Won't You Be My Neighbor? Review

It's not often that I do reviews of documentaries. In fact, I think I've only ever reviewed one other documentary and that was one of Dinesh D'Souza's political documentaries. I got so angry after watching it that I had to write a post about how stupid that man was. However, just because I don't write reviews of documentaries, doesn't mean I don't like them. I just usually prefer to watch them in the privacy of my own home on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I almost always do my best to watch the Oscar-nominated documentaries and I love to check out the other ones getting buzz or various ones that catch my attention. For various reasons, documentaries about crime or serial killers fascinate me as do shocking documentaries like "Icarus" where someone accidentally stumbles on something huge, like the biggest scandal in sports history with "Icarus." The Edward Snowden documentary "CITIZENFOUR" was also fascinating as that was the documentary that sparked so much discussion and debate. "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" doesn't really fit into any of those categories. But it's special in its own right as it gives you a heavy dosage of inspiration as it chronicles the life of one of the greatest human beings to ever live who did so much good in this world. Fred Rogers.

I have very fond memories growing up watching "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." My parents were often selective with what they let us watch on TV, which is why the show was one of our go-to shows. We loved it as kids and my parents loved the messages taught. Dare I say it was the perfect kids show? At the time I suppose I didn't fully understand the scope of the show of how many other kids also loved the show, nor do I think I realized that this was a show that had been going since 1968. So not only did I not realize that millions of other kids were watching at the same time as me, but also this is a show that had effected several generations of children dating back to the late-60's. The reason I probably didn't realize this when I was young was that Mr. Rogers didn't ever seem like he was talking to an audience of millions of people. It seemed like he was talking specifically to me, making me feel special and important as an individual while teaching me lessons on how to be a good person. Thus is why I was able to connect with the show on such a personal level because it felt like Mr. Rogers really cared. He was like a third parent or a second school teacher who had my best interests in mind and wanted me to learn and grow. He was an integral part of my childhood.

Now as an adult, I look back on these experiences in hindsight and am totally blown away by this show because everyone was able to feel this way. Mr. Rogers was able to connect with millions, if not billions of young children in the 33 years that his show was on the air and the impact is still felt today, both with reruns of the original show as well as the with the new animated spin-off "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," which began in 2012 and takes place in the Land of Make-Believe with the original characters being all grown up with preschool-aged children of their own. Recently I spent a week at my brother's house tending his kids and when it was just me and my young nephew at home, "Daniel Tiger" was the show we watched on repeat during the afternoon because he loved it and my brother and his wife loved the messages that he learned from it. I thought it was a rather charming show that got all the songs stuck in my head during the whole week. It also again helped me show the power and influence Mr. Rogers had as his legacy continues even though it's been 15 years since he passed away back in 2003. Yet even though Mr. Rogers has been able to impact so many people, his focus was always on the one as he wanted to make each child feel important.

As far as this documentary goes, the biggest subject matter that it tackles was who Fred Rogers really was, on and off camera. When you watch the show, all you see is this seemingly perfect fatherly figure, or perhaps grandfatherly figure in the later years. I suppose, in theory, it might be easy to put on a face for 30 minutes a day while you're on camera, then go live a completely opposite lifestyle when you go home. Thus the big question is, is Mr. Rogers as good of a person off camera as he is on camera? I think we've all heard the rumors that he was a military man in the Vietnam War or whatever with all of these tattoos up and down his arms, which is the reason he's always wearing long-sleeve shirts and jackets on his show. Is that true? Quite frankly, no. Now the big trick with a documentary is that it's easy to be extremely biased. Everyone has their own opinions on things, thus you can interview the right people, find the right imagery, insert the appropriate music and make someone believe a point that is completely false. I mean, have you ever seen the Seaworld documentary "Blackfish"? Classic example there of a horrible propaganda documentary that paints a completely false picture. Seaworld had a really long counter that was much more believable.

The reason why this Mr. Rogers documentary is so believable is that the people they interviewed are all his close friends and family who knew him best. His wife, the people on the show with him, biographers who know everything about his life, cameramen who worked on the set and parents of certain kids that he personally interacted with. Hearing those people tell the story of who Fred Rogers was is certainly much more believable than the tabloids you see, memes flying around social media, fake news outlets reporting bogus stories just for the sake of attention or outsiders giving their opinion despite not even ever having talked to the man. The picture we get from the accounts of those who knew him best are that he really was a genuinely fantastic individual. He was a very spiritual, religious man who was even an ordained minister. Yet instead of going into the ministry, he decided he wanted to do his best to reach out to children through the means of television, a medium he wasn't even a big fan of because all the children-focused entertainment was the pie-in-the-face sort of humor. He saw an opportunity to fill a need for children entertainment wherein he could make a real difference and the reason he was able to do so was that he genuinely cared.

There's a lot of details that this documentary dives into about the details of this show's beginning, the progression it went through over the time in being able to gain funding or the responses to various controversies that I'll let you discover on your own as you watch it, but there's so much packed in here that leaves you with such an emotional feeling throughout. I really loved how Mr. Rogers dealt with real word issues going on at the time and was honest about these issues with his audience. Kids live in the real world and instead of trying to hide them from the real world, Mr. Rogers did his best to help them know how to deal with certain issues, which included the Vietnam War and the assassination of President Kennedy right from the get go. He talked to kids about the hardships of life and how to properly deal with such things as the loss of a loved one or the divorce of their parents, which are conversations that parents are understandably unsure of how to talk about. Through it all, Mr. Rogers wanted to be someone who was there for the children and let them all know that they were special as they are. Social status, environment circumstance or what accomplishments in life you have don't define your value. You are special just the way you are.

This was a powerful message that not only showed how amazing of a person Mr. Rogers was, but was also a message presented in the documentary that was very relevant to today because Mr. Rogers' message was one that we could all apply to our lives. It doesn't matter what you look like, what challenges you face, what your color of skin is or what your sexual orientation is. You are special. To that last item in that list, one of the major story arcs in the documentary involved one of the major characters on the show who was gay. And yes, there was some initial drama surrounding that, especially since this was the 60's and 70's, but ultimately Mr. Rogers was able to get through to him that he liked him just the way he was, thus this individual was able to finally able to understand that message and broke down in tears as from there on out, Mr. Rogers became the father figure that he never had, but really needed. I think there's some powerful messages there. I mean, if you haven't turned on the news or talked to those around you, racism, sexism and prejudice towards individuals and groups is very much prevalent today and there's some strong lessons that we could all learn from Mr. Rogers of how to treat those around us.

If you're a religious person like myself, I think this is a documentary you will connect to on a very strong, spiritual level as Mr. Rogers himself was a very spiritual man and thus it's like watching a documentary about a prominent religious leader such as the prophet of the church or the pope. That's what I got from this. If you're not a religious person, I also think this is a documentary that you will be able to connect with because Mr. Rogers cared about everyone, regardless of who they were or how different they were. I believe that everyone will walk out of the documentary with an increased sense of self-worth. Loving yourself is a very important aspect of having a truly happy life and that's the core of this documentary and the core of who Mr. Rogers was and what he taught. The only real negative that I have here is that this is PG-13. One of the cameramen that they interviewed uses a bit of language and shares a story of a prank Mr. Rogers played on him that causes the documentary to earn its rating, thus meaning I couldn't call my Mom and recommend that she go see this when I really wanted to before that scene happened. As she would say, just a little bit of rat poison in your Mr. Rogers documentary. I found that aspect just slightly disappointing.

The justification there is that this is a documentary geared towards adults. Regardless of how good the documentary is, you're not going to take your kids to it as they'll find it boring. You'll show them episodes of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" or "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," but not a documentary with people talking about Mr. Rogers. Thus for the targeted adult audience is not going to be bothered by a bit of language or one photograph shown, but I still think they could've made it PG and been just as good. The idea that we can't have adult-targeted material that's PG is something that really bothers me and I think that stigma is the only reason for this sequence so that the filmmakers could get their PG-13 rating. This is also not a documentary that will send shock waves through your soul or leave you with your jaw dropped to the ground like "Icarus" or "CITIZENFOUR." It's just a simple documentary chronicling the life of one of my personal favorite human beings in Mr. Rogers, showing how amazing he was, but also leaving each viewer with a strong sense of self-worth, regardless of who you are or what hand you were dealt in life and I think that's very important. As far as a grade goes, I almost abstained from that, but I suppose I'll say that a 9/10 is fair.