Capturing the Friedmans | Arnold Friedman (II), Elaine Friedman

Capturing the Friedmans | Arnold Friedman (II), Elaine Friedman | Strong and important documentary

DVDs:

Capturing the Frie...

	Capturing the Friedmans Arnold Friedman (II), Elaine Friedman HBO Video, 2004 average customer review:based on 81 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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.

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A great American documentary

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.

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Strong and important documentary

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.

Profound and sad

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.

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Amazing Film

I love documentaries about people who do not quite fit in. These people and their stories are endlessly fascinating. My favorite movies are all documentaries on human oddities, such as Grey Gardens, American Movie, Salesman, Gates of Heaven, Stevie, Crumb, etc.. Perhaps it's because I have sympathy for the characters, which subconsciously makes me feel superior to them. Actually it may be empathy I feel; I can relate to many of them. I don't know.

I can add this one to the list. With this one, you have the added element of suspected sexual abuse, which tears the Friedman family apart. You will find the story spellbinding, disturbing, and very sobering.

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interesting and frustrating

This movie comes at you on so many levels: who done it?, social criticism, family film (of an different sort) but for me most of all the evocation of a specific ethnic group of a certain time in a certain place where everything was filmed: births, circumcisions, Seders, birthdays parties and now the ultimate: the falling apart of a family. I was spooked out when Jesse is about to get sentenced and the boys were joking in front of the cameras and I thought, "Yes, that's how we would have behaved too."

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