Won't You Be My Neighbor? Puts a Spotlight on Society's Ills

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

I saw Won’t You Be My Neighbor? today and it made me feel joy, then anger, then sadness, and now I have settled into a state of melancholy. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? chronicled the career of Fred Rogers, better known as Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers was one of the most giving people in history and this movie made me miss his message a great deal. The movie itself was a by the numbers documentary, using interviews with Mr. Rogers’ family, friends, and contemporaries in conjunction with archive footage and voiceovers to take a chronological retrospective into his life. What was special about this documentary is the subject. Fred Rogers was a visionary who truly understood how to connect with children and did his best to create a generation of children who knew what it meant to feel love. During the movie, even the hardest of hearts will feel the welling of tears, for both happiness and sadness. Since the movie, I have entered a state of saudade and I look at the world around me and can’t help but think of all the ways society has broken from Mr. Rogers’ message of love and empathy. While it wasn’t the best movie this year, it was a near perfect documentary, so I will give it Mr. Rogers’ 143 (I Love You) out of 150.

On a side note, the Westboro Baptist Church protested Mr. Rogers’ funeral. How are they still given protections as a religious organization? They are the worst people on the planet.