Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 2018.
Directed by Morgan Neville.
Featuring Joanne Rogers, François Clemmons, Yo-Yo Ma, and Joe Negri.
SYNOPSIS:
An exploration of the life, lessons, and legacy of iconic children’s television host, Fred Rogers.
Though legendary children’s TV personality Fred Rogers may not be especially well-known to British audiences, his cultural reach is so pervasive it’s hard not to be aware of the man’s mythic esteem stateside. Morgan Neville’s (Twenty Feet from Stardom) reverent documentary makes a gently persuasive case for Rogers’ genius, and moreover, his thorough good-heartedness.
Opening archive footage from 1967 serves as the ultimate primer for Rogers the entertainer; he announces his mission statement to viewers, to help kids through the difficulties of growing up and do so in a way that’s neither patronising nor overtly coddling.
From here Neville leaps off to trace Fred Rogers’ origins – growing up as he did during the pivotal advent of TV – and his rise as a pre-eminent pop-culture figure who dared to take kids’ feelings seriously, engaging them as fully-formed people on their own terms.
Re-contextualised with modern talking head testimony from Rogers’ co-stars and family members, a picture is painted of a deep-feeling, deeper-caring man who, despite his seemingly regressive Christian Republican leanings, made revolutionary leaps for the utility of TV as an educational tool for young minds.
Footage of him speaking frankly with children about JFK’s assassination, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and more general subjects such as race relations, death and divorce provides easy testament to the man’s wonderful, tempered way with words.
In an age where so many beloved childhood figures have been shamed by scandals, Rogers evidently remains one of the precious few untarnished. And while the film flirts with becoming a saintly hagiography at times, it’s easy enough to accept on face value given the man’s inestimable legacy. It’s hard to imagine many not coming away from this film with an immense amount of respect for him and his achievements.
In the stead of avoiding a fully deified, larger-than-life depiction, however, we do nevertheless learn a little about Rogers’ life outside of the show, specifically his day-to-day self-doubt as a mere human being and his struggle to be taken seriously as a public figure.
While to contemporary audiences raised on an (un)healthy diet of cynical sarcasm his “everybody is special” message might seem a tad corny, his quest to bolster the esteem of the American youth was a most admirable challenge, and one he rose to with tenacious aplomb.
Even those with little prior knowledge of Fred Rogers will likely be left enraptured by this touching and affectionate documentary.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
