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• Sylvia Likens' murder, which shocked a nation, is the subject of a TV movie

Paula Baniszewski (Ari Graynor, left) at one point aids Sylvia Likens (Ellen Page) in "An American Crime." (Photo provided by Showtime Networks)

Bradley Whiford portrays the prosecutor in "An American Crime," based on the 1965 torture-murder of Sylvia Likens in Indianapolis. (Photo provided by Showtime Networks)

It's been 43 years since the murder of young Sylvia Likens first captivated Indianapolis. But the public fascination has not disappeared with time.

Further igniting that interest is the television premiere of "An American Crime." It aired Saturday on Showtime and is scheduled to repeat this week.

Forrest Bowman was 31 years old when he represented two of the defendants in the case. Natty Bumppo (then named John Dean) was a 26-year-old courthouse reporter for The Indianapolis Star who was assigned to cover the trial.

We recently invited Bowman and Bumppo to watch "An American Crime." Here are their thoughts:

Visceral reaction:

Bowman said he couldn't imagine who would want to watch the movie.

"I understand that's reality, but it's almost like, 'Let's visit a concentration camp for an hour-and-a-half,'." he said. "Only this happened right here in Indianapolis."

The concentration camp metaphor is interesting here, because both Bowman and Bumppo see a psychological parallel between what happened on East New York Street and what happened in the Holocaust.

Both also mentioned the Milgram experiment, a set of seminal social psychology studies that measured obedience in committing acts against a person's conscience, and how the concepts at play were represented in the film.

"What we saw was a pretty interesting portrayal of some pretty well-understood dynamics of human behavior, when it really gets ugly," Bowman said. "I think the movie generally did a good job of showing how this came to be, from an emotional and psychological standpoint."

"I thought the film, despite numerous historical inaccuracies -- none of which really matter all that much -- filled a void in explanation of what happened," Bumppo said.

"It explained a motive we never knew about. And it shows an adult director ..... an authority figure."

Historical accuracy:

There was one inaccuracy that both men felt was glaring: casting the attractive Catherine Keener as Gertrude Baniszewski, the woman who oversaw the acts that led to Likens' death.

"I thought the actress did a very good job, but she couldn't show you how homely Gertrude was. And I think that was a significant factor," Bowman said. "Because you're talking about some of the more base human emotions: jealousy, scapegoating. I think the homeliness was part of what was driving her."

"And Sylvia was a pretty little girl," Bumppo added.

Director Tommy O'Haver, speaking from his home in Los Angeles, said he felt the ugliness of the story alone was enough.

"I was sort of going for a decayed elegance. More than the ugliness of it all, the solemnity of.it all," said O'Haver, explaining that he also wanted to humanize Baniszewski in some way.

"I feel in many ways the only control she had was over that household. The fact that she had no control over her own life led to this grotesque display of control in her own house."

Overall appreciation of the film:

Ultimately, Bumppo and Bowman thought the film proved to be a competent psychological and emotional exploration of the case, but neither found the experience enjoyable.

"I found it interesting," said Bumppo. "But by that I mean, not boring."

"I couldn't wait for it to be over," said Bowman. "If I hadn't been here for (this screening), I.would have left about 30 minutes into it."

Neither reaction comes as a surprise to O'Haver.

"It's not meant to be a thrill-a-minute fun ride. It's a different kind of film," he said. "It's meant to be challenging, but at the same time important. Because it does bring up issues that I think should be up for discussion always."