Won't You Be My Neighbor

 3/4

Rated PG-13 for Some Thematic Elements and Language

My memories from the time I was the target audience of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" are foggy at best, so I don't recall much from them.  I'm sure I watched it a lot at that age, but as to when or for how long, you'll have to ask my parents.

What was it about Fred Rogers that even today, nearly 20 years after his death, he remains a permanent fixture in the minds of millions of Americans?  Certainly on paper, he and his show wouldn't have gotten a pitch meeting, much less a show that endured for more than 30 years and became as iconic as apple pie?

Perhaps its because what you saw was exactly what you got.  In American consumer culture, there has been an unending quest to be bigger, louder and edgier to grab attention.  This can be seen by comparing the goofy Batman TV show with Adam West to its later film versions.  Fred Rogers was different.  Instead of visual dazzle, he was straightforward and spoke directly to children in ways they could understand.  No matter how difficult or painful the subject is.  The much lauded, if overpraised, documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor," makes two things clear: one, he understood the fears and uncertainties that every child has, and two, that by showing them they were loved exactly as they are, he could help them conquer those very fears.  Fred Rogers wasn't a showman, but a communicator.  And that's something much more profound.

Of course, he was just as just as human as the rest of us.  He had his own doubts and fears (he was initially uncomfortable with a gay cast member, but he eventually realized his own hypocrisy.  He also had a clever sense of humor (his response to a bawdy park from a crew member is priceless).  And while he rarely showed it, he could be prone to anger.  At one point when he took a break from his children's show, he grew alarmed with the messages that children were getting from special effects in movies.  His response, with no raised voice and only a bit of a hardened edge, is as terrifying as anything I've seen in a long, long time.

Fred's love of children was built into his very bones.  Check that, his love of people was built into his very bones.  He had an innate desire to connect to people that was built into his DNA.  That this made it almost impossible to interview him is something I can accept without hesitation.  He didn't judge or condescend.  Everyone was deserving of respect in his eyes.

I realize that I'm dawdling.  But Fred Rogers was such a one of a kind person that I feel as if I must try and understand him.  Sure, as his friends and co-workers say, there are other people that are just as good and genuine as he was.  But in days of such bitterness, strife and polarization, it's easy to forget that.

This is not the greatest documentary ever made.  Nor is it an especially good one.  It lacks the depth and pacing to make it truly compelling (I checked my watch a few times).  But it reintroduces us to a man who was extraordinary by being perfectly ordinary.

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