Response to the HBO Laramie Project movie

It being a movie, adds a lot more dimensions than that of the play I saw when I was younger. The play, as I recall, had a simple background, a blue backdrop meant to simulate the Wyoming sky. The "characters" would walk center stag, say their piece and fade to the side. It isn't until later, during the trials that the play has more characters on stage at a time, props, and no longer a series of interviews. The movie set the mood, and atmosphere for which most of the play lacks. We see the town of Laramie instead of just the people of it. With the tragedy of Matthew Shepard murder, we like to think of Laramie, and the people of it, as a horrible place with horrible. And though the actors in the movie aren't the actual people, we still see the town. And it looks like a nice place, if it is indeed Laramie. But still having a full visual film about it adds more to the experience