost exact words here). Cochran, in a famous moment, tore into Chris for saying black people can't hear the N-word without losing their minds. Chris was basically insulting all blacks. If he was able to somehow get his point across without doing that, things could have turned out different.

* SlashedThroat: An image of Nicole with her nightmarish throat wound is ''without a doubt'' the most grisly image from the crime scene photos. It's so disturbing that some networks showing the documentary have a black bar over it.

** An unrepentant LAPD cop (Det. Tom Lange, who along with his late partner Phil Vannatter, was the lead detective in the investigation) says of the Rodney King cops, "How do you know they were racist? They were ''not'' racist." The film then cuts to a stock footage news report in which two of the Rodney King cops were caught on audio describing a prior call as "something out of ''Film/GorillasInTheMist''."

* DisproportionateRetribution: Some of O.J's acquaintances, such as Micahel [=McClinto=], Joe Bell and Carl Douglas, believe the 33-year sentence for the Vegas robbery was unjust. Douglas, who was one of O.J's lawyers during the 1994-95 trial, claims that O.J. should have served at most two years for the crime and that the verdict was more about punishing O.J. for beating the 1994 murder trial.

* HumiliationConga: O.J. beat his murder case, but loses a civil suit for wrongful death where the Goldmans are awarded $33 million, which O.J. cannot afford to pay, resulting in him having to eventually declare personal bankruptcy. His financial situation over the years gets so bad he makes a book called ''If I Did It'' to try and get some money but the book deal ultimately falls through. On top of this, the Goldmans, to whom he is still in debt, seize the publishing rights and change the title to ''[--If--] I Did It: Confessions of the Killer''. He spends most of the 2000's as a punchline and stars in an awkward, painfully bad, straight to DVD ''Series/{{Punkd}}'' ripoff called ''Juiced'' which bombs and only drives home how far he's fallen. He tops it off with an armed robbery in Vegas in 2007 which lands him in prison with a 33-year sentence. (Simpson was granted parole in 2017 after serving nine years.)

* RevengeBeforeReason: The not guilty verdict is viewed as "payback for Rodney King" by many. Danny Bakewell states that it was pretty much payback for everything black people in America had been through over the last 400 years.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: The defense made a point of emphasizing the history of racial violence from the LAPD as a way to prove that OJ's arrest was nothing more than a case of a white establishment wanting to tear down a powerful and influential black man, putting particular emphasis on the racist history of Detective Mark Fuhrmann. The prosecution attempts to work around this by admitting that such claims are true but they do not change the overwhelming evidence that OJ was a violent abuser and murderer but to not avail.

The series was directed by Ezra Edelman. Before airing on ESPN, as part of that network's ''30 for 30'' documentary series, it ran for a week in two theaters (in a three-part format), one in Santa Monica and the other in New York City. This made it eligible for the Oscars and it won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDocumentaryFeature. It set a record for longest "film" to win an Oscar (467 minutes), beating the mark previously set by the 1968 Russian adaptation of ''Film/{{War and Peace|1966}}''.[[note]]Random trivia: the ''shortest'' film to be nominated for an Oscar is animated short ''WebAnimation/FreshGuacamole''.[[/note]]

* BleepDammit: Words like ''fuck'' and ''shit'' are bleeped in some cases, but only when using stock footage where they were bleeped originally. In the actual interviews, there's no filter. ''Nigger'' isn't bleeped, since it's relevant to the subject material.

The series was directed by Ezra Edelman. Before airing on ESPN, as part of that network's ''30 for 30'' documentary series, it ran for a week in two theaters (in a three-part format), one in Santa Monica and the other in New York City. This made it eligible for the Oscars and it won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDocumentaryFeature. It set a record for longest "film" to win an Oscar (467 minutes), beating the mark previously set by the 1968 Russian adaptation of ''Film/{{War and Peace|1966}}''.[[note]]Random trivia: the ''shortest'' film to be nominated for an Oscar is animated short ''Fresh Guacamole''.[[/note]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Remember in ''Series/ThePeopleVOJSimpson'' when O.J.'s defense team redecorated O.J.'s house to better reflect African American culture for the visiting and predominantly black jury? Yeah, that ''really happened''.

* CourtroomAntics:
** Both in and outside of the courtroom. When Johnnie Cochran derails the point of the trial by making it about race and comparing the LAPD to Adolf Hitler, Ron Goldman's father Fred is outraged and publicly calls out Cochran for his manipulations. Reporters asking Cochran if he will apologize to Goldman get this response:
--->'''Johnnie Cochran:''' ''He'' [Goldman] should be apologizing to ''me!''
** Mike Gilbert expresses disapproval of how the officers enforcing the civil judgment against Simpson took his personal stuff. He specifically says "how do you take his Heisman?" ''Not even 30 seconds later'', we see old footage of Gilbert, who claims he was unpaid for services rendered to O.J., admitting to taking some of his personal stuff, ''including his Heisman Trophy.''
** Robert Shapiro was the person who first brought race into the trial, suggesting at the very beginning that the LAPD framed Simpson because he was black. This, despite saying that race shouldn't be a part of the trial. After the ordeal is over, he expresses "disgust" that he and the dream team not only played the race card, but dealt it from the bottom of the deck. Carl Douglas calls him out by saying it was the card he stacked the deck with from the very beginning.
** Johnnie Cochran gets ''pissed'' when Darden tries to argue that the "N-word" is so racially charged that black people will automatically assume Fuhrman planted the evidence.

* BrokenPedestal: In-universe, O.J. is this to many, but ''especially'' Ron Shipp. Shipp clearly idolized O.J. for a long time, even helping him out of a few jams when he became a cop. He becomes friends with O.J. and Nicole. Shortly after the murders happen, Shipp asks O.J. what happened to his finger (which was bandaged). O.J. says he cut it on a glass in Chigago. Then, O.J.'s story about what happened to his finger changed several times between what he tells Shipp alone and what he tells others with Shipp (perhaps unknowingly) in earshot. From that point on, Shipp distanced himself from O.J., culminating in him testifying against O.J. on the stand and getting torn to shreds by Carl Douglas. This was, of course, the end of their friendship.

* PostGameRetaliation: Carl Douglas compares the Las Vegas case sentencing to [[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=5th%20Quarter the 5th Quarter]], a term for football or basketball team members and fans fighting each other after the game has already been won. In Douglas's eyes, the 33-year sentencing for armed robbery, assault and kidnapping was the system getting back at O.J. after he had beaten the rap for murder in 1995.

** An unrepentant LAPD cop says of the Rodney King cops, "How do you know they were racist? They were ''not'' racist." The film then cuts to a stock footage news report in which two of the Rodney King cops were caught on audio describing a prior call as "something out of ''Film/GorillasInTheMist''."

[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0678.JPG]]

->''"We talk about O. J. as if the story were O. J. … the story is O. J. and us."''

''O. J.: Made in America'' is a 2016 documentary miniseries produced by Creator/{{ESPN}}.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0678.JPG]]

* AbstractApotheosis: A focal point of the documentary is showing the seeds and roots of the distrust of the LAPD by black people in LA. O.J's trial is thus treated as all of the race relations coming to a head.

->''"We talk about O.J. as if the story were O.J....the story is O.J. and us."''

''O.J.: Made in America'' is a 2016 documentary miniseries produced by Creator/{{ESPN}}.

The five-part miniseries is a documentary of the life of UsefulNotes/OJSimpson, former Heisman Trophy winner, NFL star, commercial pitchman, and character actor (''Series/Roots1977'', ''Film/TheNakedGun''), now infamous for allegedly murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ron Goldman in 1994. The double murder triggered the "Trial of the Century" in which Simpson was ultimately acquitted, although he was later found civilly liable for wrongful death. The series, while examining the life of O.J. and the murders in particular, also examines the history of race relations in the city of Los Angeles and the tensions between the black community in Los Angeles and the LAPD, factors which contributed to Simpson's acquittal.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Some of O.J's acquaintances believe the 33-year sentence for the Vegas robbery was unjust. Carl Douglas, one of O.J's lawyers during the 1994-95 trial, claims that O.J. should have served at most two years for the crime and that the verdict was more about punishing O.J. for beating the 1994 murder trial.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Some of O.J's acquaintances believe the 33-year sentence for the Vegas robbery was this. Douglas claims that O.J. should have served at most two years for the crime and that the verdict was more about punishing O.J. for beating the 1994 murder trial.

* CourtroomAntic:

* PostGameRetaliation: Carl Douglas compares the Las Vegas case sentencing to [[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=5th%20Quarter the 5th Quarter]], a term for a post-game fight between football or basketball team members or fans fighting each other after the game has already been won. In Douglas's eyes, the 33-year sentencing for armed robbery, assault and kidnapping was the system getting back at O.J. after he had beaten the rap for murder in 1995.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: According to the findings by jury consultant Donald Vinson, most black female jurors were unsympathetic to Nicole for being a white woman who had married a successful black man and as a result were more likely to vote "not guilty" for OJ because they didn't want to see him go down for the murder of a white woman, even if he might have been guilty. Marcia Clark, who had won several cases with black female jurors, was surprised by how much loyalty black women showed to OJ.

** How Christopher Darden is portrayed in the film. From the moment he first appears in the courtroom, everything he does backfires on the prosecution.

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: The final episode focuses on O.J.'s downfall after the trial (which ruined his career and public image, despite him being found innocent). After decades of being a wealthy and beloved celebrity, most of his belongings are repossessed, his mansion is demolished, and he's reduced to appearing on trashy reality shows and selling videos of himself to the paparazzi to make money. This all culminates in his arrest in Las Vegas after he goes to desperate lengths to reclaim some of his memorabilia from his {{glory days}}.

* HumiliationConga: O.J. beat his murder case, but loses a civil suit for wrongful death where the Goldmans are awarded $33 million, which O.J. cannot afford to pay, resulting in him having to eventually declare personal bankruptcy. His financial situation over the years gets so bad he makes a book called ''If I Did It'' to try and get some money but the book deal ultimately falls through. On top of this, the Goldmans, to whom he is still in debt, seize the publishing rights and change the title to ''[--If--] I Did It: Confessions of the Killer''. He spends most of the 2000's as a punchline and stars in an awkward, painfully bad, straight to DVD ''Series/{{Punkd}}'' ripoff called ''Juiced'' which bombs and inadvertently reveals how far he's fallen. He tops it off with an armed robbery in Vegas in 2007 which lands him in prison with a 33-year sentence. (Simpson was granted parole in 2017 after serving nine years.)

* ItsPersonal: Ron Shipp, though he felt O.J. was guilty, wasn't going to testify until he saw actual crime scene photos of Nicole (who was also a friend of his). They are so gruesome they bring back memories of the first homicide he saw, where a 19-year-old girl was left naked and beaten to the extent her face was unrecognizable. The hatred he felt for the man who later turned himself in for the crime is the same hate he felt for O.J.

** An aspect of O.J. which is revealed throughout the documentary in a lot of instances. Many interviewees essentially describe Simpson as one, stopping just short of actually calling him a sociopath. Many of his former friends note that he regularly lies to people without remorse, he doesn't seem to feel any genuine concern or affection for anyone but himself, he devoted his entire life to increasing his own wealth and fame, and he sees himself as effectively flawless. It's up to the audience to decide how accurate this characterization really is. The SWAT guy who was at the house to arrest O.J. on the night of the Bronco chase noted that there were no pictures of any other family or anyone else on the walls of the Simpson mansion--[[ShrineToSelf all the photos were of O.J.]] Simpson's agent Mike Gilbert claims to have said "It's all about you" while upbraiding Simpson for living the life of "a 25-year-old punkass" in Florida, without regard for his children.

** It's mentioned at several spots throughout the documentary (up until the trial and after) that O.J. got special treatment because he was rich and famous. For instance, the helicopter reporter who caught the Bronco chase notes that she had seen these kind of chases before and they normally ended ''very differently'' than someone basically getting a motorcade to his house.

** Simpson friend Creator/PeterHyams (who had directed him in ''Film/CapricornOne'') was a believer in his innocence. That is, until another friend asked Hyams what Mark Fuhrman would have had to know to plant the glove--Fuhrman ''would have had to know that Simpson had no alibi'', that Simpson could not prove himself to be at a party or in bed with a woman or on a plane to Chicago at the time of the murders. But neither Fuhrman nor anyone else in the LAPD knew where Simpson was at the time they entered his house. Hyams instantly realized that O.J. was guilty.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Carl Douglas did not believe it was a coincidence that the judge in the Las Vegas robbery trial held the jury out till 11 o'clock on a Friday night, 13 years to the day of Simpson's original not guilty verdict. Nor did he think it was a coincidence that Simpson was sentenced to 33 years as $33 million was O.J. was to pay in the civil case by the Goldmans. In Douglas's mind, this was their way at getting back at O.J. for beating the murder rap in 1995.