Capturing the Friedmans [HD]

Haunting and Powerful
Having being drawn to recent documentary features such as Spellbound, I took a chance on Andrew Jarecki's 'Capturing the Friedmans', having heard and read little about it. It is, without a doubt, one of the most compelling and troubling films I have ever seen. I won't re-hash the story as other reviewers have done that already, but would urge you to buy this film. Once the main feature is over you are desperate for more information, more clues and the second disc in the set goes some way to satiating that need.
The beauty of the film, expressed by Jarecki in both his commentary and in a Charlie Rose interview, is that it finally provides - albeit too late - the fair trial that the Friedmans should have been granted. Whatever the 'truth' of the story is, and we may never really know, the prejudice that was brought to bear on the case by the police, judiciary, the community and the media made it impossible for this most complicated family to be accorded their constitutional rights...

Uncomfortable, Provocative, Compelling
In advance, it is helpful to know that this documentary originally was intended to be a light-hearted piece about professional birthday-party clowns in Manhattan, but the familial heavy baggage of one of its primary subjects, oldest son David Friedman, led to this darker and more compelling story of a family destroyed by human flaws and fate. The viewer can opine whether the cost to these individuals was appropriate and justified. And the viewer also can become emotionally invested in whether any redemption or restitution is still in the future for members of this family.

"Capturing the Friedmans" is a short synthesis of many hours of available documentation from multiple sources, reflecting snowballing events that occurred over months and years during the mid to late 1980s in Long Island, New York. In the shadow of the California "McMartin pre-school" alleged sexual abuse scandal, the somewhat unassuming and admired schoolteacher/musician Arnold Friedman was caught by postal...

This family took the fun out of dysfunctional
An utterly fascinating look at the crash and burn of an American family.

The father, Arnie Friedman, was witness to his mother's inappropriate and self-serving sexual activity; unsurprisingly, he turns out to be a pedophile whose penchant for buying kiddie mags gets him investigaged for child rape. His wife, Elaine, who looks like the years with Arnie has sucked the life out of her, walks around in a fog, totally bewildered that a)she married such a creepy little freak and b)her three boys prefers dad to her. Oldest son Dave is in his own state of denial about his father's problems and blames it all on mom. The most sympathetic figure is youngest boy Jesse, who was imprisoned for 13 years for a most unsympathetic crime.

Did Arnie and Jesse rape those little boys? The interviewed accuser comes across as less than credible - he contradicts himself, can't remember the first episode of molestation (though remembers plenty else) and when asked to explain an...

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