Review of Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008) by Aaron R — 29 Dec 2009

Pardon the inevitable back-of-the-dvd-box style quotes that will litter this review, but Dear Zachary is the pinnacle of the documentary format. No other film can ever get this close to the pure emotions of humanity.

This is a personal story that uses our empathy to the extent it has never been used before in film, but without feeling exploitative. Other documentaries will trot out a giant corporation or a government, and point the finger at them with a list of facts and satirical animations, but we know the filmmaker doesn't feel rage on the base emotional level. Here there are villains and there are heroes, but we are not just told they are, we can feel it. Every interview subject has genuine emotion of the sort that is rarely captured on film once in a lifetime, but here we find it over and over throughout the course of the film. We are told everyone loved Bagby and shown everyone loving him, but we can also feel it. Once this emotion gets into you, it does not let go.

The viewer suffers just a microcosm of the pain that the friends and family feel and it is near-unbearable. To imagine this pain not obstructed by a movie screen is unthinkable. Though this film is not just all pain and sorrow, you also feel the good times as strongly. Through joy we truly know sorrow and through sorrow joy. This film marks the first that I've ever seen where my heart dropped, like plummeting from the first hill of a roller-coaster.

Often times characters in documentaries come across as just that, characters. But here Bagby's friends are our friends, his parents our parents. A large degree if this is because of the filmmaker's emotional involvement, which bleeds onto the screen and tints the voice-overs.

I've purposely avoided any plot points in this review, do not seek out any additional information. This film is meant to be seen as is.

Watch this film if you have ever had a friend, a parent, a son, a love, or a tragedy. This is what films are meant to be.