Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Wont You Be My Neighbor, the documentary about Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers, has gone to full release and I cannot urge you more to go see it. There, the plug is over.

This movie, which you may think is a sugary tribute to Mister Rogers, is anything but. In fact, on one hand, it may be one of the more depressing movies in years yet it is also one of the most hopeful movies in years.

Made by Morgan Neville, the director of the marvelous 20 Feet From Stardom, a film about backup singers in which you constantly are saying oh yeah her, Neville has taken archival footage of Mr.Rogers Neighborhood, combined with interviews with his family, friends and co workers and put out a film that will make you laugh and cry and at times feel like you do anytime Trump opens his blowhole. Its amazing, and I believe a political statement when early in the film we see the PBS show's King Friday 13th attempt to build a wall around his castle to keep change out. In 1968 this was shown.

Can you imagine what the Fascist in Chief would have tweeted about that? "Moron Mister Rogers is using propaganda and taxpayer money to criticize me and the very important wall. #DefundPBS"

Of course most of the words would have been misspelled.

Wont You Be My Neighbor is a fascinating look at a man who according to all people involved was as nice and gentle off screen as on. Its hard to believe he's gone and has been gone for 15 years. In a way, he's lucky, because Fred Rogers was depressed at the end of his life. When asked to make PSA's trying to help children understand the lunacy of a 9/11 he said what good will it do? What good will it do? Oh my. When Mister Rogers sinks to my level, something is wrong with the world.

There are truly remarkable interviews with Fred's wife, his sons, his coworkers, his guests, all of whom still after all these years have a smile on their face talking about him.

The laughs? Oh theres plenty. The pranks on the set, the footage of him messing up lines, the joy of his optimism and the looks on children's faces as he speaks to them about serious subjects as if they are just miniature adults.

Will you cry? Yes. It may be at different moments than me. But you will find something in this documentary that will get to you. Foe me it was the assassination show on 6/7/68 just a couple of days after Bobby Kennedy was killed. An entire show on assassination. To kids. Who does that?
But the moment that happened to make involuntary tears come was the section of the documentary where the actor who played Officer Clemmons, Francois Clemmons, spoke about Fred Rogers telling he liked him just the way he was. For two years. You see, Francois Clemmons is gay, and was banned from going to gay bars in the 1970s by the show and Fred Rogers under threat of being fired. The scene where Francois realized Fred had evolved was telling HIM he liked him just the way he is. Francois choked up thinking about his "surrogate Dad" and so did I.

You dont even get to compose yourself because next scene is Fred talking to a young man in a wheelchair about things no person would bring up. Whats it like to be in a chair, do you get blue? Oh man.

Why is it depressing, Max's Dad? Well kids, its depressing because you realize as bad as society was in 1968, 1978, 1988 and 1998 in the last 15 years since Fred died, we have devolved into the same people Fred Rogers dealt with in 1968. Maybe worse. All that hard work with children to make them understand the shitty world didnt work. Since its much easier to be pissed off at progress and change, much like King Friday the 13th, its not so hard to stay calm and speak rationally, like Fred Rogers.

There are a couple of scenes of cynics going after Mister Rogers. One is of Tom Snyder asking him basically if he was a phony and Daniel the Tiger turning the chain smoking Snyder into a blubbering mess as he realized nope this guy is for real. The other is of Fox News, the state run propaganda network for dumb assholes, calling him "evil" and criticizing him for telling every child they were "special". What a crime according to the creeps on Fox News. Telling a child to be who they are. And of course at the end, at Fred's funeral, the Westboro Baptist Church degenerates and their signs. It sucks.

Go see this movie. Nobody is killed. No hero swoops in to save the day. Nothing blows up. But there is a superhero and his name is Fred Rogers.