Paterno

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Barry Levinson's Paterno wants the viewer to know that this legendary college football coach, Penn State University and its football team supporters cared more about its football program than the fate of some of the young people sexualy abused by an assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. The film opaquely hints as to how much Paterno might had known as to the abuse taking place and like other people just turned a blind eye. After a wonderful expansive opening where Paterno as head coach takes the team to a record breaking streak. This HBO film settles down as a Shakespearean tragedy, almost like a stage play. Al Pacino's Paterno is a man out of his time. Confused, weak and sick. He is an octogenarian who knows all about college football but has no way to handle the mess he finds himself in. The film contrasts Paterno's fate with that of local newspaper reporter Sara Ganim (Riley Keough) who doggedly pursued the story of the child abuse and who earned the trust of the families. However the flip flopping between the two story strands feels like a distraction. Levinson's approach comes across as mild, even anodyne lacking the moral outrage of a movie like Spotlight.

I tracked this story and still have all the ESPN podcast interviews and "in the moment" reactions. This film is extremely significant to understanding man, institutions, and human behavior! If you understand the Christian doctrine of The Fall and idolatry, this movies makes a whole lot of sense. If not, than it is up to you to come up with a salient apology for mankind. There are a few proverbial statements that will help anyone who wants to see and understand. The first is; You cannot get a man to understand something if his career depends upon him NOT understanding--Upton Sinclair The second is; The frog in water analogy. Drop a frog in hot water and he will jump out, slowly raise the temperature and the frog in water will boil to death. The last is the movie Bridge on A River Kwai. A noble man who got lost in his own glory, a bridge to reflect himself--an idol! In the process, he sacrificed the lives of his soldiers for noble causes motivated to build a bridge to reflect himself! Take all three of these and blend them up and you have Joe Pa. Keep in mind Joe is not the criminal here, but he turned deaf, dumb, and blind because of his own glory...reputation, Joe was guilty of looking the other way in the same manner those who knew Harvey Weinstein was molesting and raping women or Bill Cosby...there are always enablers along the way, those who because of their own career, rationalize to get part of the pie, even leftovers. Then there are the loyalists. This resembles a cult. Cult members who will not hear the truth because it taps their idolatry--a warped sense of identity and pride. It is here we have religion! Religion allows one to compromise common sense for the greater good because to face the truth means one's life has been spent in vanity! Nothing is worse for the soul than to realize you spent your entire life worshiping the wrong religion! Joe Paterno was most likely guilty of his own ego. His own desire to be the best at all costs. Al Pachino sadly reminds me of my own father, Italian good ol boy that plays the game, has no clear sense of self and the group, club, organization, church becomes his soul source of who he is. There is an arrogance here that is disturbing. What is weird is I had an Uncle George that never got married as well. This movie really hits home in my family.