Week 6 Reflection

I chose the documentary film, Dinosaur 13, directed by Todd Douglass Miller. The overview of the film, is about the discovery of the largest T. Rex fossil ever found, Sue, and all the events that happened after. The documentary focuses on using pathos to help create a shocking, but mournful perspective on the events of what happened to the fossil and the crew that helped discover and piece it together.

1). There were multiple scenes that made me question why certain events were happening. However. one specific scene that shocked me, but also made me upset was when FBI, U.S. Coast Guard, and more government officials (around 30 in total) took control of all operations and seized all the Black Hills Institute possession's including Sue. It took them three days to search through all of the offices, desks, drawers, mail, and much more in which all were confiscated and taken. This scene made me shocked and angry because the government just came out of nowhere one random day and took everything that they have worked so hard for. It also made me sad since the town was small and anything related to Sue could be huge for the town. Everyone in the town all gathered up to protest the seizure of the remains of Sue by the government.

2). One scene that caught me off guard was when the those involved in lawsuits by the federal government were being faced with around 150 counts and over 350 years in jail. One of the main discovers, Larson, said that when adding all the time served for the counts charge it would be larger than that given to Jeffrey Dahmer would kill and ate 13 people. I thought that this was a ridiculous amount of time and crimes against the workers of Black Hills Institute. Later on, most of the charges were dropped by the Jury, but Neal Larson would still face 2 years in federal prison.

3). After watching the film, I questioned if there was a way that this whole situation could have been avoided or if this had to be as big of a deal as it turned out to be. I wondered how the government could have so much control as they just took everything that belonged to Black Hills Institute, but then also claimed that they owned the land in which Sue was found on. In addition, I still felt angry and shocked that this even happened in the first place. I'm annoyed of how the whole Sue situation was handled by, Black Hills Institute, the government, and the Indian Reservations. Thankfully, I know that the fossil ended up in a museum where it belongs.

4). There are a couple reason why avoiding research in our summaries would be best. The first reason is that other sources may not fully align with what was presented within the documentary leading to a possibility of misinformation. Another reason is that including research could create some type of bias. Although it may be accidental, bias can lead to a not accurate representation of the documentary.