LOVE IS AT THE ROOT OF EVERYTHING
Movie Review – Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Review by Paul Preston
The title of this documentary refers to the song sung by Fred Rogers at the opening of the legendary PBS children’s show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. For the uninitiated, Rogers was a figure that championed kindness on his television program. He didn’t portray a character, but rather talked directly to the camera as himself about how everyone is worthy of love, everyone deserves to grow and learn and everyone is special. I wondered if a documentary about Rogers would pull the curtain back on his show and reveal the REAL man behind the cardigan sweater. Lo and behold, Fred Rogers is legit!
There was such simple sincerity behind Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood that Fred Rogers being an inherently good person is not such a surprise. What’s more surprising is that Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville was able to stitch together an interesting documentary about a topic that wasn’t overflowing with drama. In Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Fred Rogers comes off as a walking, talking time capsule, representative of not only a time when TV could be hopeful and valuable, but representative of the time itself, when honesty and acceptance were more cherished values.
This isn’t to say that Rogers didn’t go gangsta now and then. He hired a black man to play a police officer in the middle of the 1969 civil rights era, he didn’t back down from talking to kids about death, divorce and even assassination, and changed the minds of politicians hell-bent on cutting the funding for public television. And if you don’t think we could use Mr. Rogers today, not only is PBS under fire again, but the film opens with a scene in Mr. Rogers’ Land of Make-Believe where a mighty, angry king named King Friday wants to shelter himself from the world by building a wall around his kingdom. Naturally, the TV show portrays what a ridiculous and stupid idea that is. Rogers was a counterpunch to the Nixon authoritarian administration, and as Donald Trump takes cues from the Nixon playbook, I’d like someone like Rogers to rise up today, squarely in the corner of decency, to balance the scales.
The documentary talking heads are effective, from Rogers’ wife and sons to former show guest Yo-Yo Ma and François Clemmons, who played Officer Clemmons and felt about Rogers like most people probably did – that he was a father figure. Most entertaining are the stagehands, who remember themselves as the long-haired troublemakers of the ‘60s and ‘70s that they were, yet found no trouble fitting in on Rogers’ set. Missing is Lady Aberlin (Betty Aberlin), who is still with us and occasionally working, but didn’t chime in with memories. That’s a shame because as much as Mr. Rogers addressed tough issues for kids, he was often a puppet character while Aberlin did all the heavy lifting on camera.
You can’t get away from animation nowadays in a documentary, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is no different. Some stories of Rogers’ childhood (when he was “Fat Freddy”) are accompanied by pics and film, but many times those anecdotes are relayed with animation with Rogers depicted as an animal. It isn’t until you know more about Rogers’ characters that you see how the animation is revealing Rogers at his most vulnerable and the drawings have more power.
There aren’t many other tricks up director Neville’s sleeves, he more or less delivers the stories and footage not unlike you’re watching an episode of the show itself, without fanfare and falsities. But Neville saves one masterstroke for the end, when he juxtaposes a crucial Fred Rogers monologue with the memories of the interviewees and the end credits rolled with audible sniffles all over the theater.
I’ve said before that it’s tough to make goodness interesting. You have more to work with if you’re playing The Joker or Loki, so it’s more of a triumph when Gary Oldman and Chris Evans make Commissioner Gordon and Captain America so thoroughly watchable. Fred Rogers made decency and integrity watchable for thirty-one seasons, and Neville has made the exploration of those extraordinary years thoroughly watchable.
Directed by: Morgan Neville
Release Date: June 29, 2018
Run Time: 94 Minutes
Rated: PG-13
Country: USA
Distributor: Focus Features
