Review of Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) by Kenr — 15 Oct 2020

Morgan Neville’s documentary about the remarkable Fred Rogers is nothing short of a revelation. That this kindly unassuming man succeeded in the insane world of television - is testimony to his unique ability to communicate everything about life’s most important issues... and he did this with few well-chosen words. Fred learnt about our most important basic human needs by coming to a thorough understanding of his own (then invested years leaning to understand it).

It’s rare that a filmmaker can so utilize the medium to convey a total understanding of his subject. Then of course, when the subject is as uniquely special as Mr Rogers --with excellent footage to access-- I guess you’re halfway home. Anyone who fails to recognise that what drives this special fellow is his genuine love of humanity, and his genuine desire to help everyone find the better person who lives within us all. With a few more like Mr Rogers, we could make many more healthy neighbourhoods.

Fred knew that to build a healthy mind, you have to begin with helping children wade through the swamp of the world’s confusing messages - so they can make genuinely informed decisions through the mist of their own worldview. He also knew that the very medium he chose to work within was part of the problem. The force driving the largest part of television was not considering what was good for the child - but simply how it can position itself into the child’s thought patterns - creating addictive viewing habits and future consumers. Producers also knew that to push Fred for more in-the-can- Showtime was to be left with a sub-par end result. It was not about what the network wanted but what was good for the child. If Fred was being pushed for more commercial placement, then it would have been time for a new sponsor – end of argument. This film well and truly earns its position as the highest-grossing Biographical documentary of all time. There are sad scenes of ill-informed groups that push Politically Correct ideologies, denouncing Roger’s philosophy, and wrongly reducing it to being one of ‘Privilege’ - missing entirely, the true intentions of his work. Those being; the realisation that we are all ‘equally’ precious regardless of race, physicality, or wealth, therefore - with the ability to change for the better, our lives, and the world. Instead, we now see a divided world of ‘Identity Politics’ ruled by a violently selfish, ‘It’s About Me’ mentality - further reducing the essence of life to one of hatred and self-centred ignorance – there are none so blind...

They have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, allowing themselves to be blinded to the positive benefits of true Christian, Christ-likeness. Sure, there have been some that have faked (abused) their claims of Christianity but ‘true’ Christian ideals were what Fred Rogers was demonstrating.