It all happened so quickly. In under four minutes, two vehicles pulled up at a Jacksonville, Florida gas station, one person from each of those cars ducked inside for a purchase or a bathroom break, and all hell broke loose at back the pumps.
It was the 2012 “Loud Music Shooting” case, when a white man, later to use Florida’s infamous “Stand Your Ground” law as his defense, emptied his pistol into a Dodge Durango full of black teens who had their hip hop turned up too high.
The clumsily-but-accurately-titled “3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets” reconstructs the court case that spun out of this tragedy. Using trial footage, police interrogation footage of the accused, Michael Dunn, snippets of recreations and interviews with those who knew Jordan Davis, the teen killed that night, writer-director Marc Silver has created a compelling if myopic narrative of a trial that drew international attention.
Ron Davis, Jordan’s dad, remembers his son one donning a hoodie and remarking how much he looked like earlier Florida “Stand Your Ground” victim Trayvon Martin. But there the similarity with the Martin case seems to end. Jordan grew up in a nice neighborhood. He and his friends were strangers to law enforcement, normal spirited teens who wound up gassing up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Silver confines himself to the trial mostly, showing an articulate prosecutor (John Guy) employing logic and righteousness in his persuasive arguments.
And then there’s Corey Strolla, the defense attorney, expertly planting the seeds of doubt in the jury’s minds, and in ours. Jordan had a temper. He was a typical mouthy teen. His client feared for his safety.
But the star of this show is Dunn himself — not interviewed for the film, but heard on jailhouse recordings of conversations with his fiance, the woman who went into that convenience store to buy wine. Dunn insists to her, and by extension the world, that “I’m not racist. THEY’re racist…I’m the victim here.”
The narrowed focus fits the subject. This never seemed as complex a case as the Trayvon Martin shooting, so following a family “seeking justice” through the courts should have been enough.
But the very “slam dunk” nature of the case in the court of public opinion makes “3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets” drag along and feel incomplete as it does. A law was on trial, and the more clear-headed local talk radio folk we overhear see that and fret about the consequences of a “Not Guilty” verdict. “Stand Your Ground” seems like “self defense” with a little something extra added on.
And “Stand Your Ground” is still with us., even if Jordan Davis is not.

MPAA Rating: unrated, with descriptions of violence, profanity

Cast: Michael Dunn, Lucia McBath, Ron Davis, Tevin Thompson, Tommie Stornes, Leland Brunson, John Guy
Credits: Written and directed by Marc Silver. A Participant release.

Running time: 1:30