‘Anatomy of a Hate Crime’ Finds Multiple Victims

The facts alone tell a grim story: a 21-year-old man--5-feet-2, 105 pounds--was struck in the head 18 times with the butt of a handgun, stripped of his shoes and tied to a fence in the chill of an autumn night in Laramie, Wyo. When he was discovered 18 hours later, his face was covered with blood, except for trails cleaned by his tears.

In the weeks that followed Matthew Shepard’s murder in October 1998, those details were turned toward a lot of different ends, and the unassuming, openly gay college student suddenly became an icon.

The movie “Anatomy of a Hate Crime,” debuting tonight on MTV, makes him flesh and blood again--retrieving him and his death from the realm of the abstract, to remind us how real the possibility that something like this could happen again. Soon.

At the same time, the movie shows how cycles of frustration and despair might have driven Shepard’s killers--a pair of local men about Shepard’s age--toward violence. Among the implied messages: If America is to ease tensions among its many ethnic, religious, social and sexual communities, it must also tackle the larger issues--such as poverty and lack of moral guidance--that complicate the situation.

Writer Max Ember and director Tim Hunter stick close to known facts as they re-create events preceding and following Shepard’s murder, as well as the gruesome act itself. Their thoughtful, articulate piece launches a year of MTV programming designed to educate and activate viewers about discrimination. Immediately following the movie, MTV will present a half-hour news special about hate crimes, then, for 17 1/2 commercial-free hours, will run a scroll that, in three-hour loops, names several hundred victims of hate crimes in the U.S.

In parallel story lines, “Anatomy of a Hate Crime” depicts Shepard’s arrival in Laramie to attend the University of Wyoming, while also chronicling events that might have driven Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson ever deeper into grinding poverty and rage. Shepard (played by Cy Carter) calmly narrates from the great beyond, a device that turns preachy at times, yet intriguingly deepens our compassion for all the people involved.

Early on, the film shows Shepard receiving test results that reveal him to be HIV-positive. Shortly thereafter, he moves from Denver to smaller Laramie (business had taken his parents to Saudi Arabia at the time). At his new school, he seems open and sunny yet is prone to dark moods, which he relieves with prescription antidepressants.

Meanwhile, McKinney (Brendan Fletcher) and Henderson (Ian Somerhalder) are pals who are scraping by on incomes from seasonal construction work and fast-food jobs. A once-promising student, Henderson has suffered hard knocks in his shattered home and is beginning to give up on life. McKinney is more volatile. As depicted here, he is caught up in drugs and sex. He picks fights and repeatedly registers on local law enforcement’s radar.

Only the real McKinney and Henderson know what happened on Oct. 6, 1998, when these three lives intertwined by chance at a local bar. As imagined here, McKinney and Henderson at first intend merely to rob Shepard, targeting him for his seeming affluence, not his sexuality. Assertions that Shepard made sexual advances are fabricated after the attack.

Telling details abound, based on what is known (McKinney’s decrepit digs are reproduced right down to the picture of Jesus that hangs on a door--an image captured in photographs published after the murder), and what can only be speculated. In this latter category, the movie imagines McKinney and Henderson as victims, in their own way, of America’s ingrained intolerance: Due to their relatively smaller sizes, they are casually taunted by burlier co-workers as being gay.

In the end, “Anatomy of a Hate Crime” suggests that America is short on that most precious of commodities--love--and challenges us all to find it.

* “Anatomy of a Hate Crime” airs tonight at 8 on MTV. The network has rated it TV-PG-V (may be unsuitable for young children, with an added advisory for its depiction of violence). It will repeat Friday at 1 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.