Review: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Won't You Be My Neighbor?/Focus Features/94 min./Dir. by Morgan Neville/Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and language

When he passed away 15 years ago, Fred Rogers left an enormous hole in the culture of America and, indeed, the world.  His simple messages of kindness, love, and self worth seemed quaint and even square at times during his life, but it wasn't until viewing the superb documentary about his life, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, that I realized how brave and borderline radical his philosophies were and continue to be.

Detailing his life from his training as a Presbyterian minister to his death in 2003, Won't You Be My Neighbor? is, like Rogers himself, simple and resolute.  The film radiates his love of children and his emphatic belief that every child, indeed every person, can be loved and show love.  Using extraordinary behind-the-scenes footage of his life and his show interpolated with interviews of family, friends, and co-workers, Neighbor paints the portrait of a man who was every bit the kind and gentle spirit in real life that he was on his Peabody award winning children's show.

Deciding to leave the seminary to use television as his pulpit, Rogers decided that children's television could be more than clowns and action heroes.  He saw this medium as an opportunity to teach children of their worth and how to deal with real-life trials and feelings.  Death, self-doubt, and fear were not verboten subjects in the neighborhood, they were topics to be discussed and handled with love and understanding.  Using these simple ideas, he created a unique and never-to-be-replicated identity on the television landscape.  His radical kindness helped mold the values of an entire generation and, as beautifully shown in film, actually saved the very existence of Public Broadcast Television.

The documentary, directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville, presents a portrait of a life dedicated to good.  Not a perfect life, but a life filled with perfect love.  Neville brilliantly uses small animated vignettes as chapter headings for the different sections of the film.  In these vignettes, Rogers himself is represented by an animated version of Daniel the Striped Tiger, a character that Rogers has on occasion referred to as a surrogate for his own hopes and fears, and these animated sections are not only charming, but they are beautiful reminders of the imagination and love of simple things that abounded in Rogers' mind.

For readers who may be wondering how on earth a documentary about Fred Rogers could be PG-13, know that the rating is because of two reflections of cast and crew members: one recalling how the crew would try to shock him by taking inappropriate pictures on his camera and how he winningly dealt with it and another recalling how Rogers handled learning the truth about a cast member's sexual orientation.  While neither scene would be particularly appropriate for small children, they both help paint a more complete picture of Rogers humor, compassion, and complexity.

It's difficult for me to speak about this film without hyperbole because I can't express fully how deeply moved I was by it.  In a world that screams at us about how we must put all of the focus on how horribly different we are, here is a film detailing the life of a man that simply believed that we were all part of the same neighborhood.  That we all were capable of great love and that we were all in need of that love in return. This is an profound, uplifting, and inspiring reminder of the great good of which we are all capable.  As Junlai Li, the director of the Fred Rogers Center shares, the question isn't "What would Fred Rogers do?".  After taking in the goodness and love that he spread, the question should be "What will we do?"  This is one of the most beautifully simple, yet deeply profound movie going experiences I have ever had.  If every person in the world could watch this film and take its messages to heart, our world would be a radically better place.

Grade: A+