Checked out the new documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor. This is the film about Fred Rogers… aka Mr. Rogers… and his show. It’s got a terrific trailer that risks making you tear up… now imagine the whole movie. Wow. And it’s not sad because any particular tragedy, but because Mr. Rogers was just a good man. I’m not the first to note they went into the movie worrying there would be a hard scandal in the middle… only to realize this was one good guy who remained a good man.
Now, I don’t really remember ever watching the show. I asked my mom if I did and she said yes. But watching the doc, the only things I remember are the points in pop culture. Coming through the door, changing into a sweater, and that song about it being a beautiful day in THIS neighborhood. But that it had hand puppets, funny voices and dealt directly with real world events, I had no idea. But that hardly matters since the film has plenty of archival footage from 1958 through the 80s or maybe 90s.
The doc posits that the man you saw on tv was the real deal. Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister who chose to “preach” in general terms about loving people and being loved in return. He had a degree in childhood psychology. He was also a lifelong Republican… which is a shame when they get to the section where Fox News and other conservatives attacked him for saying that all children are special. If you can imagine that as a man of god, in a secular way, stating it, they wouldn’t have a problem.
He took on a bunch of real-world issues and seeing those clips was powerful. Within a few weeks of his first show, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated and he spoke directly to children about how that felt. He addressed racial segregation in terms of this one particular incident where a white man dumped cleaning products in a pool to get the “negroes” out. Or they showed clips about the Challenger explosion that really hit me in the feels (nobody my generation will forget that day). The weird thought I had was that I hoped he died before 9/11… but he didn’t and addressed that too (he died in 2013).
It also covers the parodies and shows the Eddie Murphy SNL clips. That was an interesting segment because I know more about Mr. Rogers from the satire than I do his show.
The fun thing about the flick is that, while it deals with a good, clean man, the interviews with his cast and crew aren’t always clean. They were a bunch of long-haired hippies (in their words) and that sometimes involved mooning the camera (we see the developed footage). There isn’t a lot of swearing and cursing or anything but some 4 letter words get out. I mention this only to say the movie itself isn’t goody goody, even if Mr. Rogers himself was.
I recommend this film, regardless of whether you ever saw his show or not. It’ll remind you that sometimes there are good people out there who’s only acrimonious opinions were on violent and mean-spirited kids tv shows. I suspect everyone – even you – will be either moved to tears or realize there’s a lot of dust in the air and you just have to wipe that out of your eyes. It’s really a good, charming, sweet movie.
Score: 88