Netflix’s ‘Malice at the Palace’ doc emerges as mixed bag for Pistons fans

The actual Malice at the Palace well done

Once the first 25 minutes pass, the documentary takes a leap in the quality of storytelling. A big part of is that the focus finally shifts away from unnecessary information about O’Neal, Miller, and the Pacers building their team. Now the focus comes towards the brawl and its aftermath.

The players are able to discuss what they were feeling and thinking step-by-step throughout the brawl. This is a great strength of the documentary. Jackson and Artest especially give great information, and perspective, to what was happening during the brawl.

The documentary expands its perspectives during the brawl as well. Palace security, Auburn Hills police officers, and referee Tim Donaghy (who is famous for other things) were all able to share their experience with what occurred as well. Expanding the perspectives shows just how much of a mess the entire brawl was. Players’ narratives conflict, with those of security and police.

Having so many conflicting stories also serves to show the audience that the whole truth of what happened will never truly be uncovered.

The documentary’s final act is very strong as well. The end focuses on the media reaction and the legal cases that ensued.

The players were able to speak their minds about how the media and the NBA reacted to the brawl. To the players, a lot of their actions came in self-defense. They took exception to the media and league demonizing them for their actions.

The documentary does a good job of showing that there is some merit to their claim – without completely exonerating them. O’Neal and Jackson especially took issue with media cherry-picking the clips they chose to put on TV, and labeling them as thugs.

The legal cases involving the prosecutor, David Gorcycla, is also a very strong moment in the documentary. Gorcycla does a very good job of explaining where he thinks the majority of the blame should fall. He also showed to be very impartial.

There is a lot of good content in the second and third acts of Untold. Spoiling all of the information would be a disservice to its filmmakers.

The documentary is worth watching for players’ expressing their thoughts during the brawl and Gorcycla talking about the legal cases alone.

But Untold falls into the same traps that many Netflix documentaries do. It is drawn out way longer than it needs to be. There is a lot of filler, when there’s other valuable information that could be expanded upon instead. But the documentary does have plenty of strong moments as well.

While the whole truth of what happened during the Malice at the Palace will always remain shrouded in mystery, Untold does a great job of adding new perspectives to the story.