Capturing the Friedmans


" 'This is private, so if you're not me, you shouldn't be watching.' So warns David Friedman into a video camera as he records his dew-eyed rantings regarding the sex scandal that was devouring his family. At first you feel like a guilty voyeur to witness such raw emotions, but then you think: Wait, who else could have given the maker of "Capturing the Friedmans" the tape?

The contradiction is typical of the Friedman family and Andrew Jarecki's disturbing, multilayered, compulsively watchable documentary. Every time you think you have a handle on who these people are, what this story is, some new piece of information, usually ugly, gives you a fresh case of mental whiplash."
Critic in Portland, OR

"Jarecki's deft organization of the factual material provides the momentum for a never-flagging exposition of the complexities of the Friedman case; he parcels out pieces of information over the course of the film which keep changing the complexion of what has come before. This was a time when there was widespread hysteria in the United States over child molestation, with a number of high profile court cases (the McMartin case, for example) on the front pages for months on end. Therapists claimed to have uncovered repressed memories which sometimes turned out to be fictions planted during hypnotherapy. In the Friedman case, even the police acknowledge that there was not a single piece of hard evidence against the alleged perpetrators. On the other hand, Arnold's own voluntarily written personal history indicates that there was ample reason to consider the possibilities of misconduct.
The elusiveness of the truth about what did or did not happen in those computer classes is made evident; Jarecki lets his leanings show through, but he keeps his treatment evenhanded. There's no question, however, about the fallout of the case. The misery and the disintegration of the Friedman family is painfully documented in the film. The realities of the family relationships, particularly between Arnold and Elaine, and between Elaine and her sons, belie their own self-images and the projected image in the community of a happy middle class suburban family. And the denouement, complete with utterly conflicted stories between son Jessie and his own defense attorney, gives rise to bewildered wonderment over the justice system and its practitioners." Critic in Chicago
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you use Rotten Tomatoes as a movie guide you know that up to a hundred different critics are quoted in full about each movie. Then a rating is arrived at by a complex methodology not understood by this writer. However, I have never before seen a 96% consensus that any movie deserves from 4 to 5 stars out of 5. Capturing the Friedmans got a 96% rating.

If this movie doesn't disturb you, make you think, wake you up, and leave you in a quandary, nothing will.

For many years I have been bewildered by the "child molestation" hysteria that began with the McMartin case. The Friedman case is just as outrageous but there are certain elements that make the viewer believe that there might have been a case. But a case for what?

Friedman conducted computer classes in his home for boys from 8 to 16. A postal inspector reported that he had received one pedophile magazine from the Netherlands. Police came to his home with a search warrant to find the offending magazine and then to arrest him for possession of pornopgrahic-pedophilic materials.

A detective discovered that Friedman was giving computer classes for young boys and decided to put two and two together and then, after a lengthy and expensive investigation came up with testimony from children and teenagers that improper activities had taken place.

I have always distrusted eyewitness testimony, and eyewitness testimony from coached children is even more suspect. And don't get me started on recovered memories or hypnosis. I do not believe that the Truth can ever be determined when children are led to give answers satisfactory to adults, or hypnotists go to work on someone's memory.

Truth is always a mystery, and families and individual lives should not be destroyed by detectives who see crime under every rock, judges who have their eyes on public opinion, parents whose minds have been twisted by uncorroborated reports from detectives intent on developing witnesses, and ambitious prosecutors seeking not justice, but rather advancement.

I cannot tell you whether or not the Friedmans were guilty of anything (except possessing child pornography) but I can tell you that no thinking jury would have convicted them of the other horrible crimes of which they were accused.

This is an amazing documentary which should be seen by everyone interested in the law and in Truth.