Capturing the Friedmans
by Andrew Jarecki
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DVD details
Actor: Arnold Friedman, David Friedman, Elaine Friedman, Jesse Friedman, Seth FriedmanDirector: Andrew Jarecki
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Adolfo Doring
Producer: Andrew Jarecki
Producer: Jaye Nydick
Producer: Jennifer Rogen
Producer: Marc Smerling
Producer: Peter Bove
Producer: Richard Hankin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: HBO Video
DVD Reviews of Capturing the Friedmans
DVD Review: Bias towards the Abuser?? Greaaatttttt.....
Summary: 1 Stars
Inasmuch as I appreciate documentaries by-and-large, this one took me on a roller-coaster of fascination, confusion, frustration, and ultimately disgust. "Doc" Filmmakers have a tough job IF they are TRULY attempting to be objective....in this case, I don't think the director was honest with the audience. There are many back-and-forths regarding the "truth" and the "facts" that could make your head pop, BUT in the end the director chooses to use some sentimental music to almost wax nostalgic over this worn-and-torn sick family.....the Friedmans???!!
How about the two boys he did molest on summer vacation...how about the loads of child pornography found in his home...why weren't there any basic counter-interpretations brought in regarding the almost endless interpretations of the details by sons David and Jesse?? Why was the one snippet of a former computer class student/victim used (which showed him to just lounge on the sofa and be so casual/vague about his responses) when the snippet in the Supplemenatal Materials (Disc 2) showed him to be quick, clear and strong in his recollections? Why weren't some fundamental aspects and EFFECTS of emotional/sexual abuse discussed by experts in psychology so as to give us a better understanding why many children COULD HAVE been molested by Arnold and Jesse?
No documentary is perfect, but that's beside the point....even in the extras clips of premiere showings the final result is that more emphasis is placed on challenging the methods of the detectives along with extending more sympathy towards the father and sons RATHER than INCLUDING an equally robust analysis of the pedophile, Arnold Friedman, and his sons.
Is it so hard to call Arnold Friedman what he was AND scrutinize the Law?? Apparently it was too much for the director to give us...which causes me to wonder if he has a potentially dangerous vulnerable spot in his heart for abusers like Mr. Friedman. Case in Point: since there was no such "hard" challenge to Mr. Friedman displayed in the film, since there was no display of remorse shown in the film by Mr. Friedman for his previous molestations...since there was such defiance shown by David and Jesse...then why the %*#@ would the director offer a link in the DVD-ROM section of Disc 2 to download the Mambo song by Arnold Friedman??!!! That strikes me as sick (if you want me to spell it out...little disgust and/or outrage is shown towards Mr. Friedman by the director, but we can still enjoy his cute Mambo song, right? Friedman can traumatize boys, but that doesn't really matter so much....here's a cool song...download it!!). Andrew Jarecki, check your soul long and hard in the mirror.
I can't recommend this film to anybody.
DVD Review: leaves you wanting more
Summary: 5 Stars
I always think the mark of a brilliant documentary is the lasting questions it leaves you with. I want to know all about the surviving Friedmans --- how they are doing? have they found a measure of peace?
I was walking through Costco today and saw a book that was entitled something like how to survive the toughest times. I started thinking about what the toughest times would be. I suspect we'd all have different definitions. Losing your house and all of your money---- that seems more and more present these days, as a possibility. If you still have your family, your health, your mind, that seems surmountable. But losing one or more of these other things in addition to tough times imposed from the outside world---THAT is the test of character.
The Friedmans lose their family, and the world brands them as society's worst criminals. They lose their identity. They are no longer a nondescript nice little Jewish family from Long Island; they are child molestors. Their family falls apart, their health and lives are affected.... The movie shows us how they suffer in this unfathomable agony. Their characters are not particularly noble and are not up to this challenge..... I suppose no one's would be.
Compounded on all of it is this overarching sense of injustice. That they have been singled out to suffer (and in the case of Jesse at least, the youngest son) so unfairly. While we all feel loss when the economy crashes, there is a certain comfort in knowing we are not alone. The Friedmans were alone and the tragedy of this ordeal defined their lives.
I want to know how things turned out. How are they now?
The Farmer's Wife was like this, Lalee's Kin, Living Dolls, and any number of brilliant documentaries---we're left wanting more, and the families whose stories are told want nothing more than to fade away.... It's pure voyeuristic selfishness I know, to want so much more. If they didn't make me care I wouldn't want to know. So I guess be forewarned. There are lessons to be learned in great documentaries and maybe one of them is knowing when to be satisfied with an unfinished story.....
DVD Review: A great American documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great American documentary. It is disturbing because it involves the sensitive topic of child molestation. It introduces us to a upper middle class family residing in Great Neck, Long Island NY USA. Father Friedman is a school teacher. He, giving piano and computer lessons, as he retired, in the basement of his home. In 1988, police discover child pornography in the office, he gave these lessons, in. The nightmare begins for this formerly upstanding family.
Like most good docus, we do not judge this man and then his accused son. Riveting all the way to the end.
Unfortunately, in the 2-disc set, the second disc is quite stingy in its extras. I haven't chequed it out, yet, but there are CD-ROM extras on DISC 2.
Otherwise, excellent film. Highly Recommended.
DVD Review: Profound and sad
Summary: 5 Stars
This documentary film by Andrew Jarecki, founder of Moviefone, is simply one of the best ever made. It does everything a documentary should- ask questions, provide insights, and allow a viewer to draw their own, if differing, conclusions. The film started out as a short film on New York City clowns, following the lifestyle of Silly Billy- played by David Friedman. During the course of filming Jarecki found out that Friedman's brother and father, Jesse and Arnold Friedman, were convicted pedophiles- which makes the viewer wonder about David's chosen profession.
When I picked up this DVD I thought it was on the 1990s spy case involving the traitor with a Jewish name I forget. Instead, it's about the last big 1980s sex ring pseudo-case- the most famous being the McMartin Daycare case. Like that this case was way overblown and innocents suffered many false accusations. The difference is that at the center of the case was an admitted pedophile- Arnold Friedman, a retired science teacher who taught computer classes from his basement home with his eighteen year old son Jesse. They, and three neighbor boys, were not only charged with sodomy and sexual abuse, but patently ridiculous charges that were typical of the era before False Memory Syndrome was scoped out. On Thanksgiving of 1987, the Friedman home in Great Neck, Long Island, was invaded by a SWAT team, intent on nailing Arnold for buying child pornography through the mail.... The prosecutors are reprehensible- claiming mounds of porno all over the house, while photos taken the moment the cops busted in showed one small hidden stash in Arnold's private room. A female prosecutor contradicts herself many times, her bias is evident, and- ala the OJ Simpson case- while Arnold's guilt for that he was accused of may be wrong, there's little doubt the cops more or less framed him. Yet, Jarecki lets them all prattle on- David, in his belief that, contrary to Arnold's admissions, his father was totally innocent, to Jesse's lawyer- who may be the worst attorney in the nation. All speak with authority- yet those things verifiable undercut almost every assertion. Many of the original accusers now say they lied, under pressure from parents and police- one father of a `victim' admits that police pressured his son. Many of the 107 counts against Arnold and 245 counts against Jesse simply could not have occurred in the time frames claimed, and physical evidence was utterly non-existent. Add to that the fact that pedophiles almost always act alone, for fear of being caught, and the whole bizarreness of that time and place shines through....Capturing The Friedmans is one of those endless Chinese dolls-within-dolls conundra which begs for repeat viewing. One is left hoping that such witch hunts are a thing of the past, but knowing they are not. That you, your child, or a friend, could be the next Jesse Friedman- whether you feel him guilty or not- is a quease that won't leave, and why the film is great art.
DVD Review: Strong and important documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
Sometimes a filmmaker of documentaries can accidentally reveal a unbelievably strong history totally beside the original intent. This is one of these histories. A very strong documentary about a family getting ripped apart in front of their own homevideo camera. A personal and heartbreaking history about the investigation of child abuse in the neighbourhood.
Description of Capturing the Friedmans
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and with over $3 million at the box office to date, Capturing The Friedmans is nothing short of the most riveting, provocative, and hotly debated films of the year. Despite their predilection for hamming it up in front of home-movie cameras, the Friedmans were a normal middle-class family living in the affluent New York suburb of Great Neck. One Thanksgiving, as the family gathers at home for a quiet holiday dinner, their front door explodes, splintered by a police battering ram. Officers rush into the house, accusing Arnold Friedman and his youngest son Jesse of hundreds of shocking crimes. The film follows their story from the public?s perspective and through unique real footage of the family in crisis, shot inside the Friedman house. As the police investigate, and the community reacts, the fabric of the family begins to disintegrate, revealing provocative questions about truth, justice, family, and -ultimately-truth. With an abundance of exclusive DVD bonus features supplied on a second disc, Capturing the Friedmans is sure to capture you and pin you to your seat.A Sundance Grand Jury prize winner and a true conversation starter, Capturing the Friedmans travels into one apparently ordinary Long Island family's heart of darkness. Arnold and Elaine Friedman had a normal life with their three sons until Arnold was arrested on multiple (and increasingly lurid) charges of child abuse. Because the Friedmans had documented their own lives with copious home movies, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki is able to sift through their material looking for clues. Yet what emerges is more surreal than fiction: the youngest Friedman son went to jail, the eldest became a birthday-party clown. In the end, we can't be sure whether Arnold Friedman is a monstrous child molester or the victim of railroading. The portrait of a disconnected family is deeply disturbing, either way, and this film is further proof that a documentary can be just as spellbinding as anything a great storyteller dreams up. --Robert Horton
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