Amber: The Girl Behind the Alert

The story of the abduction and murder of the little girl who inspired the "Amber Alert" is informative but gut wrenching. Even all these years later, her mother, Donna Williams pain is palpable. She took her daughter's senseless death and her own suffering to advocate for stricter laws and ultimately, the creation of the alert named after her daughter. Many, many children not just in the US, but have been found safely due to her resolute determination to not let her daughter's death be in vain. Amber's life was short, but she will never be forgotten. I just pray that this will be resolved in her Mother's lifetime. Amber's father Richard, died in 2007 without seeing justice. But even if the monster who took her life is not caught and prosecuted on earth, I have no doubt he will face justice when he's facing God. I admire her Mom, and pray she is doing as best she can.

This documentary, which goes into the full details of an event that is responsible for our Amber Alerts, was not only very informative, but also extremely well done. Today, we take the Amber Alert as a given whenever the tragedy of a missing child happens. Almost thirty years ago such a thing was unheard of. As a resident of Dallas, Texas at the time of Amber's abduction, I clearly remember the news coverage, but had no idea of the background story of the family. This doc fills out the picture fully, and is a fitting tribute to all those touched most deeply by Amber's life and passing. The death of any child is heart-wrenching, but at least one child has left behind a legacy that will live on and has already proven to be the savior of so many other children.

This documentary fully explained the background of the Amber alert and two-thirds of the time was spent on the situation in which Amber was abducted, which I felt was appropriate. It was a touching documentary, wrapped up nicely at the end.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.